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An internal report based on accounts from over 300 U.S. Forest Service workers across the country finds that trails maintained by the agency are being “abandoned” and deteriorating rapidly, posing threats to visitor safety. The Forest Service maintains a network of trails in nearly every state that covers 164,000 miles, but the number of trail miles maintained this year is down by 22 percent.
The Washington Post obtained a copy of the internal report showing that some Forest Service districts have lost up to 100 percent of their trail staff under President Donald Trump. Since the start of this year, the Forest Service has lost nearly 6,000 employees to firings, resignations, and retirements pushed by the Trump administration
“Lost skills are weakening the agency’s ability to implement technical projects and oversee partner, volunteer, and contractor work,” the report states, “which is leading to unpassable trails, unsafe bridges, and negative environmental impacts.”
Common Waters: Inside the fight for stream access in Colorado
In this episode of The Landscape, Aaron and Sterling talk to Cody Perry, a filmmaker and founder of Rig to Flip, and Professor Mark Squillace, an expert in public lands and environmental law at the University of Colorado, about the ongoing battle to change Colorado’s restrictive stream access laws. The conversation centers around Perry’s documentary “Common Waters,” which follows Prof. Squillace’s efforts to change the law by attempting to get himself arrested.
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If you think Doug Burgum’s way of thinking about our public lands hearkens back to the robber barons era, it’s because it does.”
