Efforts to restore the Hanging Lake Trail have spanned the 2020s. In the spring of 2024, a $4.7 million complete reconstruction project launched to expand access to the trail to pre-2020 levels, with everyone involved targeting June 18, 2026, as the date to unveil the final product to the public.

That day finally arrived, with the Hanging Lake Trail restored to its former glory — and beyond.

“There was no simple path forward. What followed was years of planning, collaboration, investment, hard work and conversation. An extraordinary coalition came together not just to restore the damaged Hanging Lake Trail but to rebuild it for the next century and create a more resilient trail designed to withstand future challenges while preserving future access to one of Colorado’s most beloved trails,” said Dieter Fenkart-Froeschl, the president and CEO of the National Forest Foundation, during the Hanging Lake Trail Restoration Ribbon Cutting celebration near the trailhead.

The effort brought together the U.S. Forest Service, the National Forest Foundation, the City of Glenwood Springs, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) and more organizations. Funding came partially from Forest Service appropriations, a CPW grant, and more than 6,000 visitors who donated their canceled reservation fees to the restoration.

Read the full story from our partner at .

Fire crews were on a routine patrol when they found multiple burned trees on unmarked private property that is “heavily bordered” by national forest west of , the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office said on Wednesday.

The reservoir is about halfway between Leadville and Buena Vista, just off of U.S. 24.

The fire was no longer active when the forest service crews found it, and they contacted Chaffee County fire and police about the suspected arson. Sheriff’s office investigators determined that someone used an accelerant, likely gasoline, on and near two trees. A third tree that was burned had a clear plastic beverage container filled with accelerant hanging from a limb.

“Fortunately, the fire had burned itself out before reaching the bottle of accelerant,” sheriff’s officials wrote on social media.

Detectives are working with other law enforcement agencies to identify a suspect, the sheriff’s office said. Anyone with information about the case can call the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office communications center at 719-539-2596 and ask to speak with a detective.

Only residents and first responders will be let into the southern portion of Eagle-Thomasville Road, also known as Crooked Creek Pass, the on social media.

Firefighters increased containment to 40% on Friday, U.S. Forest Service officials said in an update. The 20-acre wildfire near the Eagle and Pitkin county lines is now smoldering in “heavy fuels” like larger logs.

The Spring Creek fire has burned 21 acres near the Eagle and Pitkin county lines, just north of the Ruedi Reservoir, since it was discovered Tuesday. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Firefighters stopped the fire from growing and gained 20% containment on Thursday, U.S. Forest Service officials said Friday morning.

Mandatory evacuations are still in place for homes along Eagle-Thomasville Road, also known as Crooked Creek Pass; north of Brush Creek Road; and south of Crooked Creek.

This is a developing story.

Wildfires in Eagle, Garfield and Las Animas counties charred almost 200 acres, fire officials said Wednesday evening. Only one fire, the 3-acre Willow fire in Garfield County, appeared to have some containment.

The Willow fire started in a Rifle backyard just after 4 p.m. and quickly spread to wildland along Government Creek, Colorado River Fire Rescue officials said in a news release.

Fire officials ordered evacuations for people living along Willow Creek Circle and West 30th Street as the wildfire, fueled by high winds and heavy fuel loads, burned toward Rifle Creek Apartments and caught the roof of an eight-unit apartment building on fire.

“The building sustained significant damage and is believed to be a total loss,” fire officials said.

People displaced by the fire can go to the Garfield County Fairgrounds, 1001 Railroad Ave. in Rifle. Firefighters were still on scene Wednesday night working to contain the fire, extinguish hot spots and assess damage, the agency said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The Spring Creek fire continued to burn near , about 15 miles northeast of Aspen in the White River National Forest, with no containment Wednesday, the U.S. Forest Service said.

The fire, initially called the was reported just before 2 p.m. Tuesday near the Eagle-Pitkin county line and quickly caused Eagle County officials to order mandatory evacuations in the area.

People living along Eagle-Thomasville Road, also known as Crooked Creek Pass, should leave the area immediately, county officials said. The evacuation zone includes land north of Brush Creek Road and south of Crooked Creek.

Approximately 95 firefighters are working the fire and trying to build handlines while dealing with a large number of “snags,” or hazardous dead trees, which is slowing crews down. The fire grew by about 5 acres Wednesday and now measures 20 acres.

“Strong afternoon winds on the Spring Creek Fire created challenges for firefighters, limiting the support of the heavy helicopter and forcing firefighters to disengage because of the risk of falling snags,” forest service officials said.

The cause is under investigation, according to the agency.

Approximately 200 miles south of the Spring Creek fire, the Bear fire charred 148 acres near the Army’s Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site north of Trinidad.

Las Animas County officials ordered mandatory evacuations after the fire sparked Wednesday afternoon, including for people living near Las Animas County Road 78.9 and Bear Springs Trail.

The fire is burning near County Road 133.8 near the Otero County line, and the cause is also under investigation, fire officials said. People displaced by the fire can find shelter at the Las Animas County Fairgrounds, 2000 N. Linden Ave. in Trinidad.

Unfortunately, by cheerleading more taxpayer-funded industrial logging than we’ve seen for nearly a century in Colorado, they’re projecting their own mistakes on those with whom they disagree.

Indeed, with wildfire prevention measures, we have yet another example of when story and status compete against science and substance.

Industry and government, funded by your tax dollars to log forests in the name of wildfire prevention, are using status (former governors) to push a story (logging saves homes and lives) to dismiss the science (evidence that logging is ineffective or counterproductive at protecting communities) and ignore substance (“hardening” every home in Colorado).

Last month, many of the elected officials, agencies, and nonprofits exploited their status to pressure our state legislature to axe a bill that would’ve directed some “wildfire mitigation” funding towards what the consensus of peer-reviewed science agrees is the most effective action for protecting communities: home hardening.

Instead of mentioning this, Owens and Ritter opined, “Every year we delay needed work, we increase the odds that the next fire will burn hotter, spread faster and do more damage.”

In this case — likely due to being misled by those who benefit most — these high-status players are making claims that don’t meet the burden of proof.

The best argument for “fuel reduction” is that it can sometimes, somewhat reduce the severity of lower-intensity fires already easily contained by firefighters, the very fires agencies insist we must return to the landscape, not the (ecologically crucial) weather and wind-driven higher-intensity ones. Even if you ignore harm to ecosystems, wildlife, watersheds, and climate, that����ap not much bang for the cost of thousands of bucks per acre.

Not only is cutting forests ineffective at preventing the spread of fire, but that����ap not even its purpose. As this Forest Service study endorsing “fuel reduction” admits: “fuel treatments are not designed to prevent or stop fires but to moderate fire behavior. However, there is a frequent misconception that fuel treatments should facilitate suppression and limit the size of wildfires.”

To the contrary, abundant science — including the same Forest Service study — reveals that: “Reduced canopy bulk density can lead to increased surface wind speed and fuel heating, which allows for increased rates of fire spread in thinned forests.”

We now have proof that some of those promoting story are abusing status to not only “cherry pick” science but falsely accuse anyone sharing left-out evidence of being “cherry pickers” themselves.

Colorado Forest Restoration Institute at Colorado State University is the state’s leading entity researching “fuel reduction” in the name of wildfire.

In a 2024 email exchange obtained through a Colorado Open Records Act filing, CFRI’s director told a U.S. Forest Service district ranger (overseeing the second largest logging project in Colorado history) that “I’m concerned the Wildfire Crisis Strategy overpromises what forest density redx (reduction) can actually accomplish vis-à-vis the lofty objective of saving homes and communities from catching fire. What additional density redx could have reduced the impacts of the Marshall Fire?”

CFRI’s director advised, “There are numerous studies demonstrating both effectiveness and lack of effectiveness of forest density reduction (“forest thinning”) projects on altering fire behavior and effects. Engaging in toe-to-toe trench warfare with competing science papers would result in stalemate – and win for the opponents.”

Yet still to this day in Colorado, anyone who questions logging is at best censored, at worst publicly defamed as a liar.

Owens and Ritter are right when they say, “Every year we refuse to confront reality, we make future losses more likely and more expensive.”

But the only way we’re going to snap out of the delusion and protect homes and lives from wildfire is by valuing science and substance over story and status.

Josh Schlossberg lives adjacent to the Roosevelt National Forest in Boulder County and works as Colorado Advocate for Eco-Integrity Alliance.

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On Monday, the agency announced that it anticipates charging $5 for a day-use permit and $25 for an overnight camping permit, starting in the summer of 2027. However, the prices people pay will total $6 and $31, respectively, as reservation site charges a processing fee of $1 for day permits and $6 for overnight permits.

People come from across the U.S. to see the Blue Lakes’ show-stopping turquoise waters and to summit Mount Sneffels’ 14,150-foot peak. In 2023, the Forest Service began considering a permit system to reduce foot traffic to the Blue Lakes and surrounding Mount Sneffels Wilderness, near Ridgway and Telluride, after studies showed that the area had sustained significant damage from overcrowding.

About 35,000 people recreate there annually, the vast majority of which come from June to October, according to the Forest Service. The permit system intends to slash that number to about 8,000 visitors per year. Permits will be required from June 1 through Sept. 30, which is the height of summer tourism to the area.

“The majority of the revenue generated from the fees would be used on-site to manage these areas, which is key to allowing us to reduce resource damage and continue providing high-quality recreation opportunities,” Dana Gardunio, Ouray District Ranger, said in a statement.

Decreasing the number of people who hike and camp near the Blue Lakes is essential to restoring the environment and ensuring it remains a wild location for future generations to visit, Gardunio previously told The Denver Post.

Gorgeous Colorado hike reopens this summer with new rules for hiking, camping, human waste

In fact, the Forest Service closed the trail altogether in 2025 to remediate some of the impacts. Crews focused on re-seeding human-made campsites that eroded the soils, ripping up user-made trails, clearing dead trees, and cleaning up human waste.

While hikers and campers do not need permits this year, there are new rules they need to be aware of before visiting. For example, human feces must be packed out and campers are required to carry bear-resistant food storage containers approved by the .

Additionally, there are capacity limits for both cars and individuals who plan to camp overnight. Those who cannot find a designated parking spot at the trailhead or a camp site at least 100 feet away from both water and trails should be prepared to turn around.

“Right now, the rule is that you should be parking in designated spots only, and if there aren’t spots, then you would leave,” Gardunio said in an April interview.

The Forest Service is soliciting public comment on the fee proposal from now until Aug. 31. Locals can submit comments via email to sm.fs.bluelakes.vump@usda.gov, or online through the Forest Service’s . Comments can also be submitted to the Ouray District Ranger office, at 2505 S. Townsend Ave., in Montrose, by mail or in-person.

The near Maroon Lake is among Colorado’s most well-known destinations, recording about 215,000 visits annually between May and October. It is a gateway to the larger Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. But despite its popularity, the current recreation fee program and reservation system don’t come close to covering what it costs the Forest Service to manage the area.

Entry and camping reservation fees, as well as fees from amphitheater rentals, at Maroon Bells generate about $220,000 in revenue each year, but the agency spends about $600,000 to manage it, “resulting in a $380,000 funding gap not covered by the fees,” Forest Service spokesperson David Boyd told The Denver Post by email.

“Adequate staffing at Maroon Bells has been a challenge for the Forest Service for a number of years, in large part because of the high cost of living,” Boyd said.

The Forest Service began discussing the possibility of transferring management of the area to Pitkin County last summer, so that it can continue to be a world-class wilderness destination. Recently, they to make it happen.

The idea is to issue Pitkin County a special use permit that would effectively put local officials in charge of the day-to-day operations as well as maintenance of the trails and amenities, said Gary Tennenbaum, director of Pitkin County Open Space and Trails. That includes everything from running campgrounds and staffing the entrance station to cleaning bathrooms, taking out the trash and providing guests with water and electricity. Tennenbaum also anticipates partnering with other local organizations to clean up trails, restore areas of the forest, and provide education and information to visitors.

“Last year, they (the Forest Service) weren’t able to open all the bathrooms. They weren’t able to get the electricity and water going for people,” Tennenbaum said. “In the future, we’re going to be responsible for getting all that up and running. We’re going to make sure the bathrooms are in great shape. We’re going to make sure we’re dealing with noxious weeds, we’re dealing with trail management and maintenance — things that really they don’t have the capacity to deal with right now.”

If approved, the special use permit would be issued by summer 2027 and valid for five years, with the option to renew for another five years. The area would remain National Forest System land and under ownership of the federal government during that time.

This year, Tennenbaum and his colleagues in Pitkin County will be drafting an operating plan and fee structure that aims to balance the cost of managing the area with maintaining accessibility for the public. One thing he expects to see is an increase in the cost to park a car at Maroon Bells.

Right now, it costs $12.50 ($10 entry fee, plus $2.50 reservation fee) to bring a vehicle to the recreation area. That is likely to increase, Tennenbaum said, in hopes of incentivizing more people to use the currently existing shuttle service that runs from Aspen Highlands Ski Area to the Maroon Lake trailhead.

Costs to ride the shuttle, which is operated by the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority, may also increase slightly from where they sit at $16 per adult and $10 per child, when booked in advance. (Those who purchase a shuttle ticket day-of pay $20 per adult and $14 per child.)

“The costs of all this are a big deal, and that����ap going to be one of the biggest things — can the county cover their costs, but charge a fee that����ap reasonable?” he said, adding that officials will be soliciting public feedback on the subject this summer.

Even before this partnership is official, the Forest Service is instituting a $5 entry fee for e-bikes starting this summer to help increase revenue at Maroon Bells.

Tennenbaum described the deal as both a continuation and an expansion of Pitkin County’s partnership with the Forest Service. For 50 years, the county has helped manage parts of the Maroon Bells scenic area through various initiatives. For example, in 2026, the county is providing one full-time staff member to help supervise interns from the who work there seasonally, Tennenbaum said.

This is not the first time the Forest Service has leaned on better-resourced state and local agencies to manage federal land. The agency has been discussing a similar arrangement in Glenwood Springs, where it aims to grant a 20-year-long special use permit to Colorado Parks & Wildlife for management of Sweetwater Lake. The Forest Service expects to release the draft Environmental Impact Statement for public comment later this summer or early fall, Boyd said.

Ultimately, Tennenbaum hopes Pitkin County receives the special use permit so that Maroon Bells remains a hallmark of Colorado’s outdoor recreation scene for generations to come.

“We’re going to manage the Bells as a community, and we have so many community partners that are going to help us,” Tennenbaum said. “If the county can control the fees, raise enough fees to manage this area and start to deal with the millions of dollars of deferred maintenance, we’re going to be able to, as a community, manage this incredible place the way it should be managed.”

For decades, large wildfires were managed through the Incident Command System, a framework that depends on highly trained teams at the federal, state, and local levels. These teams coordinate everything from strategy to evacuations and communication with communities.

Today, fewer than 38 of the largest teams, known as “Complex Incident Management Teams”, are expected to be available nationwide, a sharp decline from previous years. But even that number is optimistic, because many incident teams are no longer fully staffed. Personnel shortages have forced teams to share members; obviously, those members cannot be deployed to different fires at the same time. On paper, capacity remains. In practice, it does not.

This is not an accident. It is the cumulative result of a decade of declining federal participation in wildfire management, compounded now by recent cuts to non-fire federal personnel. These cuts may seem unrelated to wildfire response, but they strike at its core.

Much of the wildfire system depends on specialists from other roles–hydrologists, biologists, planners — who step into fire assignments when needed. As those positions disappear, so does a critical reserve of experienced responders.

What remains is a workforce that����ap smaller and increasingly strained. Many of the people still filling these roles are senior employees who, during a busy season, can hit federal pay caps, effectively eliminating financial incentives to keep working long hours under dangerous conditions. At the same time, there’s deteriorating morale and ongoing administrative upheaval, all caused by staff cuts aimed at reducing the size of the federal workforce.

As one fire manager put it bluntly, the only way to cope has been “to care less.”

Against this backdrop, the public is assured that wildfire staffing remains stable. But there has been no comprehensive accounting of how many fire-qualified personnel have been lost through early retirements and deferred resignations, and what could be lost in the new reorganization.

The gap between official assurances and operational reality is growing. This matters.

It matters because the system is already under strain. As of April 23 this year, almost 1.8 million acres have burned nationwide, nearly twice as much as the year-to-date average over the previous 10 years. This includes the 640,000-acre Morrill Fire in Nebraska. Last year, which was a relatively mild fire year, the U.S. Forest Service still spent a record amount on fire suppression–nearly $5 billion.

Why? In part, because of how risk is increasingly avoided. Political and administrative pressure to suppress every fire has changed behavior on the ground. Local decision-makers, aware of the professional consequences if a fire escapes initial containment, are incentivized to order more resources than they might otherwise need.

The result is scarcity that will show up in experienced leadership and fully staffed management teams. The remaining Complex Incident Management teams will be stretched thin, sometimes asked to manage multiple major fires events simultaneously. Fatigue will follow, and with fatigue comes risk–of poor decisions, accidents, or injuries and fatalities among firefighters. Communities will feel it too.

Incident Management Teams don’t just fight fires; they serve as a lifeline for affected areas. They coordinate evacuations, connect local officials with state and federal agencies and help lay the groundwork for recovery. If those teams are unavailable or overstretched, communities will face greater disruption and slower recoveries.

Whether 2026 becomes a historically severe fire year remains uncertain. But the conditions –environmental and institutional — are aligning in troubling ways.

The United States has spent years building one of the most sophisticated wildfire-response systems in the world. That system is now being asked to do more with fewer people and much higher stakes: Wildfire seasons have become longer and more devastating; they are a defining feature of the American landscape.

The question is not whether the fires will come. It is whether we can still respond effectively when they do.

David Calkin is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. Until recently, he was a senior scientist for the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station. He now runs a wildfire consulting business in Missoula, Montana.

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That experience led me to understand that the current Trump administration’s unpopular plan to move the U.S. Forest Service headquarters will be every bit as destructive. It will hurt forests, wildlife and communities that rely upon our public lands and waters.

In 2020, almost 90% of the BLM employees ordered to move West chose not to, forcing them out the door. With those seasoned employees went years of wisdom and knowledge of how things are supposed to work, of how to deliver for the American people.

Today’s Forest Service plan goes farther, aiming to close regional offices and shutter dozens of the agency’s research centers, as we face what some say will be a horrific wildfire season.

The Forest Service and the BLM combined manage 20% of our country’s lands and waters. These public lands, the places we camp, hike, watch birds, hunt and simply wander in nature, are truly one of America’s best ideas. For Westerners, they are a deep part of our identity.

There is a reason Forest Service headquarters are based in Washington, DC. It����ap where our nation’s leaders work. Believe me, I did not want to move to the capital from my home in Montana to run the BLM, but to be able to fight for Western people and places, I had to go to the seat of our nation’s power.

I was often in the Interior Secretary’s offices. I frequently walked to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director, talking through thorny problems such as how to protect wildlife while permitting transmission lines. Washington is where people manage relationships with Congress, where budgets get made.

The administration says all their changes are about bringing leadership closer to where the work happens. That����ap a political talking point, and it����ap false.

If DOGE’s dismantling of government agencies last year provides any lesson, then cruelty and disruption are the real point. These changes aim to create chaos, deliver the administration’s stated goal of traumatizing employees, and imperil the very existence of public lands — lands that belong to all Americans. We improve the management of our forests by giving foresters the resources they need and letting them make decisions based on sound science and collaboration, not by gutting their agency.

Over the course of the last year, the Forest Service forced or coerced roughly a quarter of its approximately 30,000 employees to leave. In this latest round of engineered chaos, thousands of people will be reassigned and ordered to move. If BLM history is any guide, almost all will leave their positions rather than uproot their families. The agency could soon be left with roughly half its former ranks.

Think of your job. Now, think of half of your colleagues gone. Would your organization be able to recover from the loss and demoralization to do its work?

There are inevitable repercussions to this radical attack on our public land management agencies: Campgrounds will close. Trails won’t be maintained. High fuel loads near communities will go unaddressed. Wildfires will become even harder to fight. More sawmills will close. The health of our land, waters and wildlife will decline. With things going wrong on the ground, some will demand that these lands be transferred to states or sold to private industry.

That����ap exactly what the people in power today want. The choice of Utah for the Forest Service headquarters — home to Senator Mike Lee, who leads the charge on public land selloff, as well as to the state that is suing to try to take over millions of your public lands — reveals the administration’s true agenda.

The inevitable does not need to happen. There is one power to stop our public lands from being mismanaged to the point of selloff: It����ap the outrage of the American people.

Americans overwhelmingly support public lands and want future generations to enjoy the freedoms found in them. Our public forests, rivers and deserts deserve to be treated better, and the federal land managers who work tirelessly deserve better. It����ap up to us to demand it.

Tracy Stone-Manning is president of The Wilderness Society and a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West.

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