As we enter fall and aspen leaves have turned in the high country, there are fewer U.S. Forest Service personnel to help monitor, preserve and protect our federal public lands. Bu
dget cuts under the Trump administration have impacted both local and regional USFS offices. In response, public land patriots have stepped up their volunteering. They are eager to share their comments and convictions.
Across the San Juan National Forest there has been staff shrinkage and retirements. “We have watched many of our close partners – and friends – at federal land management agencies lose their jobs, prepare to lose their jobs, or be vilified when they simply have been working tirelessly to protect our natural resources,” writes Stephanie Weber, executive director of the San Juan Mountains Association in the SJMA Newsletter. “Not only have we lost a lot of young, energetic and enthusiastic talent, but we have also lost veteran leaders.”
After almost 40 years, at SJMA “volunteers remain the lifeblood of our organization through an array of volunteer opportunities,” which include Chicago Basin Trail Ambassadors spending four days per shift talking to climbers hiking into Chicago Basin. Volunteers camp in tents at SJMA’s basecamp or hike into Chicago Basin themselves, deep in the Weminuche Wilderness.
SJMA volunteer Bill Koons explains: “In the face of overwhelming cuts to public funding that would normally be there to hire crews, retired people need to step up and donate time which most of us have. Young people have to work three jobs these days to make it. Retired people need a purpose to give back to the lands they have enjoyed for so long. I like the idea of going out into the wilderness as an ambassador for the land.”
There are also Trail Ambassadors working five-hour shifts at the Ice Lake Trailhead and at the Blue Lakes Trail into the Sneffels Wilderness near Telluride.
Citizen science opportunities are essential now that so many seasoned federal staff have been forced out. SJMA recruits Wilderness Solitude Monitors who work four-hour shifts checking trails in designated wildernesses to analyze visitation by people, dogs and livestock, and to check on campsites to be sure of Leave No Trace compliance. SJMA sponsored San Juan Science Ramblers help with 90-minute after school programs. Volunteer information specialists, and you’ll be seeing a lot more of them, work at public land offices in Del Norte, Dolores, Durango, Gunnison, Rico, Silverton and Pagosa Springs.
“Volunteering, especially for public lands, goes beyond simply connecting and belonging to encompass healing: oneself, our community, and all life that depends on our public lands for their home and sustenance,” Elli Morris said. “Countering the cuts with personal involvement restores agency – volunteering is direct, tangible and long-lasting action.”
Gavin Tweedie agrees about combining volunteerism and public land appreciation.
Tweedie said: “Volunteerism is one of the most rewarding ways to give back to the community. It not only supports organizations like SJMA, but also brings people together and creates a deeper sense of connection. With the funding cuts facing many wilderness conservation efforts, volunteer support is more impactful than ever. At SJMA, volunteering often means being outdoors – directly engaging with the wilderness and the people who enjoy it. I’ve met so many others who share my love of the land, and together we’ve shared countless stories while giving back to the places we treasure. If ever there was a time to step up, it’s now. Every effort, big or small, truly makes a difference.”
That old canyon country curmudgeon Ed Abbey said it best when he proclaimed: “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
Abbey may not have been much of a public land volunteer, but here in Durango SJMA volunteers are now becoming the boots-on-the-ground workers so needed in the San Juan National Forest.
Brent Leisure argued: “From the perspective of a former public lands manager and current volunteer, I consider volunteers as essential to accomplishing the important mission of public and nonprofit organizations, particularly in times of operating shortfalls. Long-term goals and objectives simply cannot be accomplished without uninterrupted and sustained public support and advocacy. Volunteers represent a way to remain successful throughout the ebb and flow of public funding. Public lands in America are arguably the greatest inheritance given to our citizens.”
Former Columbine District Ranger and Bureau of Land Management manager Matt Janowiak, now on the board of SJMA, states unequivocally: “In the recent past, we expected Congress to appropriate funds that allowed public land management agencies to care for the land. These agencies hired people to maintain campgrounds, clear trails, manage the plant and animal communities, and preserve the water resources. No longer. It is now up to us, the public, to provide these services for communities, for ourselves and for our future generations.”
Photographer Chris Blackshear knows his way around a llama, which is important because an unhappy llama will lower its ears and spit. Blackshear has his own message about volunteering especially in the Weminuche Wilderness.
“I love to get out in the wilderness,” he said. “To have a purpose in support of land stewardship feels rewarding while the federal government starves outdoor recreation work, threatens to sell public land and lavishes money on creating a police state.”
Because of deep cuts in the USFS budget, on the San Juan National Forest and other forests across the West, volunteering may also be seen as an act of resistance against a political ideology not supporting public lands.
“Volunteering is more important now than ever before in the face of unprecedented threats to public lands. There are so many ‘feel good’ moments in volunteering. But more than that, volunteering is a positive act of resistance in a dark time when the default emotion is feeling powerless,” Peg Rogers said. “It is a statement that even though the current administration does not value public lands enough to fund their management or perhaps even to retain them in public ownership, people do. They choose to give their time for free. That choice tells the world that public lands will not be lost without a fight.”
SJMA Volunteer Coordinator MK Thompson has her own insights.
She told me: “I’ve spent my entire life finding solace and strength in nature despite growing up near very little public land. I think everyone deserves to do the same. Volunteers for SJMA help make this possible for visitors and locals by educating trail users and school-age children as well as cleaning and maintaining roads, trails, and campsites.”
Thank you, public land patriots. Thank you for all that you have done for public lands in this summer and into the future. Thank you for your commitment to our common ground.
As a columnist for the Durango Herald for the past two decades, I’ve tried to follow Ed Abbey’s mantra. He said it simply but powerfully: “Write right, write wrong, write on!”
Ed also left us with some useful advice:
“Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast ... a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the West; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still here. . .
“Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active, and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound men with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators, I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards.”
Andrew Gulliford is an award-winning author and editor and a professor of history at Fort Lewis College. He can be reached at gulliford_a@fortlewis.edu.
