In September 2024, the United States Forest Service (USFS) announced a hiring freeze on all seasonal employees, excluding those associated with firefighting, starting October 1, 2024. While budget shortfalls are nothing new for government organizations, this announcement quickly caught the attention of trail runners and other outdoor recreationists.
Many trail runners in the United States recreate on public lands, much of which is managed by the USFS. From clearing trails to fighting fires to keeping long-drop toilets at trailheads clean and stocked with toilet paper, the USFS plays a critical role in caring for the 193 million acres of forests they manage, and our ability to recreate in them. They also issue the special-use permits that trail races rely on to operate. Much of this work is performed by seasonal employees, some of the 2,400 people hired for short-term contracts in a typical year.
So, when the USFS announced their hiring freeze on all seasonal employees, the running community quickly realized the effects it could have on the sport of trail running in the U.S. and mobilized a campaign of race directors to encourage the United States Congress to bring back funding.
The budget shortfalls and hiring freeze will likely have wide-ranging consequences, and Runners for Public Lands, an advocacy nonprofit organization, is asking race directors to sign a letter to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Appropriations in Congress to provide a budget to lift the hiring freeze. At the time of this article’s writing, 106 race directors have signed and shown their support.
The United States Forest Service hiring freeze can have knock-on effects for all who enjoy using public lands in the U.S. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Effects on Runners
It’s easy to take for granted our ability to arrive at a trailhead for a run and find an open and clean toilet. Depending on the trailhead, it will probably even be stocked with toilet paper! If we’re running in a new area, we’ll probably stop and check out a map or informational signs posted at the trailhead.
When running on a trail, many of us don’t actively appreciate the number of trees cut out yearly — we only lament when an obstacle is blocking our path. We might camp at a very affordable USFS campground with nice picnic tables and tent sites if out on a running road trip or at a race. And when we show up to a race, we don’t think about the special-use permit the race director had to obtain to run the event — or who issued that permit.
Spoiler alert: much of this work is done by seasonal employees.
The USFS maintains more than 160,000 miles of trails and 4,300 campgrounds, providing invaluable services to runners, directly and indirectly. The organization understands it can’t perform all its duties without seasonal employees. USFS Chief Randy Moore said in an all-employee call in September when the hiring freeze was announced, “We are going to do what we can with what we have. We are not going to try and do everything that is expected of us with fewer people.”
The effects are already being felt in the trail racing world, with one region of national forests indicating that they would not be issuing any new special-use permits for trail events during the hiring freeze, which is set to expire in September 2025.
An Ongoing Problem
It comes as no surprise that government organizations like the USFS are struggling with their budget. Outdoor recreation and the number of people using land and facilities managed by the service and other public land managers in the U.S. continue to grow significantly faster than the organizations’ budgets.
This growth is good for many people, including businesses in small towns adjacent to public lands, bringing people and money to the area. Leadville, Colorado, is an example of how a small town — economically depressed after the closing of the nearby Climax molybdenum mine — embraced the outdoor recreation industry in the early 1990s and grew into a thriving hub of trail running, mountain biking, and other outdoor activities.
The trails have contributed so much economically to the Leadville, Colorado, area. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
There are countless other examples of small communities thriving on the money brought in by trail runners, hikers, cyclists, fly fishers, motorized recreation, and others using the nearby public lands.
Currently, roughly 2.2% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product comes from outdoor recreation, but only 0.16% of the federal budget goes toward managing public lands for recreation — like funding the USFS. There’s also the issue that while the federal budget grew 76% in the two decades between 2002 and 2022, federal spending on outdoor recreation only increased by 22%. Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2022, recreational user visits to federal land increased by 17%.
Mobilizing the Running Community
In the face of threats ranging from not getting permits for races to dealing with unmaintained trails covered in deadfall because of the hiring freeze, Runners for Public Lands is organizing a campaign to restore funding and educate race directors on how the cuts could affect their events.
In addition to contacting their local USFS office quickly to see if their race will be affected, race directors are encouraged to read and sign the letter to Congress asking them to stop the budget cuts through a budget reconciliation procedure that could potentially lift the hiring freeze.
Given that this budget shortfall is just another in a series of many for the government agencies charged with managing U.S. public lands, it’s worth thinking about ways that smaller organizations can help share the load. With running, trail running, and jogging collectively making up about 18% of the outdoor recreation community, there’s power and human-hours available. Many races already have their trail work days, and many race directors take it upon themselves to maintain the trails that they run events on.
John Stacy (left) leads a Virginia Happy Trails Running Club trail crew in the Massanutten Mountains on a cold January 2017 morning. Photo courtesy of Virginia Happy Trails Running Club.
Tim Tollefson, director of the Mammoth Trailfest and one of the people working to get the word out about the hiring freeze, has taken an active role in the care of many of the trails in the Inyo National Forest outside of his Mammoth Lakes, California, home.
Regardless of whether the hiring freeze is ultimately lifted or not, or how it affects the trail racing and running community in the coming years, it’s a good reminder that if everyone does a little bit, runners can get a lot done — both in the political sphere and on our home trails.
Call for Comments
How important do you think public lands are in your regular training and racing?
