In September 2024, U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore announced that, due to projected budget constraints, the agency would not hire any new seasonal employees for the 2025 fiscal year. On a Zoom call with all U.S. Forest Service employees that took place on Sept. 16, 2024, Moore explained that the agency would aim to fill seasonal positions internally. This meant that the Forest Service would have to place existing employees within the agency into the vacant seasonal positions, rather than also sourcing staff from outside of the U.S. Forest Service.
Subsequently, this past summer, the Forest Service was left with major staffing gaps. Thousands of seasonal positions across the country went unfilled. Our local ranger district, the Walla Walla Ranger District, was hit hard by the hiring freeze.
The Walla Walla Ranger District covers part of the Umatilla National Forest, extending into both northeastern Oregon and southwestern Washington. Within these forests are numerous beloved wilderness and recreational areas, most of which are home to vast trail systems. These trail systems are popular among locals and tourists for recreational use and require regular upkeep in order to maintain their usability. Unfortunately, the Forest Service’s hiring freeze meant that our district did not have a summer trail crew this year to maintain the pathways that lead to, and through, these cherished areas.
“I knew last fall that we weren’t going to have a summer trail crew this year,” said Andy Steele, recreation staff officer for the Walla Walla Ranger District. “That’s something that has affected the whole Forest Service.”
Steele, a U.S. Forest Service employee with decades of experience under his belt, has become accustomed to conducting the district’s operations with smaller and smaller workforces.
“The average number of people doing [trail maintenance] work has trended downward,” said Steele. “I don’t know [if] that’s true for all agencies, but [it is] for this one.”
In the past few decades, the U.S. Forest Service has seen a steady increase in the cost of operations, yet a decrease in budget. This has affected how Park Ranger stations have operated at a local level, forcing the Walla Walla district and many others to adapt. However, according to Steele, staffing wasn’t always this dire.
“I’ve been working for federal agencies in land management for 25 years, and I think this summer was obviously a very lean summer in terms of staffing, but when I look at what our Trail Force was like in the ’90s, I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, look at how many people they had,’” said Steele.
Keeping trails in good condition is no simple process. According to Steele, the Ranger District must consider both trail usability and environmental protection.
“There’s a broad spectrum of people who we’re trying to maintain a trail for. […] Most of those trails are going to have bridges over creeks, and that’s not only for user comfort and safety, but also to protect water bodies. We want to protect fisheries and water quality,” said Steele.
Not every issue on a trail has an answer that is as straightforward as building a bridge. Part of the US Forest Service’s responsibility is dealing with circumstances in which the trail itself needs to be redesigned to protect the landscape.
“We do occasionally run into situations where there’s something that doesn’t feel sustainable,” said Steele. “Let’s say there’s a spring coming down, so there’s a section of trail that’s always wet, always muddy and it’s causing erosion problems. We’ll go in and figure out a reroute, maybe upstream of that spring to avoid the water continuing to get on the trail.”
Another consideration that goes into trail work is federal policy. Depending on the location of a trail, the tools and methods of maintenance work may differ. Our district contains the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness. Federal regulations generally prohibit the use of motorized equipment in wilderness-designated areas, so all maintenance work conducted in a wilderness area must be done using only manual tools.
In recent decades, community-based volunteer groups have formed to ensure that this work can be completed. One such group is the Blues Crew.
“The Blues Crew is one of several volunteer groups that we work with. They’re really active in terms of the amount of engagement, and are probably our most active volunteer group in this district,” said Steele.
The Blues Crew is a group that was started by Blue Mountain Land Trust, an organization focused on conservation and environmental stewardship in the greater Blue Mountains region of Washington and Oregon. As of late, with the Forest Service staff dwindling in size, the group has gained momentum in the Walla Walla community. They’ve taken on the primary care of local recreation areas, including Horseshoe Prairie, a popular Nordic ski area.
Craig Piefer, a Walla Walla-born outdoor recreationalist, is the current Trail Crew Leader. He chairs BMLT’s recreation committee and oversees the Blues Crew projects and volunteers. He explained how Blues Crew volunteers can learn about trail issues across such vast areas.
“Sometimes it’s as simple as someone reaching out to us and saying, ‘Hey, I was on this trail. It’s really overgrown,'” said Piefer. “I’ll take that, and then I’ll head out and hike that trail. Sometimes I’ll take a volunteer with me, and we call that a scouting day.”
The purpose of scouting days, as Piefer described, is to evaluate what type of maintenance is called for, which tools are required and how many volunteers are needed. After that is determined, the next step is to organize a day that volunteers can come out to the trail and assist with addressing its needs. These organized days are often called work parties.
“It’s finding the right day, then putting it on the calendar, and then getting that out to the community. We try to, about six to eight weeks before the actual event, get the information out so people can sign up for it,” said Piefer.
According to Piefer, the Blues Crew’s success has relied on community engagement.
“It’s funny,” Piefer said, “A lot of our volunteers are retirees. There’s a special feeling of pride when they do a project completely with just hand tools, [it’s] kind of old school.”
Trail maintenance is work that community members consider valuable for a variety of reasons, and anyone from the community can get involved.
Ricky Gonzalez, a student leader at Whitman, is one such community member who has volunteered with Blues Crew in the past.
“I think it’s important to get out and try to help with some sort of trail maintenance. I use the trails often, and I know other people use the trails often,” said Gonzalez.
Trail use has tied into his experience leading trips with Whitman’s Outdoor Program.
“I lead a lot of backpacking and hiking trips, so most of the time, if you’re following Leave No Trace principles, you’re trying to stay on the trail. There are very few times when you should be off trail,” said Gonzalez.
Leave No Trace principles are always emphasized at Whitman when participating in an activity outdoors. One of the main principles is to travel and camp on durable surfaces so that human impact is minimized. Maintained trails provide a durable surface on which people can travel. This lets those inclined towards environmental stewardship, like Gonzalez, enjoy being in nature while minimizing their environmental damage.
Gonzalez also noted the important role that trail maintenance work plays in providing accessibility to users of varying mobility levels.
“If I want to take my mom out, I’d want [the trail] to be as friendly as possible for her to be able to visibly know where to walk because not everybody has the skills or ability to have good footing on unstable surfaces,” said Gonzalez.
Not everyone believes hiring seasonal staff will continue to be nightmarish. Andy Steele is under the impression that the hiring freeze will not become a permanent issue.
“I think this no-seasonal [hiring] thing for a season is a blip, and we’ll get back to it,” said Steele.
Ultimately, the staffing issues faced by the Walla Walla Ranger District and within the U.S. Forest Service represent the larger and problematic disruption of public services. Despite all that they do, there is only so much slack that volunteer organizations, like the Blues Crew, can pick up amidst the current uncertainties of federal workforces.
