Gordon on layoffs: “We needed to downsize the federal government”

JACKSON — Gov. Mark Gordon backs President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s push to lay off federal workers, including in Wyoming, in the first month and a half of Trump’s administration.

“We needed to downsize the federal government,” Gordon said in a Wednesday press conference following the legislative session. “I do also appreciate the fact that this is going to be very traumatic for some of the individuals involved.”

The governor’s wife, Jennie Gordon, heads the Wyoming Hunger Initiative focused on preventing food insecurity statewide, which reached out to food pantries across the state amid layoffs. Those pantries reported that demand is growing, and the governor said federal employees who were making private contributions to those food pantries are not able to contribute as much.

“There’s some disturbances that will happen in these communities,” Gordon said. “And for those people, I want to recognize that it’s a hardship.”

However, he said the state doesn’t have the ability to “pick up those people that have lost their jobs.” He said there is neither the capacity nor a budget for it right now.

Close to 8,100 federal workers were employed in Wyoming last year, according to WyoFile. That included employees of the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Postal Service and others.

While it’s difficult to say exactly how many federal workers reside in the Jackson area, there are typically about 1,500 federal workers in the region during the peak summer tourism season. That includes about 800 in Yellowstone, about half of whom are seasonal; about 360 in Grand Teton (also half seasonal); about 220 on the Bridger-Teton National Forest (about 100 of whom are located near Jackson); and another 40 or so affiliated with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest near Driggs and Swan Valley, Idaho.

Jobs hang in the balance for many workers at federal agencies, but the first round of cuts has already had an impact. The northwest corner of Wyoming wasn’t spared.

The workforce took a serious hit in what was described as the “Valentine’s Day massacre,” when more than 2,000 U.S. Forest Service employees were cut nationwide following direction from the Trump administration and Musk. Other layoffs and hiring freezes have followed since then.

Roughly 97% of Jackson Hole is public land, and some of its stewardship has been placed into question.

Rangers, technicians, planners and firefighters who work for the Park Service and the Forest Service ensure the land is taken care of for residents in the area and millions of visitors who travel each year to destinations like Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Seven of those employees have been laid off in Yellowstone, four in Grand Teton, over 40 across the Bridger-Teton National Forest and nine in the Caribou-Targhee’s Teton Basin Ranger District.

On March 1, hundreds of demonstrators turned out at the Jackson Town Square to protest federal cuts.

“Within a month, for somebody to come in and try to take away the support and the management of these wonderful gifts of ours is an atrocity,” Rick Nelson, who has been a resident of Star Valley Ranch since the early 2000s, said at the protest. “There are many reasons to be upset about the last four or five weeks, but this one for us is near and dear.”

While recognizing the layoffs could cause losses for individual communities and community members, Gordon said Wyoming has always maintained that it’s important to be in a “pole position” when it comes to “management issues that affect our state.” He said he fought with the Biden administration about paying attention to what Wyoming wants.

“This administration really does want to get back to letting the states lead,” he said.

He said congressional leadership in the House and Senate have blunted personnel cuts, adding that the national parks have done “reasonably well.”

“We’re still not clear what the dimensions of the Bureau of Land Management are,” he said.

Previously, the Biden administration wouldn’t provide permits to drill oil and gas.

“Now, we’re worried if we’ll have people to be able to fill those permits out,” Gordon said. “The net result, we hope, isn’t zero.”

Gordon was also concerned about what the cuts mean for wildfires, in the wake of a devastating year for eastern Wyoming. He said the federal firefighting force was incredibly helpful in Wyoming, “perhaps uniquely so, because we really did have great partnerships.”

In the end, he said Wyoming hasn’t seen the full effect of downsizing under the Trump administration.

“We’re starting to respond so that we have the resources available and a strategy about how to deal with those issues when they arrive,” he said.

This story was published on March 13, 2025 .