Despite the intermittent, pelting snow, scores of people showed up Monday outside the San Juan National Forest headquarters in the Durango Tech Center in a show of support for federal workers and to protest the deep and indiscriminate cuts to staff at public lands agencies nationwide.
Well over 100 people – and up to 200, according to one organizer – gathered carrying signs that decried the mass federal firings, which in Southwest Colorado have included as many as 10 positions at the SJNF, at least two at the Bureau of Land Management and another two at Mesa Verde National Park.
Similar, albeit smaller, events took place in Cortez, Bayfield, Dolores and Pagosa Springs, according to organizers.
In Durango, the air was filled with call-and-response chants as the crowd proclaimed their love for federal lands and expressed their thanks to federal workers.
“Reinstate public workers,” the crowd chanted, followed by a brief call to “fire Elon,” a reference to tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is largely overseeing the widespread reductions in the federal workforce.
The rally-goers signed cards thanking employees of the Forest Service and the BLM, which were delivered to the agencies’ respective offices. After brief statements by Stephanie Weber, the executive director of the San Juan Mountain Association, which works closely with the SJNF, and a representative from Sen. John Hickenlooper’s office, the rally headed down to U.S. Highway 160.
Teal Lehto, the newly elected chair of the La Plata County Democratic Party, who had a hand in organizing the event, stressed that the group was instructed not to impede traffic.
“They have worked tirelessly, only to be considered the bad guys. And that’s soul-sucking,” Weber said of the SJNF she works alongside, who were unable to be present at the event.
Lisa Pool, Hickenlooper’s Southwest regional director, read a statement on behalf of the senator.
“Sen. Hickenlooper believes these illegal mass firings are indiscriminate and shortsighted,” she said. “There’s no doubt they’ll undermine our access to our public lands and put us at a higher risk of wildfires.”
Many current and former employees of public lands agencies have warned that eliminating the workforce will lead to a shortage of employees to fill support roles on complex wildfire incidents.
The protest was one of the first major actions in the region to resist the far-reaching impacts of the Trump administration’s attempts to increase federal efficiency. Although a few jobs related to timber sales have been reinstated since mass firings began in mid-February, it is unclear whether the bulk of the 3,400 U.S. Forest Service employees fired will be rehired.
A Feb. 26 memorandum from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget ordered agencies to prepare for more downsizing, this time through a reduction in force.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
