This story comes to us from Colorado Public Radio through a partnership with the Mountain West News Bureau.

 Many Wyomingites know the success story of bringing black-footed ferrets back from the brink of extinction in Meeteetse over 40 years ago. Many of the reintroduced populations have been released in the state. Now, one of the top federal biologists overseeing the work has been fired as part of budget cuts from the Trump administration.

For the Mountain West News Bureau, journalists Sam Brasch and Arlo Perez Esquivel speak about the issue and the biologist who helped bring it to light.

Editor’s Note: This story has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Arlo Perez Esquivel: Sam, can you tell us more about her?

Sam Brasch: Yeah, so this is Tina Jackson. Until recently, she oversaw the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center outside Fort Collins. This is home to the world's largest captive population of these ferrets. But she took the job about a year ago, and newer employees have been targeted by Pres. Trump's recent job cuts. So last month, she found out she and two other employees had been fired. And now, she's worried about what that might mean for this whole ferret conservation effort.

Tina Jackson: It really sent the program spiraling because I was let go as well as two of our technicians that helped with the husbandry at the center.

APE: Hmm. And just so we're all on the same page, what exactly is a black-footed ferret?

SB: Jackson has described them as weasels with sort of a wolverine attitude. They're small and long and skinny. I saw one of them described as tubes of muscle. So they might be cute, but turns out they're pretty vicious predators.

APE: Jeez. So why exactly do these tubes of muscle need Jackson's help?

SB: Few species have come as close to annihilation as the black-footed ferret. They were living across the Western plains in the 1800s, but by the 1970s, people thought this species was extinct.

And then there was this sort of amazing story. A dog brought a ferret back to a ranch in Wyoming in 1981.

APE: A dog?

SB: Yeah. It was the first sign that some of these ferrets might actually survive. They actually discovered the last remaining ferret colony there in southern Wyoming. Federal biologists then began this careful breeding program to build the species up and then reintroduce a few of those descendants all across the American West.

But things are still pretty tenuous because biologists started with so few ferrets to begin with, they don't have a lot of genetics to work with. That leaves them vulnerable to disease and other issues. That's why the breeding center actually worked with a nonprofit to clone a ferret back in 2020, and that marked the first time anyone has cloned an endangered species native to North America.

APE: Wow. So within this context, the head of the breeding center has been fired. What does she think will happen to the federal efforts to save the species?

SB: Like I said, two of her staff were also let go. That leaves eight employees at this conservation center. The remaining employees have also had their spending restricted.

Another Trump directive says federal employees can only spend $1 on their credit cards. Unless that changes, Jackson fears they're going to have a hard time buying food for the ferrets. And with the staff cut, she's already worried they're going to have a difficult time managing the upcoming breeding season.

APE: So that's in the breeding center. What about the ferrets already living in the wild?

SB: People who help the ferrets once they're introduced back in the wild also rely on federal staff and funding resources. Travis Laverie is one of those folks. He's out in South Dakota.

Travis Laverie: We've seen and read what the priorities of this administration are going to be and it certainly does not seem to be endangered species and conservation.

SB: I think this gets to a really important point about species conservation. They're not, like, releasing ferrets and then letting nature take their course. People are heavily involved here. They're spraying prairie dog holes these ferrets live in with insecticides to protect these animals against the plague.

If that stops, if the breeding slows down, Jackson told me the ferret population could plummet and decades of work could be erased.

Tina Jackson: The public hears all the time about how successful the ferret program is, but it is still on the brink. And things like this push it even closer to that edge.