Forest ranger's retirement is blocked by border-wall standoff

DARRINGTON — Peter Forbes never imagined this was how he’d close out his 40-year career with the U.S. Forest Service.

When he retired Jan. 3, the outgoing Darrington district ranger expected to ease smoothly into a new routine. Forbes could relax after a career that culminated as the top manager for a massive expanse of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

With the ongoing government shutdown, Forbes’ separation paperwork remains in limbo somewhere in the federal bureaucracy. Like others, he could lose out on retirement payments for January, depending on how the stalemate is resolved.

“I’m trying to stay non-political as best I can,” Forbes said. “I’m not the only one in this predicament. There are hundreds of thousands of other federal workers who are not getting paid. I can’t say ‘woe is me.’ There are a lot of other people in the same mess.”

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