The 3,314-acre is located west of the Peak to Peak Highway near Rollinsville in a wide, scenic valley adjacent to the James Peak Wilderness and the Roosevelt National Forest. It is situated at the headwaters of South Boulder Creek, along the railroad line that leads to the Moffat Tunnel, and is considered rich wildlife habitat.

Charles Hanson Toll, who served as Colorado’s third attorney general, purchased the land in 1893 and it remained under the family’s ownership for more than 130 years. Family members agreed to a conservation easement in 2015, essentially giving up development rights, and have now sold it for preservation under state ownership.

Terms of the purchase were not disclosed but the realtor handling the sale, Denver-based Mirr Ranch Group, .

“What¶¶Ňőap extraordinary about Tolland Ranch is, you never find (available) properties east of the Continental Divide that are of this size,” said Justin Spring, The Conservation Fund’s Colorado director. “To find it with sellers who are willing to sell for conservation is just a great match. This property actually touches the James Peak Wilderness, and that¶¶Ňőap 17,000 acres. Then you have the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. It¶¶Ňőap really adding to that complex of protected land.”

Formed in 1985, The Conservation Fund is a national nonprofit environmental organization that buys at-risk land with high conservation values for the purpose of turning it over to long-term ownership dedicated to environmental preservation. comes at a time when wildlife along the Front Range is under heavy pressure due to development.

“Habitat loss and climate change are the two biggest threats to wildlife in Colorado,” said Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Kara Van Hoose. “With growing development pushing wildlife into spaces that they have not been before, and maybe they’re not comfortable with, you lose that safety for them and you lose the connectivity of migration corridors and where they spend calving seasons.

“When you have this piece of property that elk are already living on — they already calve, they already travel through — and you’re able to preserve it so no development will ever happen on it, that¶¶Ňőap a really big deal,” she added.

The property includes 3.5 miles along South Boulder Creek, 16 ponds and a lake that Parks and Wildlife is eyeing for fisheries and fishing opportunities. It is critical habitat for elk, deer and moose, with species including blue grouse, snowshoe hares, red foxes and varieties of waterfowl.

The north end of the property encompasses cross-country ski trails operated by the Eldora Nordic Center, which it has been leasing from the Toll family.

“We saw this, with CPW, as an opportunity to take a private property and make it a public amenity — open up new public access for fishing, hunting, securing the ongoing opportunity to have Nordic skiing on the Eldora trails,” Spring said.

Henry “Wolky” Toll, great-grandson of Charles Hanson Toll, said the family’s conservation values can be traced back to his 19th-century ancestors. He vividly recalls a trip he took over Vail Pass with his father many years ago, prior to Vail becoming a resort town.

“He knew something was going to happen there,” Toll recalled. “I still have in my mind looking out and seeing one barn. Then you go back through Vail, and all that other stuff through the Eagle Valley — I would be so hurt to see that happen at Tolland.”

Parks and Wildlife officials say the property will be managed primarily for the benefit of wildlife and will not become a state park. The agency manages about 350 state wildlife areas around Colorado.

“A state wildlife area is property that is set aside specifically for hunters, anglers and wildlife-viewing opportunities,” Van Hoose said. “It¶¶Ňőap very different from a state park. With a state park, you have a visitor center, an entrance station and hiking trails. A state wildlife area doesn’t have any of that. It¶¶Ňőap just land. There are no set trails, and you have to have a state wildlife area pass (to enter).”

Tolland Ranch won’t be entirely off-limits for recreation, however.

“It¶¶Ňőap a little bit of a different management than we’ve had before, because it does have a mountain bike trail that is already there, and it does have those Nordic ski trails (at Eldora) that are already there,” Van Hoose said. “That¶¶Ňőap different from other state wildlife areas. Those opportunities will remain, but we are not going to be building any hiking trails.”

Gov. Jared Polis called the property “a beautiful gem,” adding that the acquisition will increase public access to the area.

“The existing bike trail access will continue, but it¶¶Ňőap a great place for fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing,” Polis said in an interview. “We have everything from state parks, which are a much more manicured experience, to wildlife areas like Tolland Ranch — kind of wide open for people to enjoy in very close to a natural state in perpetuity. A lot of people want that more natural experience, and we want to do our best to provide that to Coloradans.”

Jason Duetsch, area wildlife manager for Parks and Wildlife, said it will take some time for the agency to develop a management plan for the area. Elements of it will include rules regarding hunting and fishing, as well as the possibility of creating fisheries in the valley’s ponds.

“The hunting and wildlife habitat is huge,” Duetsch said. “Elk, deer, the fishery component, it¶¶Ňőap just super special. It¶¶Ňőap a gorgeous landscape and it is used by a lot of different species. It¶¶Ňőap not going to be a property that we’re looking at to try and get as many people on it as we can. It¶¶Ňőap going to be, ‘How can we make this best for wildlife, and how can we make sure there is a customer component they can enjoy as well?'”

Parks and Wildlife hopes to open the property for hunting and fishing opportunities in the fall.

“The Toll family has been great partners, first with the conservation easement that already exists on the property, but now a partner in ensuring that it¶¶Ňőap preserved,” Polis said. “And that (public) access is a key piece of that.”

In the , which are jointly administered and stretch along the Continental Divide from Mount Blue Sky to the Wyoming border, permits are on sale at a cost of $20 per tree. Recreation.gov charges a $2.50 service fee on top of that.

Permits must be secured in advance. Cutting in the Sulphur Ranger District, located in Grand County, is allowed now. In the Canyon Lakes Ranger District (Larimer County), trees can be taken beginning Saturday. The permit period for both runs through Jan. 7.

Rules governing allowable tree cutting in the Arapaho and Roosevelt forests include:

• No cutting near developed recreation areas — campgrounds or picnic areas, for example — or residential areas
• No cutting in wilderness areas, the Fraser experimental forest, the Cache La Poudre wild and scenic river corridor or the Winter Park/Mary Jane ski areas
• No cutting within 75 feet of a road, trail, trailhead or developed recreation site
• Tree trunks must be six inches in diameter or less, and must be cut no more than six inches from the ground
• No cutting of trees marked with blue paint
• Cutting is prohibited in the Boulder and Clear Creek ranger districts

The has detailed rules and links to maps of the and ranger districts, designating areas where cutting is not allowed.

For the , which stretches across the central Colorado high country from Summit County to Glenwood Springs and beyond, permits ($10 per tree) are available at and at ranger stations in Dillon, Meeker, Minturn and Rifle. Rules in the White River include:

• Trees must be less than 15 feet tall, no greater than six inches in diameter, and must not be a Colorado Blue Spruce
• No cutting in wilderness areas or developed recreation areas, including Glenwood Canyon
• Must be 100 feet from main roads
• No cutting in the Camp Hale area, White River forest land within Gunnison County, lower Meadow Mountain near Minturn and fire closure areas of Grizzly and Deep creeks

The offers detailed rules and maps of five ranger districts — Aspen-Sopris, Blanco, Dillon, Eagle-Holy Cross and Rifle — designating areas where cutting is not allowed.

The Pike-San Isabel National Forests, located south and west of Denver, are jointly administered. , cost $20 for the Pike and $10 for San Isabel. Their rules differ from White River and the Arapaho-Roosevelt. Trees may be taken up to 15 feet tall or six inches in diameter at ground level. They must be 200 feet from main roads, recreation sites and campgrounds, and at least 50 feet from backcountry roads, trails and waterways. More detailed information can be found at .

For Colorado’s other six national forests — Grand Mesa, Gunnison, Rio Grande, Routt, San Juan and Uncompahgre — consult their websites.

Two more things: Fourth graders who hold are entitled to free Christmas trees in national forests, although they still must secure a cutting permit through recreation.gov. The tree is free but they still must pay the $2.50 service charge.

And while it may be obvious, just for the record, tree cutting in Rocky Mountain National Park is prohibited.

“It’s a bit of a hike, but to those who are adventuresome, nothing beats it,” . “One of the greatest state parks in the state of Colorado.”

Polis regards the addition of in 2020 as a signature event in his legacy as governor. But that strenuous hike wasn’t just a photo op. It also reflected his personal love for the outdoors and the priority his administration places on outdoor recreation.

As he approaches his final year as governor, Polis, 50, can see his legacy taking on a sharp focus when it comes to public lands, recreation and conservation. He enjoys being regarded by some as Colorado’s outdoors governor, because that was his goal from the beginning.

“When I think about where we need to go as a state, I think we need to make sure we up our game on conservation, on access, on making the most of this amazing natural asset that we have which defines the very character of our state,” Polis said in an interview recently at the governor’s mansion. “For me, it¶¶Ňőap like, how can I make my mark as governor to provide an intergenerational benefit to make our outdoors even more amazing?”

Among his biggest successes is the , a discounted annual state parks pass that is sold as an option with motor vehicle registrations. Its creation was on his agenda when running for his first term, which began in 2019, and it raised $39.7 million for Colorado Parks and Wildlife in the 2023-24 fiscal year, its first full year of sales. CPW says preliminary figures for the fiscal year that ended June 30 stood at more than $41.6 million.

He also kept state parks open during the COVID lockdown. He doubled public access to State Land Trust land from 478,000 acres in 2018 to 973,000 acres and wants to add more. He supported a compromise between environmental groups and Colorado’s oil and gas industry in 2024 that will funnel more than $56 million to CPW in the current fiscal year (and as much as $59 million next year).

This year, he announced a partnership involving the state, the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies that will enable CPW to manage federal land on and around Pikes Peak. As “America’s mountain,” it’s a tourist draw and popular recreation area, he said. But in recent years, locals complained that it was getting “trashed” by overuse and poor management.

“What we’re going to see with Pikes Peak is so exciting, to bring all these folks to the table, a lot of folks who historically have not agreed on a lot,” said Conor Hall, who works for the governor as director of the state’s Outdoor Recreation Industry Office.

“That can be a real model. It does not happen without Gov. Polis’ leadership,” Hall added. “We wouldn’t have the resources without the Keep Colorado Wild pass.”

Elevating the conversation

The addition of Fishers Peak was personal for Polis. Not only is it a magnificent landscape, but the park is expected to have a significant economic impact on tourism in Trinidad and Animas County.

“As somebody who has lived in Boulder for most of my life, I can’t imagine a Boulder where you couldn’t hike up to and experience the Flatirons,” he explained. “Citizens of Trinidad, for a generation, were able to see the iconic Fishers Peak, but it was completely cut off to access. It was severed from the community that it defined.

“It was like putting salt in a wound, that it was closed to access,” he added. “Now it¶¶Ňőap open to access and has the added advantage of attracting visitors that benefit the economy in Trinidad.”

Fishers Peak was acquired by the state in partnership with two national nonprofit organizations, the and . Jim Petterson, vice president for the mountain region of the Trust for Public Land, is struck by the governor’s sincerity when advocating for Colorado’s outdoors.

“Every time I’ve heard him speak about it, he just seems to really nail the fact that it is part of who we are, and how integral the outdoors and outdoor access is to our economy,” Petterson said. “He has elevated the conversation in those areas.”

Hall acknowledges that advocating for the outdoors is “politically smart” in Colorado, but he says it springs from “a place of deep passion and personal experience” for Polis.

“He talks about growing up in the outdoors, exploring, finding trails,” Hall said. “His parents are very deeply environmental, nature-conscious people.”

Indeed, Polis grew up hiking with his family and calls himself “a good skier.” He also keeps a massive framed photo of himself fishing in a mountain lake when he was 14. Measuring 33 x 38 inches, it hangs in a conference room at the governor’s mansion.

Not every one of Polis’s projects has gone as planned, however. In 2021, for instance, Polis announced that Sweetwater Lake, an idyllic and isolated gem 14 miles north of Glenwood Canyon, would become Colorado’s 43rd state park on White River National Forest land. That hasn’t happened yet, however, due in part to community pushback.

The property was purchased by in 2020 to prevent it from being developed into an expensive resort. Working through the Eagle Valley Land Trust, the conservancy transferred the land to the national forest, which lacks the resources to operate it. Locals were alarmed when Polis made the state park announcement, fearing the relatively small 488-acre park would be overrun by outsiders.

“Whether a (state) park or not, I think they all are happy we’ve preserved it from being a development for multi-millionaires and a golf course,” Polis said. “One of the concerns that many residents have is, how do you balance visitation with the quality of the experience? We’re able to best do that by managing it as a state park — whatever you call it.”

Forest officials are planning to grant CPW a 20-year special use permit for Sweetwater, pending an environmental review. A final resolution is anticipated next spring.

Working with the federal government

Polis said more partnerships between the well-funded CPW and underfunded federal agencies, such as those governing Sweetwater and Pikes Peak, are likely to come.

“You can say I’m pursuing half a dozen at least,” said Polis, declining to identify them. “The U.S. Forest Service owns amazing potential recreation areas and existing recreation areas. However, they have very little funding and very little manpower to support recreation.

“And, it¶¶Ňőap getting worse,’ he continued. “It was bad before (Trump administration cuts). We have the ability to do much more, through Colorado Parks and Wildlife generally, but also GOCO () and other entities.” GOCO has invested $1.4 billion from Colorado Lottery proceeds to fund outdoor projects since 1992.

Polis said federal authorities have been receptive to state assistance.

“This began under the Biden administration and didn’t have any hiccups during the transition,” Polis said. “It¶¶Ňőap very much the direction of both the Biden and Trump administrations. Acknowledging that they have had cuts in the park service and the forest service, they are absolutely entertaining partnerships.”

That could even involve operating Rocky Mountain National Park and the state’s other three national parks in the event of a federal government shutdown. Polis said the state already has contingency plans for that.

“We are ready with our plan if the federal government shuts down,” Polis said. “We will keep our national parks open. That requires cooperation with the federal government. Both Biden and Trump, when they were facing shutdowns, were fine with that. It¶¶Ňőap a matter of us figuring out how to pay for it and do it. We haven’t had to do it, but we came very close a couple times.”

Polis pushed for the creation of outdoor regional partnerships, funded by the state, that bring together stakeholders to brainstorm for ways to improve wildlife management, sustainable recreation and protection of wild spaces. Created by an executive order in 2020, there are 21 regional partnerships now across the state. One is the , which successfully lobbied for CPW management of federal lands there.

Another is that includes Rocky Mountain National Park, the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, CPW and five Front Range counties — Larimer, Boulder, Gilpin, Jefferson and Clear Creek. The goal is to find strategies to meet northern Colorado’s future needs in the outdoors, including the impact of population growth in the Front Range.

“Gov. Polis had the foresight to see the need to balance outdoor recreation and conservation, and the need to act, so we protect what makes our state so special,” said NoCo Places founder Steve Coffin, who retired this summer. “The Regional Partnership Initiative he created to do just that is an excellent way to balance outdoor recreation and conservation, make the state more climate resilient, and do all that in a way that is based on local needs and values.”

Last year, Polis signed legislation imposing “production fees” on the state’s oil and gas industry to remediate its environmental impacts. CPW will use the $115 million it receives over the next two years for land and wildlife habitat conservation and restoration.

“You can create infrastructure and plans, but it doesn’t do a lot unless you have money,” Petterson said. “That¶¶Ňőap where some of these investments like the oil and gas production fee and the Keep Colorado Wild pass come into play. He’s thinking about how to make this commitment to the outdoors durable, so that it endures beyond his administration.”

The signs went up on July 23 on a section of the Guanella Pass Scenic Byway at the 11,670-foot summit of the pass, 11 miles south of Georgetown. Trails on the east side of the pass lead to Mount Bierstadt and Mount Blue Sky. Trails on the west side lead to two scenic alpine lakes beneath Square Top Mountain, another prime hiking destination.

Clear Creek County officials want to prevent motorists from illegally parking on the shoulders because it could obstruct or prevent first responders from getting through in an emergency.

“We had two emergency incidents, one on our side, one on the Park County side,” said Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Jenny Fulton, referring to last year’s leaf-peeping season.

“Emergency vehicles could not respond in a timely manner because of the vehicles on both sides of the roadway. They took a two-lane roadway and made it one lane,” she added. “That¶¶Ňőap why we started doing some parking mitigation up there, and we’re going to do more this year for leaf-peeping to mitigate the traffic volume and parking issues.”

During two leaf-peeping weekends last year, Fulton said, the number of cars on the 22-mile byway, between Georgetown, off of Interstate 70, and Grant in Park County, hit 10,000 both days. Since then, officials from Clear Creek County, Park County, the Arapaho National Forest and the town of Georgetown have been meeting regularly in order to prevent “a disaster,” she added.

That will take the form of checkpoints on both sides of the pass in 2025, posted with sheriff’s deputies.

“If we need to, we’re going to end up closing the road temporarily just to ensure it¶¶Ňőap not overcrowded during leaf-peeping,” Fulton said. “We’re also going to be towing vehicles that are parking illegally and are blocking the roadway. We can’t do what happened last year. We can’t risk people’s lives by not being able to respond to emergencies at the summit.”

Until then, hikers are warned not to park along the road at the summit where the no-parking signs have been posted. Violators will be fined $87.50. There are two lots near the summit, located on forest service land, but they tend to overflow during fourteener season.

“The parking lots are designed for the capacity of the trail system,” Fulton said. “When people are overflowing parking lots and parking on both sides of the roadway a mile down, then there’s too many people on the trails. The trails are not made for that volume of foot traffic. The forest service has designed their parking lots with the capacity of the trail system in mind.”

The EPA that it intends to deny Colorado’s plan to shutter coal-fired power plants as part of the state’s strategy to reduce the regional haze that clouds views at and other federal lands. Colorado was previously allowed to list coal-plant closures as an acceptable strategy to reduce haze.

Cyrus Western, director of , which includes Colorado, affirmed to The Denver Post that the denial is part of the Trump administration’s plan to make sure no federal regulations stand in the way of coal-fired power generation.

Western, a Trump appointee from Wyoming, which is the nation’s largest producer of coal, did not say the EPA would override Colorado’s laws that require the coal-burning plants to close, although the Federal Register notice indicates the agency might do so.

“What the legislature does and what the governor does, the laws they pass, that is the state’s business,” Western said. “But from a federal standpoint, we want to be sure there will not be a single shutdown of a coal-fired generation unit because of federal regulation or by the federal government breathing down their necks.”

The EPA’s proposal alarmed environmentalists who have been leery of President Donald Trump’s repeated remarks about and his executive orders that promote the coal industry.

The president this year has used executive orders — citing energy emergencies — to and . And the EPA under Trump’s leadership has proposed repealing Biden administration regulations that would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions from coal power plants and required the power sector to cut mercury and other air toxics.

“It¶¶Ňőap in keeping with the ideology of this administration to do everything possible to prop up the dying coal industry,” said Jeremy Nichols, senior advocate with the . “It¶¶Ňőap absurd.”

The ruling is a pivot from past EPA decisions that allow the closing of coal-fired power plants to count toward clean air goals, Nichols said, and it could pave the way for and other utilities to keep their coal-fired plants running.

“It doesn’t help to have the EPA telling the state it¶¶Ňőap illegal to close coal-fired power plants,” Nichols said. “This is a punch in the face to Colorado’s climate progress.”

But Colorado regulators said the EPA’s proposed denial of Colorado’s plans will not have an impact on the state because the retirement dates for all of the state’s remaining coal plants remain enforceable under state law and the transition already is underway.

“Utilities are moving away from coal because it¶¶Ňőap no longer the most affordable or reliable option,” said Michael Ogletree, senior director of state air quality programs at the . “Many coal plants have already shut down or are on track to retire — driven by economics and cost savings for consumers, not federal mandates. That transition is locked in through utility planning and will continue regardless of this federal decision.”

Gov. Jared Polis’ office reiterated the point that the utility companies operating in the state already have plans to close those plants.

“Colorado utilities have their own ambitious plans to reduce costs, including retiring costly coal plants to transition to more stable clean energy, and lower costs,” Ally Sullivan, a governor’s spokesperson, said in an email. “The EPA’s proposed denial has no meaningful impact on utilities’ plans to move away from coal because it¶¶Ňőap no longer the most affordable or reliable option.”

Utilty wants to keep plant open

However, the EPA’s notice in the Federal Register stated that told the agency in April that it wants to exclude its in Fountain from the state’s closure plans. The utility also met with state regulators on April 23 to ask that Nixon be allowed to remain open, according to the Federal Register notice.

Danielle Nieves, a Colorado Springs Utilities spokesperson, said the company is still scheduled to shutter Nixon in 2029, but that date is causing reliability challenges and the utility is having difficulties finding resources for the transition to renewable energy.

“The market for renewable energy resources across the country is tremendously challenging with ongoing supply chain congestion and regulatory uncertainty — resulting in renewable energy resources being three to five times more expensive than originally forecasted,” she said in an email.

Nieves said the utility is supportive of the EPA’s recommendation to exclude Nixon from the regional haze plan “because Colorado doesn’t need the Nixon closure to achieve its reasonable progress targets, and that choosing to include Nixon could present serious reliability challenges for Colorado Springs Utilities.”

Spokeswoman Michelle Aguayo said Xcel remains committed to retiring its coal units — including the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo — by the end of 2030.

“Nothing in this action from the Environmental Protection Agency directly changes our Colorado resource plans,” she said in an emailed statement.

Although Western said that “what Colorado does is Colorado’s business,” the EPA’s notification argued that the Clean Air Act does not give states the ability to order coal power plants to close, citing the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the government from taking private property without just compensation.

The EPA also argues — although without specific evidence — that forcing the closures would violate Colorado state law.

Coal is one of the dirtiest forms of electricity generation, annually releasing millions of tons of pollutants into the air that contribute to global warming and harm human health. Those emissions include carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, sulfur dioxide and fine particulate matter. Those power plants also create a coal ash byproduct that leaches contaminants such as lithium and selenium into groundwater.

‘Turning that progress backwards’

Coal emissions help create a haze in the skies, and that haze has become a problem at national parks across the country, including Rocky Mountain National Park, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Mesa Verde National Park and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, said Tracy Copolla, the Colorado program manager.

“We are still in a situation where there is significant regional haze in Colorado,” Copolla said. “It goes for miles and miles and miles.”

Ulla Reeves, the National Park Conservation Association’s clean air program director, said the EPA’s proposal is undercutting Colorado’s progress to clean its air.

“Colorado had one of the strongest plans that we’ve seen in the entire country,” Reeves said. “This is really turning that progress backwards. It¶¶Ňőap extremely concerning what the EPA is doing here and undercutting the state’s authority.”

The EPA opened a 60-day public comment period on the proposed rule and multiple environmental groups said they plan to weigh in. They hope Colorado does as well.

“The state really needs to flex its muscles and try to stymie the feds,” Nichols said.

The vandalism includes the initials “JJ” and “MG” surrounded by a heart, according to a .

“There are many ways to express love. Spray painting a rock at beautiful St. Mary’s Glacier in the Arapaho National Forest is NOT one of them,” sheriff’s officials said. “It’s illegal, it’s selfish and it’s more permanent than their love likely will be.”

Anyone who witnessed the incident or has information about who JJ and MG are can contact the .

The spectacular Indian Peaks Wilderness, administered by the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, is located along the Continental Divide south of Rocky Mountain National Park and north of Nederland. It includes a string of 13,000-foot peaks, six passes over the divide, 50 lakes, and 28 trails covering 133 miles. Some of the peaks overlook the picturesque Brainard Lake Recreation area.

Backcountry permits cost $5 and are available through

In the most popular zones — Crater Lake, Jasper Lake, Diamond Lake and Caribou Lake — camping is allowed in designated areas only. There is a . There also is a on the recreation.gov site, explaining how to obtain permits.

Overnight parking reservations for visitors are now available. ($16) through recreation.gov.

Thorough planning for backcountry trips and knowing the rules is important:.

• Campfires are prohibited at all times on the east side of the divide. West of the divide, campfire restrictions apply when in effect due to fire danger.
• Visitors are encouraged to pack food in bear-safe storage containers, or hang their food out of the reach of hungry bears.
• Visitors should be equipped to pack out trash and be familiar with Leave No Trace principles.
• Dogs must be leashed.

Day use reservations for Brainard Lake will be available on a rolling basis beginning in mid-May. The Brainard Lake entry station will open June 14 if conditions allow. Upper trailheads and parking areas should open in July.

And here’s a reminder: The road to the summit of Mount Blue Sky, typically managed by CDOT and the Arapaho National Forest with a reservation system, will remain closed this summer for repairs.

The executive director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources instead was joined by a hodgepodge of employees: a forest technician, a campgrounds manager, three seasonal hotshot firefighters. The crew worked its way through neighborhoods surrounded by the blaze and tried to keep homes from burning.

Now, after a slew of firings at the Forest Service and an ongoing federal hiring freeze that has complicated seasonal hiring, Colorado leaders fear that fewer crews like the one Gibbs joined will be available for this year’s peak fire season.

“These people were putting their lives on the line to protect critical infrastructure,” Gibbs said. “And, potentially, people like that won’t be able to go out on fires anymore.”

While Forest Service officials have said firefighting positions will be spared from cuts to the federal workforce, it’s unclear whether the agency’s hiring of critical seasonal firefighting staff is on schedule or if the agency will hire as many seasonals as in years past, multiple experts said. A lack of information from the Forest Service about plans for fire hiring and staffing has created broad uncertainty across the state as the peak summer wildfire season approaches.

The Forest Service manages about 15 million acres across Colorado and, as the largest wildland firefighting force in the country, manages national firefighting resources.

“It¶¶Ňőap really hard to wrap our minds around,” said Mike Morgan, director of the . “If I could understand it, I would at least understand what we could all be doing to prepare for what it might mean. But it¶¶Ňőap kind of all over the board.”

A spokesperson for the Forest Service on Tuesday said more than 1,000 firefighter positions were approved for an exemption from the hiring freeze, with more positions under review, but did not answer a question asking how many total firefighters the agency planned to hire and how that compared to previous years. Last year, the agency hired more than 11,000 wildland firefighters, .

Colorado, like many other states in the West, relies on federal firefighting teams to battle large-scale fires across its federal public lands, which cover about a third of the state. Even if new President Donald Trump’s administration lifts the hiring freeze, the delay could make it harder to hire, train and deploy firefighters before peak season, said David Wolf, the head of the Wildland Fire Section for the Colorado State Fire Chiefs.

“The challenges are getting harder, the threats are getting bigger and we’re decreasing our ability to respond to the situation,” he said.

Fire experts interviewed by The Denver Post said the firing of 3,400 probationary employees across the Forest Service last month will also decimate the number of people available to respond to fires and provide behind-the-scenes support to the nation’s federal wildfire force. Hundreds of firings late last week at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service could also impact wildfire response, officials said, though the broader Trump administration directives that led to mass firings across the federal government .

Forest Service representatives have repeatedly declined to say how many Colorado-based workers were included in the mass firings, though state leaders estimated at least 90 positions were cut.

“It¶¶Ňőap a disaster,” Bill Avey, a former acting director of national fire and aviation management for the Forest Service, said of the firings. “I think it¶¶Ňőap going to drastically affect the resources that are available for wildfire response.”

Many Forest Service employees have firefighting qualifications even if they do not work on fire issues day to day. They are called upon during wildfires to clear out fire-prone fuels, create fire barriers and mop up fires after they are contained. Those without firefighting qualifications also step in and provide critical support services, like providing public information, coordinating food supplies and moving equipment.

“A fire organization is not just a hotshot crew or an air tanker coming in or a helicopter delivering firefighters,” said Mike Dudley, another former national fire and aviation management director for the Forest Service. “It¶¶Ňőap the dispatchers, it¶¶Ňőap the contractors. … It¶¶Ňőap all the people that work outside of fire that come when the fire bell rings.”

Impact on Colorado forests

Washington, D.C.-based communications staff for the Forest Service declined to provide a breakdown of the probationary positions eliminated this month. Probationary workers are recent hires or workers who had just moved into a year-round position from seasonal work.

“Protecting the people and communities we serve, as well as the infrastructure, businesses, and resources they depend on to grow and thrive, remains a top priority for the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) and the Forest Service,” the agency said in an emailed statement. “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.”

He and the crews often happened upon illegal campfires still smoldering and would put them out before they spread.

“When you go hiking this summer, you might be going through an obstacle course,” said the employee, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity to protect his appeal of his firing. “These areas are going to become less accessible and less enjoyable to hike.”

He was also certified to work wildfires, and in 2020 he said he helped with fire operations on both the East Troublesome and Cameron Peak fires.

“The lack of having these extra bodies for fires will really come to light when fire season comes into full effect,” he said.

About 21 probationary employees in the were fired, said one of the fired employees, who also spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity out of fear that speaking publicly would jeopardize her appeal. She worked across public lands agencies for more than a decade and said she was weeks away from moving out of probationary status.

The firings mean that, along with impacts to recreation access in northern Colorado, permitting processes for grazing, logging and development will take longer, the employee said. Ski area improvements will likely take longer, as will access for utilities that need to build infrastructure on Forest Service land.

The forest was already understaffed and workers were struggling to do more with less, she said. Approximately 112 of the 296 full-time positions at Medicine Bow-Routt were vacant as of December, she said.

“This isn’t just about us right now, and me and my insular little job. But it¶¶Ňőap about the land that is for everyone in the United States — they are directly affected by what the Forest Service does,” she said.

“Everything is in question”

Broad federal funding freezes implemented by the Trump administration have thrown wildfire prevention partnerships between the state and federal agencies into limbo, said Gibbs of the Department of Natural Resources. The department manages some 350 federal grants worth about $300 million for a wide range of initiatives, he said.

“Everything is in question,” Gibbs said. “Everything. We have no guidance from our federal partners about what potentially is in and what potentially is not. It is total uncertainty with our federal partners right now.”

State and federal leaders in recent years have worked to create strong partnerships as wildfire season stretches year-round and fires become more intense, he said. Snowpack across the state , he noted, which could lead to a more intense fire year.

“We have worked so hard to bring down barriers, and now it¶¶Ňőap like barriers are popping up right in front of my face,” Gibbs said. “Coloradans deserve better. We all deserve better.”

It’s also unclear whether the service will hire another critical group of employees called administratively determined staff. Those are often retired Forest Service employees who can be called upon to help staff incident management teams on large fires, said Michael Davis, a public information and liaison officer for the Colorado Southwest Type 3 Incident Management Team.

“I’m a lead public information officer, but I can’t do this all by myself,” Davis said. “And a lot of the people I rely on are on pause because they’re ADs and haven’t been recertified — or they’ve been fired. It¶¶Ňőap very, very concerning.”

The Forest Service did not respond to an emailed question asking about the status of administratively determined positions.

Mountain communities lose staff

Nervous Summit County homeowners with property near Forest Service land have been calling the county to ask about staffing and firefighting plans, county manager David Rossi said.

Besides federal staff, the county relies on two fire districts to respond to fires as well as the sheriff’s office, though it does not employ any certified firefighters. Rossi worried that the county could be caught shorthanded if its fire district staff responded to fires elsewhere in the country and a fire broke out locally.

“People are worried about what¶¶Ňőap going on and we have no answers,” he said.

The staffing cuts and hiring freeze threaten the county’s wildfire prevention programs, Summit County’s commissioners wrote in a letter Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service. The county pays the service to hire workers to burn slash piles and conduct fuels reduction.

“The risks these cuts present to our rural resort community infrastructure are not just financial — they risk lives,” the letter states. “Therefore, the impacts of such drastic measures resulting in the loss of USFS personnel simply cannot be overstated.”

Federal authorities assured Summit County leaders that firefighting resources would be available come peak fire season, Rossi said.

“However, we’re not really willing to trust that comment,” he said. “We’re having a hard time understanding who exactly would lead any sort of firefighting effort.”

A little farther west on Interstate 70, Eagle County leaders face similar worries. At least 15 workers at the White River National Forest were terminated, according to a letter from county commissioners asking the USDA to reinstate the employees.

“Myself and commissioners and the entire county have grave concerns about fire risk,” said Jeff Shroll, the Eagle County manager. “This isn’t Washington, D.C., swamp draining — this is boots-on-the-ground people who do an amazing job taking care of the busiest, most visited forest in the country.”

The federal staffing changes also affect areas outside of fire prevention and response. For five years, the county has paid the Forest Service to staff some of its most-visited recreation areas, like Shrine Pass and the East Vail trail system.

Those positions will not be filled for the 2025 season because of the hiring freeze, even though they were county funded, Shroll said.

Last year, the 11 seasonal workers hired under the partnership collected 5,127 pounds of garbage from dispersed campsites, removed 189 illegal fire rings and extinguished 32 abandoned campfires that had been left smoldering, according to a Forest Service report on the program.

“That¶¶Ňőap just a simple wind gust away from creating a massive problem,” Shroll said.

Eagle County’s staff had also worked with Forest Service workers to help transition the management of Sweetwater Lake from federal to state control. But nearly all the Forest Service employees working on that project have since been fired or resigned, including a resignation by the top supervisor of the White River forest, Shroll said.

“I don’t know how many people are left in the Glenwood office. I don’t even know,” he said. “Which makes it even more distressing — who do you call?”

The freeze is projected to impact 156 temporary seasonal positions across Colorado. Those employees cover a wide range of critical tasks: wildfire prevention and education, campsite management and biological fieldwork as well as trail construction and maintenance.

Local government leaders said the staffing reductions would be felt hard in Colorado’s central mountains, where highly trafficked Forest Service land dominates much of the area and is the center of recreation tourism that fuel economies. Several counties pay to fund seasonal positions, but the hiring freeze means those paid-for positions could remain vacant, putting years-old agreements in jeopardy.

“We’re really concerned,” said Gary Tennenbaum, Pitkin County open space and trails director. “We’d lose pretty significant capacity to manage recreation in the county.”

The hiring freeze, announced by U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore in September, is the result of a potential $500 million budget cut to the agency in the coming fiscal year.

“We just can’t get the same amount of work done with fewer employees,” Moore said in a staff call. “So, in other words, we’re going to do what we can with what we have. We’re not going to try to do everything that is expected of us with less people.”

The Forest Service manages about a fifth of Colorado’s land, including popular recreation areas like , the and the . Some counties, like Pitkin, are primarily made of Forest Service land.

Summit County voters in 2018 passed a property tax increase to pay for critical needs in the community, including wildfire mitigation. Summit County Commissioner Tamara Pogue said the county has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from that tax increase to pay for Forest Service seasonal crews — . More than 80% of the land in Summit County is managed by the service.

“Six years ago, we recognized already that the USFS was woefully short staffed, and despite the fact that we pay for these positions, they’re about to go away again,” Pogue said.

Impact of shortfall

The Forest Service is operating under a continuing resolution through Dec. 20 while Congress considers a spending bill.

“Given that the agency is operating under a continuing resolution and that we anticipate a budget-limited environment in FY 2025, we are making decisions to plan for such a scenario,” said Donna Nemeth, a spokeswoman for the Rocky Mountain Region of the Forest Service.

The positions frozen locally include three in the regional office. Here are the numbers of positions frozen in each Colorado national forest:

• Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests: 29
• Rio Grande National Forest: 12
• Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland: 28
• Pike-San Isabel National Forests and Cimarron-Comanche National Grasslands: 31
• San Juan National Forest: 23
• White River National Forest: 30

The cuts will not impact wildland firefighting positions — though the service has also struggled to fill those — but will limit crucial wildfire mitigation work like fuel reduction and the clearing of dead brush. The hiring freeze will also mean fewer people available to make sure campfires are extinguished and to educate campers on fire restrictions and safety.

“They are the fundamental strategies that keep our community safe,” Pogue said, noting that 90% of fires in Summit County begin as campfires improperly extinguished.

“In a pickle”

Like Summit County, Pitkin and Eagle counties also pay for Forest Service seasonal positions. The three counties fund the positions because they are critical to the communities, but the Forest Service does not have the money to do so. Those positions — despite being paid for — are also frozen for the foreseeable future.

Eagle County and towns inside the county spend about $160,000 a year for a crew of between four and eight temporary seasonal workers. The White River National Forest covers a majority of the county and is the most visited national forest in the country, said Marcia Gilles, the county’s open space and natural resources director.

The seasonal employees have conducted patrols in busy areas, helped clean up trash and educated people about how to be stewards of the land. Without Forest Service staff on the ground, Gilles expected more people breaking rules and a higher chance for wildfires.

“It¶¶Ňőap really going to slip backwards a lot,” she said. “The lack of presence on the ground is really going to be felt.”

Eagle County is considering working with youth corps or nonprofits to complete some of the work normally handled by the seasonal employees, Gilles said.

All three counties are working with Forest Service officials to find alternative solutions that could help fill the workforce.

Pitkin County for at least the last four years has provided $125,000 a year to fund three seasonal positions to manage a busy river put-in, motorized recreation on Richmond Ridge and crowds on popular Independence Pass, Tennenbaum said.

“I know they’re in a pickle, but it¶¶Ňőap a tough one,” he said of the Forest Service. “We’re happy to continue the conversations. We just ask they don’t make a unilateral decision.”

The Forest Service will consider exemptions from the freeze, though Nemeth said the bar for one is high.

“We also hope to have more hiring options in the coming year if additional funding becomes available,” she said. “As you see, we are working diligently to ensure that we are able to do this critical work.”

Permits are most easily purchased through the website recreation.gov. They also can be purchased through select vendors in the mountains that have partnered with the forests.

Information and links to purchase permits online for the Arapaho and Roosevelt national forests, costing $20, . An information page outlining rules, locations where trees may be cut legally and tips for taking trees can be found on the website. Those forests cover the Front Range from just south of Interstate 70 to the Wyoming border. Cutting is not permitted in the Clear Creek or Boulder ranger districts.

Permits to cut in the White River National Forest, which encompasses a wide swath along Interstate 70 from Summit County to Glenwood Springs, including Summit, Eagle, Pitkin and Garfield Counties, also are Permits to cut in that forest cost $10.

Additional information can be found on the

For other national forests, recreation.gov has a by location, get the information you need and purchase permits.