SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Spending time with her dog in nature is something Tanya Torst said helps her deal with her recent termination from the U.S. Forest Service.

Her work, she said, was more than just a job.

“I loved it, and most importantly, the work that I did helps protect these small towns around Northern California,” Torst said.

A big part of her job, Torst said, was helping federal partners navigate agreements to work on federal forests in Northern California.

One of her last projects was the reduction of wildfire fuel near the town of Burney.

“I really kind of stepped in to make sure it got through because there was red tape,” Torst said. “We were able to put a $2.2 million mastication project [chopping up vegetation into smaller pieces] on the Lassen National Forest around Burney.”

Over 200,000 federal workers have lost their jobs from multiple departments.

Torst is one of the over 3,000 U.S. Forest Service employees cut by the federal government.

She said she was a probationary employee, but that was about to change on her two-year anniversary.

“I was one month away,” Torst said. “I was officially terminated on the Feb. 18, and on March 12, I would have been off that probationary period.”

Experts have debated President Donald Trump's decision to cut, as he said, the bloat and stop wasting taxpayer money.

The president reaffirmed his decision at his latest cabinet meeting.

“We’re cutting down the size of government. We have to. We’re bloated, we’re sloppy,” he said.

Experts won’t argue about the legality around firing probationary employees and said hard decisions sometimes must be made.

The question is more about its effectiveness, said UC Berkeley political economy professor Sean Gailmard. 

“So, is this a useful way to go about implementing the vision of cost reduction that the president has articulated,” Gailmard said. “Which may or may not be, you know, well, remains to be seen if that’s what’s actually followed.”

More reduction in federal employees looks certain as a new memo from two senior Trump administration officials to the heads of all executive branch departments and agencies states they should be prepared to begin the process of “large-scale reductions in force” by March 13.

Torst said it’s still early in terms of her next steps, but holds out hopes things may be reversed as the reasoning she was let go was because of unsatisfactory performance, contradictory to all her performance reviews.

And has lodged a complaint for wrongful termination.

“I’m really hoping I get my job back,” Torst said. “If I don’t get my job back, I’m hoping to get another job to work with. Conservation or tribes.”

Because Torst said she wants to continue making a difference.