Every New Mexican has camped at a Forest Service campground. Many of us have had the profound pleasure of camping at the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Just this past week, I fished the stretch of the Rio Grande running through the Orilla Verde Recreation Area, also managed by the BLM. It was a key time for fishing there, as the annual caddis hatch was on; it’s a three-week period when every trout in the Rio loses its sense of self-preservation, and every trout fisherman in the north plays hooky from work.
We have long taken such experiences for granted, which is somewhat of a miracle. Even when we find our favorite recreational facilities in less than perfect condition, there is a certain amount of upkeep and management that does take place. It often comes down to staffing, or as the case may be, a lack thereof.
As anyone who has paid attention to the news knows, government agencies are feeling an extra pinch this year. Employees that we can ill afford to lose have been laid off at land management agencies throughout the nation, approximately 3,400 of them in the U.S. Forest Service, in fact. Some of these public servants were rehired, only to be laid off again.
Confusion fills the air, to say the least, in this of all crappy snowpack years. With a nasty drought already here, we could use a little certainty. How is a fishing guide, let alone the normal fisherperson, going to plan for the summer if a public agency lacks the workforce to keep things open? What happens if trash cans aren’t emptied at recreation sites because the agencies are short-staffed? The last time something like this happened—during the Covid lockdowns, lack of land management personnel resulted in the Pecos Canyon becoming an open landfill of strewn trash. I met two men at the Taos Junction bridge the other day who volunteered for the BLM to pick up garbage along the Rio. Later on I saw them checking parking passes. You really learn the value of a thankless job when the people who are supposed to be doing it aren’t around anymore.
Let’s hope that cuts in recreation staff—a serious problem to be sure—will be as bad as it gets. The way the weather is going, we’ll be extremely lucky if we don’t have a major wildfire this year, which is to say that we need a reduction in agency staff like we need a hole in the head.
Regardless of how this all plays out, either immediately or into the future, I hope we can at least come away from this experience with a much greater appreciation for the Forest Service, BLM (and Park Service), and their staff who work so tirelessly for our fun. Not only do they put up with an incredible amount of our misbehavior and vitriol, they live in our communities, shop at our businesses, and send their children to our schools. Like the rest of us, they also pay taxes.
Most of all, they help take care of the resources that are precious to us, and for that they deserve our support.
