As the Forest Service contracts with slashed staff and funding, local communities are stepping up with funding for backcountry trail crews, visitor education campaigns and management of campsites and trailheads.
“These folks need help. We know how important it is to have a physical human presence out there,” said Dave Ochs, the head of the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association, which is administering $62,500 in local funding to support three seasonal Forest Service employees around Crested Butte. “Let’s help our partners. They are in need and we care very much for our backyard.”
The Gunnison National Forest is not hiring any seasonal workers this summer, leaving a long list of tasks typically done by 12 temporary workers who open trails, handle deferred maintenance, manage trailheads and pit toilets and work with outfitters and guides. Across Colorado, federal land managers are seeing a growing number of staffers who have taken buyouts or been laid off. They also are not hiring seasonal workers who help manage the crush of summer visitors.
This is a scene unfolding across Colorado’s public lands as communities labor to fill gaps left by the sudden retraction of the federal government under the Trump Administration.
The National Park Service has closed four of its 10 campgrounds at the 42,000-acre Curecanti National Recreation Area around Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Blue Mesa Reservoir outside Gunnison. A 2018 Park Service report showed Curecanti attracting more than 1 million visitors a year who spent $44.1 million in nearby communities, supporting 551 jobs.
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