The recent mass firing of thousands of public employees from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Park Service (NPS), and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has rightfully generated swift condemnation across the country.
The dismissal of over 5,700 public land workers includes emergency responders, wilderness rangers, trail maintenance crews, and other key staff. This wholesale dismissal of key land management employees will negatively affect trail runners in the following ways:
- Recreation Infrastructure Neglected: Trailheads in disrepair or closed; restrooms not maintained and garbage not removed; road and park closures; trails not maintained.
- Land Management and Planning: Public land closures; Trail races delayed or canceled; impacts to sensitive natural and cultural resources; Search and rescue operations greatly reduced or eliminated; ;ack of fire-fighters as forest fires worsen which will inevitably lead to more public land closures.
- Economy: Local race directors, outfitters, and recreation businesses will suffer; the brands of communities neighboring public lands degraded.
While the administration is now pledging to hire over 5,000 temporary workers to replace the permanent and seasonal public servants who were fired (or had their contracts canceled), this response comes at a great cost:
- Hiring new staff is administratively very difficult, very expensive and takes time.
- Replacing skilled, dedicated permanent workers with temporary employees often leads to lesser service quality, especially for jobs that carry life-and-death responsibilities like search and rescue.
- The freeze on hiring permanent workers means senior positions—such as superintendents and division chiefs—remain vacant, creating confusion and a leadership vacuum.
- Our future public land civil servants will understandably consider land management jobs —such as at the Forest and Park Service—as risky and underappreciated careers.
These cuts are especially concerning for our public lands themselves. For many years, staffing at agencies like the NPS and USFS has steadily decreased, even as visitation greatly increases. In the last 15 years, the NPS alone reduced its full-time workforce by 20% yet the number of park visitors has gone up 16%. The USFS, already chronically underfunded, last fall announced a hiring freeze for seasonal workers, further exacerbating its inability to maintain trails, campgrounds, and recreation areas—even to provide avalanche forecasting.
Runners for Public Lands supports well-reasoned efforts to improve efficiency and reduce bureaucracy, but these misguided staffing cuts will have long-lasting consequences for the agencies that protect America’s treasured natural spaces. The good news is that Congress can reverse this damage to our public land agencies by telling the administration to stop these actions, but they need to hear from their constituents. Your stories are necessary to show the on-the-ground impact these actions are having on our communities, and the trails and other public lands we love. If you are a race director please share impacts with us here. If you are a runner, contact your representatives today and urge them to defend our public lands and the public servants who care for them.
Take Action: Contact Congress
You can call the Congressional switchboard here—202-224-3121—or if you prefer to send a personal email, below is a template email to get you started. For additional information on agency staff reductions read more below and please share this call to action with your networks.
Title: Please Protect Our Public Lands
Body: As a runner and public lands advocate, I’m urging you to consider the impact of recent staffing cuts and repair the recent damage to land management agencies like the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Park Service (NPS), and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These agencies are essential to keeping our running trails—and all public lands—accessible, safe, and well-maintained.
ADD PERSONAL STORY HERE
Public lands are not just places we visit—they are central to our way of life and the trillion dollar outdoor recreation economy. The dedicated public servants who manage these lands need proper funding, leadership and support to ensure they remain protected, open, safe and sustainable for future generations.
Thank you for your consideration.
You could also use Outdoor Alliance’s easy-action tool that makes it simple to write your lawmakers.
