Forest Service employee uncertainty for CB area

Local groups ready to step up

By Mark Reaman

(Editor’s Note: This story was originally written before the Trump administration began firing federal employees including Forest Service workers in the Gunnison office. We have since included some updated comments…)

There will be approximately 29 fewer US Forest Service employees working the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests this coming summer. That was the conclusion of US Forest Service officials in December before recent federal employee firings came into play that have apparently impacted workers in the Gunnison Forest Service office, so there could be more.

Several of the summer temporary employees normally provide services on the Gunnison National Forest. The initial cutbacks would not impact firefighting personnel, but that could now be in question. It is expected that local groups like the CB Conservation Corps already assisting the Forest Service in the Crested Butte area of the Gunnison National Forest will be busier in 2025. While that was expected months ago, it is now considered more imperative than ever. 

The original employee cutbacks come as a result of budget constraints for the overall USFS anticipated during budget time last fall. According to USFS spokesperson Adam Livermore, “the Forest Service is operating under a continuing resolution, and we anticipate a budget limited environment. 

“For fiscal year 2025, we are restricted in our ability to hire additional seasonal non-fire employees (or 1039s) where offers have not been made. We will continue with hiring our core temporary firefighting force of 11,300 for the coming fire year.”

He said in December that USFS administration understand this will have impacts across all national forests. He explained that seasonal employees typically perform a range of important activities and cited a few examples including front country campsite management, public contacts and education, biological field work, trail maintenance and construction.

“This decision was made to address the budget environment going into Fiscal Year 2025,” Livermore said. “The Forest Service’s budget is provided primarily through discretionary appropriations provided by Congress each year. As an agency, we have a responsibility to plan for the most conservative funding picture and these actions reflect that reality. We are currently working on how this will affect the forest, and we will do everything we can to limit those impacts. We are also working closely with our partners to explore creative solutions to fill gaps where we can. We are hopeful for more hiring options if additional funding becomes available.”

No official word…

Again, those comments from Livermore were made before the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began firing more USFS personnel this month.

Emails to both the US Forest Service Gunnison District Ranger in Gunnison and the GMUG office in Delta last week and this week asking about the latest employee situation did not provide any new specific information. While no response was received from Gunnison district ranger Dayle Funka, GMUG public affairs specialist Brittany Perrin responded on Tuesday saying, “Your original inquiry was submitted to our Forest Service’s Washington Office on Feb. 18. Due to the high volume of media inquiries that we have been receiving on this topic, it may take a little while to get back to you…”

The News received a response this week from the National Forest Service press team. “(US Department of Agriculture) Secretary (Brooke) Rollins fully supports the President’s directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s many services to the American people. We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of the American people’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar spent goes to serve the people, not the bureaucracy…. As part of this effort, USDA has made the difficult decision to release about 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees from the Forest Service,” the response stated. “…It’s unfortunate that the Biden administration hired thousands of people with no plan in place to pay them long term. Secretary Rollins is committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.”

Local heroes to the rescue…again

Two local organizations that partner with the regional Forest Service, the Crested Butte Conservation Corps (CBCC) and Gunnison County’s STOR (Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation) committee are both keeping a close eye on what might happen next summer, and with the latest uncertainty, they expect to have to step up assistance in the local backcountry.

“We have been doing shared stewardship work with the USFS with the advent of the Crested Butte Conservation Corps, and we’re more attentive to doing it in the future,” said Dave Ochs of the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association that developed the CBCC. “I can’t say we’re ‘excited’ about cuts at the Forest Service level, as much as we are encouraged to help. You know… we are willing to take on what needs to be done to protect what we love. We are not so excited for what it means for the USFS/USDA the Gunnison Ranger District staff, and our public lands. Granted, they are looking to more ’shared stewardship’ examples and frankly, we have a great working relationship already in place with the district.” 

“It is pretty unfortunate how much the FS is having to cut back on funding and staffing. I am not completely sure how this will play out here in the Gunnison Valley, but I do feel that we have set ourselves up well for a situation like this,” said Nick Catmur, Gunnison County stewardship coordinator of the National Forest Foundation. “The CBCC has been a huge boost to the FS for the Gunnison area and will be asked to continue to fill that role again next summer, however, they will likely receive less direct money from the feds than they usually do. As a result, I imagine they might come to STOR for a bigger funding ask through the Gunnison County Stewardship Fund. Hopefully we see other groups step up to help fill in the gaps as well. STOR also has funding available for stewardship groups through a GOCO grant we were awarded last year.”

With the help of local stewardship groups Catmur is hopeful we will be good in the Crested Butte area, but he said there will be a decrease in the number of Forest Service uniformed employees capable of responding to issues at campsites, replacing broken infrastructure, and cleaning toilets. 

“I’m not sure how this will impact other portions of the Gunnison District, but I imagine it won’t be ideal,” he said. “I am hopeful that we can once again secure funding from local partners to bring in additional Law Enforcement again in 2025, this should help with the overall decrease in uniformed presence. STOR will probably once again look to fund toilet cleaning through a service contract.”

“The Forest Service has worked over the last two years to stabilize and strategically grow its workforce. One important action we took was to convert almost 1,300 non-fire temporary employees to permanent status, providing these employees certainty and better benefits. The change helped ensure the agency benefits from a more permanent workforce to accomplish work on behalf of the American people,” added Livermore. “In the past two years, approximately 25 employees were converted from temporary to permanent positions on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests.”     

Catmur said the situation doesn’t bode well for any sort of expansion on the local forest service lands. “We are lucky to have the groups that we do around here. The real bummer about all this is that it really makes it hard for the FS to consider any new type of infrastructure on the forest,” Catmur concluded. “When there’s so much uncertainty and an inability to manage what we currently have, the idea of adding more infrastructure is not realistic, even if it’s needed.”

Ochs said this week that the local groups will just have to step up more than usual. “The 2025 CBCC is gearing up and we’re grateful to have most of our grant and support funding in place, minus one more big one we are waiting to hear about. Either way, we are planning on increasing our crew size from six to eight, and we’ll also have four CBCC Backcountry Outreach Crew (BOC) members lined up for the eight busiest weeks of the summer season,” he said. “With even more federal slashing taking place, we are planning on a busy season and will look to our local federal partners to see where we can help in any capacity. We are grateful that our local community, like MetRec, STOR, our Towns, 1% for Open Space and CPW are supporting the way they are. We could not do it without them or the amazing support of our donor base.”