Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a response to questions about the hiring freeze from a regional U.S. Forest Service spokesperson.
Communities around Colorado are concerned a national hiring freeze on seasonal Forest Service workers next year will stall trail work and cut services for thousands of hikers, campers and other visitors.
“I think for locals, it’s going to be a hard hit,” said Routt County Commissioner Sonja Macys of the potential impact in northwest Colorado. “There's a consistent need to remove (beetle-killed trees). We've got erosion problems, and we're seeing an incredible increase of use in our public lands throughout Routt County.”
Forest Service Chief Randy Moore announced in September the agency “will not be bringing on any more seasonal employees” outside of firefighters next year.
“We just can’t get the same amount of work done with fewer employees,” Moore warned while discussing next year’s budget. “We’re not going to try to do everything that is expected of us, with less people.”
Macys said not having enough seasonal Forest Service workers in northwest Colorado to maintain recreation areas while more visitors are seeking them out creates a “perfect storm.”
“We’re not happy about the situation,” she added.
She also questioned how the Forest Service has been spending new sources of revenue it gets from visitors in Routt County.
The Forest Service has been adding and raising user fees on several campgrounds and recreation areas in Routt County in recent years.
That included a new $5 fee to park and access the popular Mad Creek trailhead north of Steamboat.
When Macys and other Routt County leaders publicly supported those fees, they said they expected they would pay for more trail work and maintenance at those sites.
“Now we hear that they are not going to be able to hire those seasonal workers, and those fees are, I'm not sure if they're being redirected, if they're being pulled for some future maintenance or what's happening with them,” Macys said.
Meanwhile, volunteer organizations that have spent decades helping the Forest Service maintain hundreds of miles of trails are also concerned about the hiring freeze.
This past summer, 10 volunteers with Friends of the Wilderness helped the Forest Service build a raised wooden walkway on the wilderness access section of the Gilpin Lake Trail, one of the main trails of the popular Zirkel Circle hike.
“This type of project is possible only in partnership with a staffed Forest Service crew,” Friends of the Wilderness President Laura Foulk told KUNC in an email. “Next season, the lack of Seasonal Forest Service employees will limit or eliminate special projects. The daily effort of keeping the trails clear of fallen trees and water obstacles will be greatly impeded.”
She said if that happens and obstacles like trees are left on the trails, visitors either will not have access or will walk around those obstacles causing erosion and damage to the trails and surrounding area.
“We do know from experience that when an area is not maintained due to understaffing the number of fallen trees from the pine beetle epidemic and forest fires over the past 10 years can reach a point that it will take two to three times as many people/hours to work through the accumulated snags of trees than it would if properly maintained,” she said.
The state’s Congressional leaders are also questioning the Forest Service’s decision to forgo hiring thousands of seasonal workers.
In a letter sent last month, they said the plan is “unacceptable” and would leave communities “without critical services.”
The Center for Western Priorities estimates that 2,400 jobs will be affected nationally by the hiring freeze.
Donna Nemeth, a spokesperson for the Rocky Mountain Region of the Forest Service, said seasonal positions affected by the hiring freeze do a wide range of field work, including fuels reduction, front-country campground management, trail construction and fire prevention.
She said 105 formerly seasonal workers in the Rocky Mountain Region were recently elevated to permanent status and won’t be affected by the staffing cuts.
“That said, we are working closely with individual workers to explore solutions to fill gaps where we can,” Nemeth said.
Nemeth was unable to speak to how many positions will be affected by the hiring freeze in the Routt National Forest.
