The U.S. Forest Service manages 78% of the land in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Yet, a hiring freeze on seasonal workers and recent firings of key staff have gutted an already-stretched-thin agency, putting on hold critical work in water quality, environmental restoration and forest fuels reduction projects while also diminishing the forest service’s capacity to manage the millions of visitors who come to Lake Tahoe every year — especially on the Fourth of July.

Eleven people who work at the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit lost their jobs last month in the so-called “Valentine’s Day Massacre” led by Elon Musk’s U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, according to former employees. The job losses compound chronically low staffing, plus a hiring freeze on seasonal workers that went into effect last fall. In all, the management unit has lost a third of its recreational staff, including the lone permanent wilderness ranger position in Desolation Wilderness.

The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is the smallest forest in California, but it sees more visitors than any of the state’s national parks. The management unit’s 156,335 acres are a fifth the size of Yosemite National Park, yet data shows the management unit welcomes almost twice as many visitors as Yosemite. But the forest service has gone dark in communications about how Lake Tahoe will be impacted by the Trump administration’s mass firing of forest service employees last month.