A federal U.S. Forest Service seasonal worker hiring freeze That could mean fewer people putting out abandoned campfires, building trails and preventing wildfires across Colorado next year.

The freeze is expected to impact 156 temporary seasonal positions across Colorado. These employees perform a wide range of critical tasks: wildfire prevention and education, campsite management and biological field work, and trail construction and maintenance.

Local government leaders said the staffing cuts would be felt hard in Colorado’s central mountains, where heavily used Forest Service lands dominate much of the region and are the center of recreational tourism that fuels economies. . Several counties pay to fund seasonal positions, but the hiring freeze means those paid positions could remain vacant, putting years-old agreements in jeopardy.

“We’re really concerned,” said Pitkin County Open Space and Trails Director Gary Tennenbaum. “We would lose quite a significant capacity to manage recreation in the county.”

The hiring freeze, announced by U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore in September, is the result of a potential $500 million reduction in the agency’s budget over the next fiscal year.

“We simply can’t accomplish the same amount of work with fewer employees,” Moore said in a phone call. “In other words, we’re going to do what we can with what we have. We’re not going to try to do everything that’s expected of us with fewer people.”

The Forest Service manages about one-fifth of Colorado’s land, including popular recreation areas like Brainard LakeTHE Indian Peaks Desert and the Maroon Bells Scenic Area. Some counties, like Pitkin, are primarily Forest Service land.

In 2018, Summit County voters passed a property tax increase to address critical community needs, including wildfire mitigation. Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue said the county spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from the tax increase to pay for seasonal Forest Service crews – including approximately $736,000 last year. More than 80 percent of Summit County’s land is managed by the department.

“Six years ago, we already recognized that the USFS was severely understaffed and, even though we are paying for these positions, they are on the verge of disappearing again,” Pogue said.

Impact of the deficit

The Forest Service is operating under a continuing resolution until Dec. 20 while Congress considers a spending bill.

“Given that the agency is operating under a continuing resolution and we anticipate a constrained budget environment in fiscal year 2025, we are making the decision to plan for such a scenario,” said Donna Nemeth, door -spokesperson for the Forest Rocky Mountain region. Service.

Among the positions frozen locally, there are three at the regional office. Here are the number of frozen posts in each national forest in Colorado:

• Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests: 29
• Rio Grande National Forest: 12
• Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland: 28
• Pike-San Isabel National Forests and Cimarron-Comanche National Grasslands: 31
• San Juan National Forest: 23
• White River National Forest: 30

The cuts will not impact wildfire-fighting positions — although the service has also struggled to fill them — but will limit crucial wildfire mitigation work, like reducing the fuel and clearing dead brush. The hiring freeze will also mean fewer people available to make sure campfires are put out and to educate campers about fire restrictions and safety.

“These are the fundamental strategies that keep our community safe,” Pogue said, noting that 90 percent of fires in Summit County start with poorly extinguished campfires.

“In a pickle”

Like Summit County, Pitkin and Eagle counties also pay for seasonal Forest Service positions. All three counties fund these positions because they are essential to the communities, but the Forest Service doesn’t have the money to do so. These positions – although paid – are also frozen for the foreseeable future.

Eagle County and cities throughout the county spend about $160,000 a year for a crew of four to eight temporary seasonal workers. The White River National Forest covers the majority of the county and is the most visited national forest in the country, said Marcia Gilles, the county’s open space and natural resources director.

Seasonal employees patrolled high-traffic areas, helped clean up trash and raised awareness about land management. Without Forest Service personnel on the ground, Gilles expected more people to break the rules and a higher risk of wildfires.

“It’s really going to go back a lot,” she said. “The lack of presence on the pitch is really going to be felt.”

Eagle County is considering working with youth agencies or nonprofits to do some of the work normally done by seasonal employees, Gilles said.

The three counties are working with Forest Service officials to find alternative solutions that could help fill the workforce.