Greater Yellowstone firefighters may avoid Trump hiring freeze. Rangers' futures are uncertain

Wyoming business owners worry about impacts to the public land they rely on.

JACKSON — Some employees in the National Park Service and other federal agencies who manage public lands in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem may be exempt from the Trump administration’s hiring freeze.

But which positions, exactly, will be unfrozen isn’t clear.

That worries Teton County business owners whose livelihoods depend on functioning public lands, especially after tourism growth has escalated in western Wyoming after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park recorded their second-busiest years on record. Aside from a deluge of visitors, federal firefighters also spent months fighting a fire on Togwotee Pass that was nearly 90,000 acres.

“Visitation likely will surpass previous years as that trend continues,” said Taylor Phillips, the owner of EcoTour Adventures and the founder of the The WYldlife Fund, a nonprofit that diverts tourism dollars for wildlife conservation. “To not have the human resources available to support visitation and the visitor experience — the quality of the visitor experience will decline. So it’s very concerning from a tourism business perspective.”

The Department of the Interior is working to hire “key” workers who combat wildfires, a spokesperson said.

National parks like Grand Teton and Yellowstone may also get some reprieve. But it’s not clear how much.

“The Department will also hire key positions to ensure the public has access to our parks during its peak season,” J. Elizabeth Pearce, the department spokesperson, said in a Tuesday afternoon email.

Pearce did not respond to a request for comment asking for specific information about the types of National Park Service employees that may be hired. On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that exemptions may apply to seasonal law enforcement employees, like rangers and public safety dispatchers. But Pearce didn’t confirm that.

Interior’s statement, combined with the Post’s reporting, raises questions about the fate of other park service workers, like interpretive rangers who interface with the public.

“Without seasonal staff during this peak season, visitor centers may close, bathrooms will be filthy, campgrounds may close, guided tours will be cut back or altogether canceled, emergency response times will drop, and visitor services like safety advice, trail recommendations, and interpretation will be unavailable,” 22 Senate Democrats wrote in a letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum Friday, urging him to spare seasonal workers from the freeze.

The parks — and other land managed by the Department of the Interior — aren’t the only federal lands in western Wyoming.

And the freeze isn’t the only Trump policy impacting federal workers. On Monday, a federal judge put a temporary restraining order on the administration’s resignation offer, which unions had urged people to reject. With congressional funding expiring in March, there’s no guarantee of payment, they say.

Between the parks, National Elk Refuge and Bureau of Land Management land to the south and southeast, the Department of the Interior manages millions of acres of public land in western Wyoming.

But the U.S. Forest Service, which is under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, manages the 3.4 million Bridger-Teton National Forest and the 3 million acre Caribou-Targhee National Forest, major economic engines for western Wyoming and east Idaho. In past years, when the parks have been crowded, visitors and locals alike have sought refuge in the forests, where they can bike, hunt, fish and camp in dispersed areas.

Like the Department of the Interior, the forest service has been working with Trump’s Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce, to keep wildland firefighters on the payroll.

“We are incredibly proud of our firefighters, and we will ensure they have the training, tools and resources they need to work alongside our state and local partners, as well as private landowners, to continue the work to protect lives and livelihoods,” said Wade Muehlhof, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

In his email, Muehlhof didn’t say anything about the seasonal technicians that help manage recreation in the backcountry, and other Forest Service workers that are hired every summer. To Phillips, that’s concerning. He worries about impacts from dispersed camping, abandoned campfires and improper food storage.

”We’re looking at the possibility of wildlife, specifically bears, getting additional food rewards,” he said. “There are significant implications for this seasonal hiring freeze that has potential for incredible consequences.”

This story was published on February 12, 2025.