Bridger-Teton National Forest

Five employees of Friends of Bridger Teton will work alongside forest staff.

Friends of the Bridger-Teton is hiring five former forest workers. They’ll help complete projects the forest can’t get to this summer – an accumulation of years of lack of funding and more recently, DOGE cuts.

Several former employees of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and other forests received emails on March 18 that have left them “cautiously optimistic” they may have their jobs back. But the uncertainty of the future remains.

The layoffs come as Wyoming struggles with an affordable housing crisis.

A beloved fishing lake near Pinedale now has no fish. To top it off, the entire lake turned red a couple months ago, and land managers and biologists don’t know exactly why. WyoFile’s Mike Koshmrl first reported on this in early December and gives us a debrief.

Fire crews are starting to do some prescribed burning in Grand Teton National Park this week. The efforts help reduce future wildfire risk by burning dead wood and brush in the cooler late fall conditions.

The U.S. Forest Service has historically faced demands that exceed its budget and workforce capacity. And now, looming congressional budget cuts are only putting a finer point on this. That likely means looking for creative solutions for maintaining these public lands, which is nothing new for the third largest forest in the lower 48 – the Bridger-Teton. They’ve worked closely with a nonprofit to fill in some critical gaps. It’s a relatively novel concept in the forest world.

Highway 26/287 over Togwotee Pass temporarily re-opened on Friday morning. The road’s been closed for most of the week as crews have worked to keep the Fish Creek Fire from jumping the highway. Expect slow speeds and limited visibility.

Residents of the Brooks Lake, Pinnacle Drive and Breccia Drive areas have been under a Level 3 evacuation notice since Tuesday evening. U.S. Highway 26 over Togwotee Pass remains closed.

Crews have finished 28 percent of the actions they want to take to confine the blaze and protect Highway 26/287, the Brooks Lake Lodge and nearby cabins.