Ever since DOGE cuts hit the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in February, Friends of the Bridger-Teton’s Scott Kosiba has been scrambling to pinpoint how the nonprofit can help.
“What is our role as a partner to one of the largest national forests in the country?” Kosiba asked himself. “If we can do more, should we do more?”
For the last five years, the nonprofit has partnered with western Wyoming’s Bridger Teton National Forest (BTNF). Together, they’ve been able to accomplish projects the forest couldn’t do on its own because of funding or bureaucracy. This includes hosting campgrounds, pumping toilets and putting out some 800 abandoned campfires.
“But nothing that nonprofits or the private sector can do will ever replace the Forest Service personnel and capacity that we're losing,” Kosiba said.
He added that even if the nonprofit can make up a chunk of that loss, it’s not their role to take over the federal work – rather, he views the Friends’ group as a partner to the BTNF. So, Kosiba said that’s left him debating how the nonprofit should step in to alleviate impacts to the forest from the DOGE cuts.
That’s partly because federal agencies, like the USFS, are still trying to understand how deep those impacts will be. For example, the BTNF lost at least 40 workers in mid-February, according to multiple sources familiar with staffing, but since then a lot’s been in flux. Many laid off workers were rehired without a sense of how long for, a federal appeals court decision supported the cuts, a second deferred resignation was offered to federal workers and federal agencies are bracing for another round of lay-offs. Despite the uncertainty, there’s a general consensus forests will be less accessible this summer.
So Kosiba landed on what he’s dubbed the “strike team.” The Friends group will hire five to six former BTNF workers for the summer using $180,000 from private donations and other nonprofit partnerships.
“They are not a replacement for staff that's been lost, and nothing that we as an organization, or any other organization can do will ever replace that,” Kosiba said.
Kosiba expects forest users, like hikers, bikers and horse riders, will still find the forest less usable this year. But he thinks the Friends’ strike team can help. Kosiba added that he ethically justified these hirings because despite DOGE cuts, the forest has struggled to keep up with projects with a dwindling budget and staff.
“In good times and bad, if this is a program we decide to continue, it will provide value for the forest, for our public lands, and it will amplify and augment the work that's already being done,” Kosiba said.
The BTNF’s six districts will work with the Friends’ strike team crew to narrow in on which projects to tackle this summer. Kosiba said they won’t have the capacity to take on the work a normally staffed BTNF would, but they can prioritize ones that have “the highest value to the public, to the resource, and then also provide us, Friends of the Bridger-Teton, visibility in the work that we're doing.”
One of the first projects will be clearing a 15-mile section of trail burnt by the Pack Trail fire last year. They’ll also assess weeds.
“If there were any noxious weeds in the seed bank that were being suppressed by the vegetation that was there this is a big opportunity for noxious weeds to start taking over,” Kosiba said.
The crew will work a normal summer season, likely mid-May to mid-fall. Kosiba said it’s a pilot project, but he foresees a future with the strike team.
Kosiba sees it as one part of the USFS DOGE cuts puzzle. But he still has other woes. Specifically, toilet pumping.
In the past, the BTNF entered into a cost-share agreement with the nonprofit. This allowed the nonprofit to use those federal dollars to pump toilets for a much cheaper cost than the federal government could. That’s because the nonprofit has more flexibility than the strict bureaucratic regulations the forest is bound to.
But since Trump took office, Kosiba said the nonprofit can’t enter into that agreement – it’s caught up in the federal freezes.
“It could change tomorrow, but we're not holding our breath,” Kosiba said.
Now, the BTNF is in the same dilemma it was in before the Friends group stepped in two years ago – basically, a price tag to pump toilets that’s untenable.
“Now we are having that conversation about whether we can and should find the money to do that, just fully private,” Kosiba said.
He’s exploring every avenue to try to prevent the worst case scenario: locked up toilets and human feces and trash piling up at campgrounds. Kosiba is requesting the funds from the Sublette County Recreation Board, as the majority of the 62 BTNF toilets are in the county. They’re awaiting a decision, likely to happen in the coming weeks. If approved, the funding will have to be approved by Sublette County commissioners.
