THE LAND PAYS THE PRICE


Federal employees are the heartbeat of public lands stewardship.
What happens when they’re gone?


A giant downed tree and wreckage of limbs block the trail. Peggie dePasquale considers the obstacle in thoughtful silence, calculating the angles. Finally she nods. “If we cut here, and get a little lucky, we may be able to roll it off the trail — no need for a second cut.” She pauses to wipe the sweat from her forehead. “But we definitely need to get a little lucky.”

My colleague Gabby Yates and I have joined Peggie here in Wyoming’s Gros Ventre Range — an amorphous group of mountains in designated wilderness between the Continental Divide and the Tetons — to see firsthand what’s happening to public lands as the Trump administration culls the federal workforce. For much of the morning we’ve been inching up a forested ridgeline, stopping frequently to clear deadfall.

Gabby lops off limbs with the Pulaski, a modified axe, while Peggie and I sever branches with handsaws. Then it’s time for the giant log, and the crosscut saw. The tinny rasp of the five-foot saw, commonly used in wilderness areas where mechanized equipment isn’t allowed, rings through the forest. Fifteen minutes of steady, sweaty back-and-forth later, the log finally splits and crashes to the ground.

Until recently, Peggie roamed this area as a wilderness ranger for the Bridger-Teton National Forest, where she not only did trail upkeep but also collected vital data and educated visitors. But in February, she was terminated from her position, joining thousands of other federal employees suddenly out of work. Now, months later, the cost of having fewer people to steward public lands — people who maintain campgrounds and trails, protect wildlife habitat and cultural resources, manage wildfire risk, and respond to emergencies — is becoming clearer and clearer.

Gabby Yates and Peggie dePasquale pause their trail work to enjoy views of the Gros Ventre Range.

Peggie had worked in and around the Bridger-Teton National Forest for more than a decade, first as a field instructor for the Teton Science School and later as an organizer for the Wyoming Wilderness Association. But she was relatively new to the Forest Service, with just two field seasons as a ranger under her belt.

In late January of this year, while spending the off-season in France for her husband’s job, Peggie received the infamous “Fork in the Road” email pressuring federal employees to resign. She had been looking forward to the upcoming season in the Gros Ventre: Her work plan was finalized, and a promotion to crew lead was on the horizon. Leaving her post was the last thing she wanted. She ignored the email.

But on Valentine’s Day, while skiing with friends, she received a text: The district ranger needed to speak with her immediately.

“I found a way to give them a call and received the news that the leadership at the Jackson district of the Bridger-Teton Forest were instructed as of that morning to terminate all probationary staff based on performance,” Peggie tells us. “Leadership had been given a day to make these calls to people who they wanted, more than anything, to keep on their team. Their hand was forced.” The call was followed up with a letter that said that she had not performed up to par and that’s why they were letting her go, despite her excellent performance reviews.

Peggie was among at least 2,400 Forest Service employees with probationary status (which includes new hires and recently transferred or promoted employees) who were fired that weekend. In the weeks and months that followed, chaos within federal agencies reigned, with further mass layoffs and the shuttering of dozens of federal offices. As of June, in the Forest Service alone, the number of employees fired or who took the government’s “deferred resignation,” a buyout designed to downsize the federal workforce, totaled 7,500 — more than 20 percent of the Forest Service’s workforce.

A month after Peggie was fired, a federal judge ruled some of the layoffs unlawful, and Peggie was told she could return to her post. But by that point, she had already accepted another job offer.

She faced a dilemma: Should she stick with the new position, or return to the job she’d been heartbroken to lose? And if she did return, would she lose the job again just as easily? As one current Bridger-Teton National Forest employee (who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation) described, the atmosphere within the agency for those who remain has been turbulent, in large part due to ever-shifting directives. “Sometimes it seems purposefully chaotic, but I think a fair amount of it is sheer ineptitude,” they said. “In the meantime, agency personnel are getting ping-ponged back and forth with no context, no clarity, and no real actionable direction.”

Ultimately, Peggie decided not to return to the Forest Service, opting instead to stay in the role she’d just accepted: National Forest Wildlands Director for the Wyoming Wilderness Association, her previous employer.


We traverse flower-filled meadows bordered by red rock outcroppings and hike higher into the mountains. Peggie literally wears a different hat now — an orange cap emblazoned with WWA’s logo — and the trail work we’re doing with her today is not part of her typical job duties. But she’s the kind of person who can’t visit the forest without pitching in: When Gabby and I asked her to show us around, there was never any question that we’d load up the saws.

As we hike, Peggie points out examples of the work she and her former colleagues did here in past years. Some, like the sturdy bridges that span creeks and streams, are obvious displays of labor. Others, like the drainage ditches dug to mitigate rutted trails, are less obvious. Peggie shares that because of staffing cuts, it’s unlikely that a Forest Service crew will make it to this trail this year — meaning the hard work that keeps trails accessible and safe just won’t happen.

Rutted trails and deadfall may seem like a minor inconvenience for many visitors. But for others, like horsepacking outfitters, the impacts can be far greater. “There are people that rely on these trails for their livelihood, and who don’t necessarily have the capacity in the pre-season to spend whole days clearing trail,” my colleague Gabby, who has a background leading horsepacking trips, explains. And with fewer Forest Service staff, the backlog of trails that need clearing will continue to grow.

The impacts of staffing cuts don’t stop with unmaintained trails. Fewer backcountry crews means less data on wilderness visitorship, which forest managers use to make sound management decisions. Cuts have also halted studies of invasive weeds, which Peggie says represent one of the most pressing threats to the Gros Ventre. “At the end of last year, we were working with our GIS specialists to create a survey that would allow us to track infestations,” she shares. From there, managers would work with an invasive species specialist to find a solution. “But now, a program that had so much potential and energy and enthusiasm is just no longer.”

Then of course there’s wildfire: Wilderness crews, like the crew Peggie was on, reduce fire risk by educating visitors about campfire safety, ensuring campfires are properly extinguished, and reporting newly started blazes in the backcountry. Other Forest Service employees play vital roles, too. Without adequate staff for fuels mitigation or trail maintenance, catastrophic burns are more likely, and firefighting personnel may struggle to get where they need to go. Without administrative staff, fire crews face travel delays. And with fewer support staff trained to aid in fires — red card carriers — crews on the frontlines carry a heavier burden.


The Bridger-Teton National Forest, though it encompasses an enormous 3.4 million acres, represents only a fraction of the 30 million acres of federally managed public lands in Wyoming — nearly half the state. I ask Gabby, who is in charge of the public lands program at the Wyoming Outdoor Council, how the impacts from layoffs that we’re seeing here fit into the larger picture of public lands across the state and the West.

She says she’s less worried about unmaintained trails or bathrooms and more concerned with, “What’s going to happen to these ecosystems? We’re talking about wildlife resources. We’re talking about watershed resources. If there’s no one there to manage these issues, the problems we have are just going to be exacerbated.”

Indiscriminate firings of land stewards are a devious part of a much larger effort to transfer public lands to state control, Gabby continues. “With these layoffs, there’s a slippery slope: If we’re not properly staffing these places, we’re not properly managing them, and when that occurs, they become more of a liability than an asset, and there’s more of an excuse to sell them off.”

Although the push for public lands transfer has a long history, it was brought into sharp focus this summer, when Congress tried to include the sale of millions of acres in the federal budget reconciliation bill. If there’s anything to learn from the past, it’s that transfer of public lands to states is a direct pathway to sale and privatization, as states eventually realize they have nowhere near the resources needed to manage lands, let alone turn a profit.

If there’s anything else to be learned, it’s how fervently Americans want to see their public lands protected, not sold off. With the recent sell-off attempts in Congress, for example, the backlash was swift and enormous, and showed just how disconnected many politicians are from the lands they seek to sell off. “Decision makers aren’t seeing places that people care about, or rely on for clean water, or cultural values, or recreation,” Gabby says. “They’re seeing something that you can extract value from.”

Places like the Gros Ventre are ground zero for such attempts: It’s Forest Service land that doesn’t have the recognition of, say, a national park, and therefore means little to distant politicians. Yet for those nearby — people like Peggie, Gabby, and countless others — such places are more than just land. They’re cherished parts of their backyards, places whose true value defies measurement.

Clearing trails is difficult, time-consuming work. With fewer Forest Service employees, the backlog of trails in need of maintenance is growing.

We clear tree after tree as the heat of the afternoon builds. Peggie patiently explains to Gabby how to avoid getting the crosscut saw stuck; she hands me the axe and tells me to enjoy some “wilderness therapy.” The work feels good, and the results are immediately tangible — one of the things Peggie loved most about this work.

On a small scale, there’s no doubt we’re making a difference. And we’re not the only ones, either: From individuals to organizations, there’s no shortage of people stepping up to fill the gaps left over from staffing cuts. The Friends of the Bridger-Teton, for example, recently launched the FBT Forest Corps, an initiative that lends a hand on vital trail infrastructure projects. WWA, Peggie’s organization, helps fund this new initiative, and also regularly trains volunteers to conduct solitude monitoring surveys that would otherwise go undone.

On the other hand, Peggie is clear that our work today is but a drop in the bucket. Nothing, she says, can replace the work done by a full wilderness crew.

“… Our work today is but a drop in the bucket. Nothing can replace
the work done by a full wilderness crew.

— Peggie dePasquale

We stay past our agreed-upon turnaround time to clear one last log. Finally, though, we turn our backs on whatever awaits up the trail and begin the hike down.

Our talk turns to what gives us hope, for the Gros Ventre and places like it. “For me, it’s the community of people who care for wild places,” Peggie says. “Which is interesting — this idea that it’s people who are bringing us to this point of conflict, and it’s also people who give us hope that we’re capable of finding a solution.”

As we pass the wooden sign marking the wilderness boundary, Peggie gives it a pat like it’s an old friend. With it, she seems to say goodbye. And — I’ll be back.

BIG AND BAD FOR WYOMING: HERE’S WHAT’S IN THE SENATE RECONCILIATION BILL

Update: The House of Representatives passed the budget bill and President Trump signed it into law on July 4.

Late Tuesday morning the Senate narrowly passed its budget reconciliation bill in a 51–50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie. The bill is now back in the House, where representatives have to resolve differences with the Senate version, which they hope to do before the 4th of July.

Public land sales were removed from the Senate bill after immense public outcry, which is a huge win. Thank you to all that raised your voice and championed these shared landscapes.

But the legislation would still have horrific impacts on many Wyoming Outdoor Council priorities, including public lands, tribal conservation, and energy and climate. Here are a few of the most troubling provisions.

Oil and Gas Free-For-All

The Senate bill would cut the public out of having a say in oil and gas leasing on our public lands. It would also cost Wyoming a lot of money in lost royalties.

Royalty rates for oil and gas drilling had been raised during the Biden administration. This bill would lower them back down to 12.5% — the rate they had been since 1920 — which by some estimates cost Wyoming up to $3.6 billion in lost revenue between 2013 and 2022.

The bill also strips the Bureau of Land Management of its discretion to say no to proposed oil and gas lease sales. It doesn’t matter if local communities, hunters, anglers, or ranchers have concerns; the BLM would be required to lease any eligible parcel of public land nominated by industry — an outright affront to multiple use.

Clean Energy Tax Credits Axed

The good news: The Senate bill removed a harmful excise tax that would have unfairly targeted solar and wind projects.

The bad news: Both the House and the Senate have opted to eliminate home energy efficiency tax credits for projects that go into service after the end of 2025. As a result, rooftop solar, residential heat pumps, and home insulation or weatherization upgrades will cost everyday Wyomingites up to 30% more than they would have otherwise.

Businesses, nonprofits, communities, and tribes would have a little more time to take advantage of existing tax credits: they would have to begin construction within a year after the bill’s passage. Still, both the House and Senate versions of the bill include a rapid phase-down of these tax credits, which would drastically harm the clean energy industry and eliminate good paying jobs.

Tribal FUNDING GUTTED

The bill cuts over $700 million from the Bureau of Indian Affairs — basically one-quarter of BIA’s budget — including programs for economic development and land consolidation. This is a flagrant disrespect of treaty rights and tribal sovereignty, and the impacts for tribal members will be massive.

“These cuts are being carried out without any tribal consultation whatsoever, in plain violation of our trust and treaty responsibilities. This is not just a moral question of what we owe Native people — it is also a question of the law.”

– Senator Brian Schatz

For decades, tribal communities were made promises in exchange for the land that created states like Wyoming — including that they would receive housing, health care, and infrastructure development services, as well as access to safe drinking water. With this bill, the federal government would be reneging on those promises.

Locally, the BIA’s Wind River Agency in Fort Washakie manages 2.2 million acres of land, including mountain ranges, river and stream corridors, and a vast landscape of sagebrush within the Wind River Indian Reservation. This is an already underfunded agency, which handles everything from oil and gas permitting to Environmental Policy Act analysis to water on tribal lands. Losing that capacity at BIA would effectively stymie vital projects in tribal communities.

The bill would also cut $617 million from the Indian Land Consolidation Program, which was developed to help right historical wrongs surrounding land ownership. The program has made it possible to return millions of acres of lands to tribal ownership. With the proposed budget bill, Congress would be unilaterally deciding that the program would end — absent tribal consultation or understanding of the implications it poses for tribes and their communities.

Tribal Energy and Water Programs Slashed

The budget bill cuts funding from multiple loan programs that were aimed at financing energy infrastructure projects in tribal communities, including solar. The Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program in particular has been crucial for advancing energy self-determination and creating economic opportunities in Indian Country. Without these programs, tribes will find it substantially more difficult to develop their energy resources, improve grid reliability, and transition to cleaner, more affordable energy.

The Senate bill would also cut a drastic 90% of funding from a program that helps states and tribal communities access safe drinking water. The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund provides funding for water infrastructure and safety projects. Tribal nations would go from receiving $22.5 million collectively in the current fiscal year to a mere $2 million next year.

This catastrophic reduction would jeopardize the ability of each tribe’s water departments to provide safe and clean drinking water. With significantly constrained resources, critical functions like well water testing and maintaining drinking water facilities in communities like Fort Washakie, Ethete, and Arapahoe would be impacted. The proposed cuts could lead to layoffs of essential workers responsible for water quality oversight, jeopardizing public health and the long-term sustainability of water infrastructure on tribal lands.

Assault on the Land and Water Conservation Fund

The Great American Outdoors Act, passed in 2020, allocated $900 million annually to increase public access and protect the nation’s public lands. Congress is now seeking to divert roughly 43% of that money away from conservation, recreation, and sportspeople access and towards deferred maintenance of infrastructure instead, even though other federal funds have been allocated for deferred maintenance.

In a Nutshell

Although some of the provisions in the Senate bill dampen some of the worst impacts of the earlier House version, we anticipate that the bill’s overall impact will increase energy costs for Wyomigites, make diversification of our energy sector more challenging, and increase the emissions that science is clearly telling us need to go down in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

THE GOOD AND BAD OF CONGRESS’ BUDGET BILL

What the heck even is reconciliation — and how it could impact the things we care about?

It’s hard to get legislation through the U.S. Senate because of the filibuster: Senators can literally kill bills by talking them to death. To get around this, Congress often relies on something called “reconciliation,” which lets budget-related bills pass with a simple majority.

In recent years, we’ve seen the process of reconciliation used more and more frequently due to congressional gridlock and polarization in the Senate. Congress is in the midst of the budget reconciliation process right now, and the resulting legislation could have major impacts on Wyoming’s landscapes and communities.

The House of Representatives fiercely debated various spending changes, including investments in clean energy, energy efficiency, and the sale of public lands to help fund the cost of tax cuts. As the Senate develops its version of the bill, we’ll be keeping a watchful eye on what transpires. We are here to keep you informed on what’s happening and how it may impact our lands, water, wildlife and communities here in Wyoming.

Public lands sell-off narrowly avoided … for now

Throughout this spring, Congress toyed with the idea of selling public lands in order to help pay for tax cuts. This threat was taken seriously by several public lands champions in the Senate, who introduced an amendment in early April that would have prevented the sale of public lands from being included in the budget reconciliation process. This amendment unfortunately failed (both Wyoming senators voted against it) and shortly afterward the House Natural Resources Committee added the sale of roughly a half million acres in Nevada and Utah to the House reconciliation bill.

Though this sale dealt with neighboring states, Congress could have just as easily included the sale of hundreds of thousands of acres in Wyoming. The use of the budget reconciliation process to sell off public lands is unprecedented. It disallows public input and testimony, the cash from the sale would not go to conservation (as typically occurs with land sales), and it sets an ugly precedent for selling our national public lands to pay for the whims of politicians.

Outraged public lands enthusiasts from across the country spoke up and demanded Congress not use this means for balancing the budget. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana), Rep. Ryan Vasquez (D-New Mexico), and other representatives from outside our state drew a hard red line and were able to have these sales removed.

Land management plans in the crosshairs

The Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, which would provide significant protections for important areas of the Northern Red Desert, has been in the crosshairs of some lawmakers as of late. Fortunately, a provision that would block its implementation was stripped out of the House reconciliation bill. Although it’s unlikely that the provision will be included again in the Senate version, we expect to see ongoing efforts to scale back the protections in the plan through administrative processes.

Clean energy tax credits on the chopping block

Longstanding clean energy tax credits that make solar, wind, and battery storage more affordable were removed in the House reconciliation bill. These incentives have driven investments in technologies like carbon capture and clean hydrogen and have helped Wyoming businesses and families afford rooftop solar and energy efficiency upgrades. The House bill would eliminate many of these credits with significant consequences to Wyoming communities and tribes.

If enacted, clean energy projects could become 30–40 percent more expensive. The bill also targeted residential energy efficiency tax credits that were established in 2005 under the Bush Administration. These credits have helped Wyoming homeowners afford energy efficiency upgrades like insulation, windows, and HVAC systems.

The timing for these cuts couldn’t be worse. Utilities in Wyoming are already proposing double-digit rate hikes while warning of rising demand and grid challenges. Cutting these credits now will increase costs for families, make it more difficult to invest in local clean energy projects like rooftop solar, and weaken Wyoming’s energy resilience.

While the future of many federally funded programs that promote clean energy and energy efficiency remains uncertain, several key initiatives the Wyoming Outdoor Council has been monitoring appear to be making progress. For example, some programs funded through the Inflation Reduction Act have had their funds “obligated,” making them much harder to eliminate entirely. Although certain funds have been temporarily frozen — causing frustration — they now seem to be becoming more accessible.

Help protect Wyoming’s clean energy future: Send a message to our senators and tell them to maintain clean energy and energy efficiency tax credits.

Nuclear energy emerges as a winner

The nuclear energy industry would continue to qualify for production tax credits under the House reconciliation bill. It would also make the nuclear industry the only energy sector to maintain the “transferability” of tax credits — a benefit that gives project developers the ability to sell their tax credits to others. For those tracking the active discussion around nuclear energy in Wyoming, it’s clear that this industry is emerging as a favorite for the Trump Administration as a way to meet new energy demand and remain competitive with other countries developing new kinds of reactors. We’ll be carefully watching these developments to better understand how these incentives translate into more proposals around nuclear energy in Wyoming.

What’s next for WOC’s public lands and clean energy priorities?

The removal of public land sales from the House reconciliation bill was a big sigh of relief for public lands users. However, bad public lands provisions could still be included in the Senate version of the bill. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has long advocated for the privatization of public lands.

On the clean energy side, now is the time to let our senators know that you support clean energy and longstanding common-sense programs designed to encourage energy conservation and efficiency like the residential energy efficiency tax credits.

As the reconciliation process continues through the summer, we’ll be keeping a watchful eye on the Senate. Wyoming has an important role to play. As one of the largest energy exporters in the country, the Cowboy State will find itself in the crosshairs. We will continue to keep you updated as we have more news.