In the United States, DOGE is playing with fire

Camouflage gear, rifle case, axe, shovel, and water supplies… At the end of April, while her three border collies wreak havoc in her two-room apartment in Bend, in the heart of Oregon, in the American Northwest, Isabella Isaksen gathers her gear for a weekend of outdoor fun just the way she likes it. On the agenda: camping and wild turkey hunting “to make sausages.” “I grew up in rural Arkansas, and the only meat we could afford was the meat we hunted,” explains the 31-year-old, who, during the week, works as a public relations officer for the protected Ochoco National Forest, a three-quarter-hour drive from her home.

The rough draft of a wool scarf lying on a side table in her living room, however, bears witness to more domestic pursuits. "I have no talent for knitting, but I'm not good at doing nothing," smiles the woman who suddenly found herself without work in mid-February. Isabella Isaksen is one of more than 4,000 United States Forest Service (USFS) employees—and thousands of other employees of US federal agencies—to have been laid off or pushed out by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk since mid-February, a position the multi-billionaire officially left on May 30.

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