With the recent gutting of public land management offices around the valley, eyes turned quickly to Gunnison County’s Sustainable Tourism and Outdoor Recreation (STOR) Committee. With the summer season growing near, bringing with it crowds of campers, hikers and bikers, the 21-member committee decided to step in.
This month, STOR took the lead on funding a small seasonal crew to reduce the rising workload of the U.S. Forest Service Gunnison Ranger District. The agency, hit hard by the layoffs earlier this year, is responsible for managing more than 1 million acres of national forest in the valley. The Forest Service oversees many of the heavily visited areas north of Crested Butte, as well as Taylor Park and the West Elk Wilderness.
Gunnison County Stewardship Coordinator Nick Catmur worried that poor management, a result of short staffing, will result in illegal campsite creation, trashed campgrounds and trailhead toilets and improperly disposed human waste.
“Before the current administration, we knew that our federal agencies didn't quite have the funding or the capacity to manage everything that we have in this valley … This is a big deal.” Catmur said at the STOR committee’s March meeting.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “workforce optimization initiative” resulted in the firing of hundreds of employees from Colorado land management agencies in February. While it is still unclear exactly how many federal workers were cut in the valley, all of the agencies — the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Park Service (NPS) — were impacted by the layoffs. Since last fall, the Gunnison Ranger District alone is estimated to have lost as many as 16 employees, some seasonal and others permanent.
STOR, which sits at the forefront of the valley’s hot-button recreation issues, seemed poised to take some of the pressure off federal land managers. But hesitancy arose at its March meeting. Some committee members questioned the financial sustainability and precedent set by “supplementing” the work of public land management agencies.
“Congressional officials need to hear people's frustration, concerns, anxieties and anger around what is happening,” said Assistant County Manager Cathie Pagano. “Because if we start backfilling and take care of it, then it's like, ‘Great, no big deal. Everything seems fine.’ I urge strong caution against trying to solve the problem for the feds right away.”
Still, the committee’s urge to protect the valley’s vast network of public lands outweighed the possible unintended consequences. After further conversation in early April, STOR agreed to organize funding for a four-person crew at a total cost of $60,000. If all goes as planned, the seasonal employees will work for 14 weeks in the national forest, with a tentative start date of Memorial Day weekend. So far, STOR has already met half of its fundraising goal.
“It is absolutely up to us to protect our local, and adjacent federal public lands right now,” said Jon Hare of Crested Butte’s High Country Conservation Advocates. “So I think we should remove that question mark, please. We need to support them.”
During a subcommittee meeting on April 3, STOR committed $15,000 from a grant from Great Colorado Outdoors (GOCO) to match the same contribution from the Gunnison County Metropolitan Recreation District (MetRec). The committee is working with its members, which represent water resources, wildlife, agriculture and recreation, to finish the fundraising. Catmur said he plans to make appearances at upcoming town council and board meetings, as STOR faces a tight hiring timeline to ensure a crew is in place before the summer season begins.
MetRec Executive Director Derrick Nehrenberg approached Matt Quinn of the Forest Service last month about how the special district could help. Following the development of a regional rec plan, Nehrenberg said MetRec was not “entirely interested” in becoming involved in the public lands issue. But with support from the board of directors, Nehrenberg introduced the idea of “pass-through” seasonal employees with the valley’s nonprofit trail organizations.
“We tried to pull back and say, ‘We developed this master plan, and want to do traditional rec,’” Nehrenberg said. “But we also want to support gaps in the community.”
Using the pass-through model, the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association (CBMBA) would manage the hiring and payroll for the seasonal employees as an addendum to the organization’s already established conservation corps. The new hires would then work under Forest Service recreation staff, and occasionally assist CBMBA as needed.
The nonprofit sector has been lending a hand to public land management agencies for years around the Western Slope. In 2020, STOR, with the help of the National Forest Foundation, established its own crew to address the impacts of increased visitation in the Gunnison Valley. Crew members monitored trail use on the Gunnison National Forest, aided the designated camping transition outside of Crested Butte and cleaned campgrounds at Hartman Rocks. Each summer, Gunnison Trails and CBMBA also take on a significant amount of trail maintenance on public land. Similar work has occurred in Chaffee County through its “Recreation Ranger” program.
Considering the existing political landscape, County Commissioner Jonathan Houck warned the committee that the need will likely stretch far beyond the coming summer. And although STOR has the ability to rally resources and skilled crew members, a federal process or “permission” is still required to do work on public land, he said.
“You can't just roll out onto the forest and BLM land and do projects, and so understand that there's still some weird space in the middle that the agency folks will be much better at addressing,” Houck said.
During the STOR meeting, County Commissioner Laura Puckett Daniels said she believes the government’s long-term plan is to “divest itself of these public lands.” Over the past months, rumors have surfaced about the Trump administration’s plans to possibly liquidate and privatize public lands around the country. On April 2, E&E News reported that Republicans were weighing the sale of some public lands to help pay for a massive budget reconciliation bill.
CBMBA Executive Director Dave Ochs remained adamant that STOR should take the opportunity to care for its public lands. The trail organization was the recipient of MetRec grant funding and is hiring two extra crew members this year, bringing the total number up to eight.
“We are very excited with this opportunity, for MetRec and other partners to be able to help these guys get boots on the ground,” Ochs told the MetRec board of directors on March 26, the day prior to STOR’s discussion. “There's nothing more important than having a presence out there on our public lands. And if we can do anything about it, we're glad to help.”
(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)
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