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How Trump broke nature



It’s difficult to keep track of all of the ways in which President Donald
Trump has made our lives increasingly awful over the last 11 months. Every day
we bear witness to his comprehensive assault on immigrants and his deep racism,
and his dystopian vision for the country is so vast that there’s really nothing
he won’t wreck.

So we’ve watched lifesaving medical research get slashed to the bone, because
who cares about stupid stuff like making sure your child doesn’t die of cancer?
Our food, along with everything else, costs more, but hey, at least it’s also
less safe! Job growth is frozen, with more than 700,000 fewer people employed
than this time last year.



What if you wanted to just get away from all this doom and gloom and go for a
nice hike? You know, just get out on a trail somewhere and relax for a bit?

Um, about that …





 



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The Washington Post obtained an internal Forest Service report showing that,
thanks to Trump’s cuts, trails are in bad shape and are only going to get worse.

Some forest districts lost 100% of their trail staff. That seems bad, right?
Also bad? Banning the Forest Service from hiring seasonal workers to make up
for the nearly 6,000 permanent staff lost to retirements, resignations, and
firings.

Oh, and another bad thing? Cutting other government programs like AmeriCorps
and Youth Conservation Corps, which partnered with the Forest Service for
staffing in the past.

Additionally, cuts to specialized, skilled staff couldn’t be replaced with
seasonal or temporary workers, even if that still existed. The report lists
skill gaps in “dry stone masonry, rigging, blasting, saw use, construction,
mechanized equipment, project management, and partner/volunteer coordination.”

These shortages aren’t just inconvenient, they’re unsafe.

The Forest Service report says that the loss of skilled staff and lack of
trail maintenance are leading to “unpassable” trails and unsafe bridges.
Backcountry trails are being entirely abandoned as the Forest Service tries to
prioritize front trails, and the overall number of miles being maintained is
down 22%.

The administration’s answer, of course, is a word salad.




 



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“USDA is focused on efficiency, accountability, and long‑term solvency.
Additionally, the Forest Service bolsters its ability to complete trails work
through broad and collaborative partnerships. Communities in and around
national forests depend on these services, and we will continue working
alongside our partners and the people and communities we serve, to meet those
expectations,” it said.

First, that sounds an awful lot like the USDA is trying to somehow lay the
blame at the feet of anyone but the federal government for this mess—as if
somehow those partners and communities made Trump take a hatchet to the
government.

Next, it also sounds an awful lot like the government is so used to these rote
non-denial denials by now that it failed to notice that the concerns raised
here are not from some effete liberal journalist but from the Forest Service
itself.

While the idea of nature trails may evoke visions of hippy-dippy
environmental types—people the administration actively loathes—the Forest
Service trails are also popular for activities like hunting, fishing, and
shooting. But now these cuts are so deep that it isn’t about the
aesthetics—there’s simply not enough money or personnel to keep the land safe
for use.

The things our tax dollars funded and the things we voted for—all of these
are being arbitrarily stripped away by Trump and his band of brutal nihilists.
There’s no part of our lives that this won’t touch, and no part of our lives
that this won’t make worse.



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