The U.S. Forest Service is halting the hiring of seasonal workers next year because it expects to receive less than the $8.9 billion it needs to pay its 30,000 employees, manage 193 million acres of land and fight wildfires.

Pending final appropriations from Congress, the chronically underfunded and overworked agency plans to scale back its operations in 2025, raising concerns among its many partners in Colorado that entertainment projects will be delayed.

“We have the opportunity to do our best with the resources we have.” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore told employees on Sept. 16:He noted that the agency has lost nearly 8,000 jobs in the past 20 years and is “seeing signs of a stressed workforce.”

He told his employees that priorities would change as funding decreased. “We will not do everything that is expected of us with fewer people,” he said.

For example, A question that came up this week By NPR’s Marketplace Asks who will pump campground toilets as the Forest Service budget shrinks? This is a big ask for volunteers.

Forest Service Executive Director Doozie Martin said volunteer groups working with the Forest Service are prepared for “some of the disappointments and challenges coming up in 2025.” Friends of the Dillon Ranger District.

Forest Service officials have warned many of their partners not to anticipate major projects in 2025 as the agency deals with a hiring freeze.

The 20-year-old Friends of the Dillon Ranger District regularly conduct nearly 1,000 volunteer days annually at 60 projects in the Dillon Ranger District of the White River National Forest; this accounts for nearly half of visits to the White River National Forest. The most traded forest in the country. Last year, the nonprofit provided more than 8,500 hours of volunteer work, collected 500 bags of trash on public lands around Summit County, and helped educate 1,516 local children through youth programs.

“We’re fortunate to live in an area where we have a lot of support from the community, and it’s not something I predict will recede,” Martin said. “Perhaps we will need to adjust our programming… but right now I still expect 1,000 of our volunteers to patrol the trails and report to land managers. “I think we can achieve the same things we did in the past.”

Budget woes mean the White River National Forest has more than 17 million annual visits to its 2.3 million acres. $1.6 billion economic impact Rural Colorado will have about 30 fewer seasonal workers next year.

These seasonal jobs that do not involve fire crews include fuel reduction, fire prevention and education, campground management, public education, biological fieldwork, and road maintenance and construction.

The Forest Service recently converted 1,300 seasonal positions to permanent jobs, 105 in the Rocky Mountain Region and 15 in the White River National Forest.

Donna Nemeth, a spokeswoman for the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Region, said the agency is working with partners “to explore solutions where we can fill in the gaps.”

The continuing resolution passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in September keeps the agency funded through 2024, and the Forest Service is following a federal process that would offer exemptions to projected budget cuts for next year, Nemeth said.

“While the bar for exemptions is high, we consider sources of funding and the ability to conduct business through alternative or other means, such as grants or agreements,” he said in an email. “We also hope to have more hiring options next year if additional funding becomes available. As you can see, we are working diligently to ensure we can do this critical work.”

Forest Service lands contribute $44.3 billion to the US economy

Forest Service’s 2025 request $8.9 billion Of that figure, $6.5 billion includes essential programs and $2.4 billion includes wildfire operations. The fiscal year 2025 budget request is an increase of $658.5 million over fiscal year 2024, with most of that increase coming from the agency’s Wildfire Management Program. The agency supported 410,400 jobs and contributed $44.3 billion to the nation’s economy in 2022; 69% of this came from recreational activities, energy and mining development, logging and livestock grazing.

“The Forest Service remains a good place to invest and we will maximize every dollar invested in our agency, ensuring every dollar works for the American people,” said Moore, the Forest Service chief. U.S. House Appropriations Committee in April. “The citizens we serve deserve nothing less than to see the value of their money working for their benefit.”

Recreation is a growing force on federal lands. Estimated one 159 million recreation visitors $11 billion spent in 2022 on lands managed by the Forest Service. Recreational visitor spending supports approximately 161,000 jobs as it spreads into communities adjacent to public lands. Outdoor recreation economics achieved A record $1.1 trillion in 2022Public lands are the cornerstone of the outdoor recreation industry’s growing influence in rural communities.

Although the final budget has not yet been approved, early indications are that the Forest Service will not receive the $8.9 billion it requested. Recommended by the House Internal Affairs Subcommittee in June $8.43 billion for the Forest Service. Projects are likely to cost more and expire, given the two cost-of-living increases the agency is offering its employees this year. One-time financing of $945.2 million According to the Infrastructure Investments and Labor Law, the 2025 budget proposed by the Parliament in 2024 indicates a decrease of approximately 4% compared to 2024.

In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee proposed $6.45 billion for the Forest Service’s core programs, similar to what the agency requested. In the August 29 update Moore told workers that “prudent planning requires using the lower of the two financing offers.”

In the August update, Moore also warned that the cuts would come “potentially in the budget-limited future.”

“We approach this challenge with great caution…which means prioritizing the collective financial health of the agency and ensuring we can pay our employees first and foremost,” Moore wrote.

Lloyd Athearn is president of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, which regularly deploys more than 30 seasonal workers each summer to rebuild and maintain challenging trails to the state’s highest peaks. Since his group hires its own employees, he doesn’t expect the hiring freeze to have much of an impact.

But Athearn largely said that everyone “”Queen of the 14ers.” McEllhiney retired in August after a 35-year career with the agency. The Forest Service is also in no rush to fill vacancies.

Athearn said managing federal funding for trail work and securing approvals for Colorado Fourteener Initiative trail projects “will restart sometime next year.”

“Will we face difficulties in implementing agreements and authorizations? If we receive federal funding for our projects, will these payments be delayed? All the messages I’m getting from Forest Service people is that people will implement these decisions,” Athearn said.

“I can guarantee you that CFI will be at full strength next summer, unaffected by the Forest Service hiring process,” he said. “Who knows, this might work out well for us. We might be the only ones hiring road workers. This might give us access to more qualified people. Who knows?”

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation recently teamed up with partners to distribute $3.7 million for 33 projects in ColoradoIncluding elk surveys, fencing projects and habitat improvements in the Arapaho, Gunnison, San Isabel, San Juan and White River national forests.

Blake Henning, the foundation’s conservation chief, doesn’t expect the Forest Service’s hiring freeze to affect those projects.

“Most of the work we fund for the Forest Service is done by fire crews,” Henning said. “These people will help continue the projects we give money to. “When I talk to our partners at the Forest Service, I think a lot of these transients are associated with recreation programs like trail maintenance and campgrounds.”

The Outdoor Volunteers of Colorado group – or VOC – I turned 40 this year plans to double its seasonal staff. He took over the leadership of the group last year 2,673 volunteers who spent 19,643 hours He has been involved in more than 100 projects, including maintaining 21 miles of trails on public lands.

A spokesman for the group said they expected the hiring freeze to “significantly impact” volunteer operations next year. This year, the Forest Service submitted 21 VOC applications for projects, and the group completed 18 of them. VOC spokeswoman Kimberly Gagnon said the agency sent out 18 applications to work on Forest Service-managed land for next year.

“We anticipate that due to fewer seasonal personnel, the Forest Service will need to reduce essential fieldwork and partner engagement efforts,” Gagnon said. “So this likely means prioritizing emergency visitor services over routine maintenance and infrastructure projects. VOC is preparing to close this gap by providing additional support from our volunteers and staff to keep critical projects moving forward.”