April 18, 2025 10:59 AM UTC

Coloradans Getting Impatient with Trump Destruction of Public Lands

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Jason Blevins reports today for The Colorado Sun, Coloradans are growing increasingly concerned about reductions in funding for public lands in our state:

Senator John Hickenlooper is hearing a lot of frustration and anger as he tours the state this week. He’s telling people to organize and gather stories that reflect how public lands are suffering under drastic cuts at land agencies…

…Marcia Gilles, Eagle County’s director of open space and natural resources, who previously served as deputy district ranger for the Holy Cross Ranger District at the White River National Forest, said the busiest national forest in the country lost 43 full-time employees in the recent purge of federal workers, resulting in a 29% reduction — to 103 workers — in the forest’s full-time workforce. That does not include this year’s decision to not hire 50 seasonal workers in the 2.2-million-acre forest that generates at least $1.6 billion in annual economic activity in Western Slope communities. [Pols emphasis]

Hickenlooper asked how the public will see that reduction in forest workers.

Projects will be delayed, especially those that require review by wildlife biologists. But mostly the public will see trash, toilets and fewer rangers on the ground making sure fires are extinguished and people are recreating appropriately, Gilles said…[Pols emphasis]

…The senator also got an earful from Eagle County officials who are worried that federal wildland firefighters may not respond to fires after local initial response. Local fire officials also expressed concern that federal wildfire mitigation and prevention work will slip in coming years.

The Trump administration’s cuts to public lands programs haven’t gotten as much attention as some the other reductions in various federal agencies, but Colorado stands to take a massive hit to its economy as a result. Whatever amount of money that the Trump administration claims to be saving by eliminating federal workers on public lands will pale in comparison to the money that will be lost if tourism and recreation plummet as a result.

Hickenlooper worries that the ultimate goal of the Trump administration is a self-fulfilling prophecy of weakening the Forest Service to a point in which taxpayers start to believe that the federal government is a failure when it comes to protecting and preserving public lands:

“I hope this is not true, but it seems like they’re trying to set up government to fail so they can say, ‘Hey, look at how the Forest Service has not done this or the Forest Service has not done that.’ And they are gonna say it’s a failure of government and government is the enemy.”

In an effort to head this off, Hickenlooper has introduced in the U.S. Senate the “Fix Our Forests Act“. The goal of the legislation is to rehire recently fired workers on public lands and streamline approval for wildfire mitigation projects. The bill has already passed the House of Representatives, which gives some hope that it could make it through the Republican-controlled Senate as well.