The Trump administration’s push to shrink the federal government is squeezing a thinning roster of Interior Department land managers who must keep pace with a long list of duties ranging from trail maintenance to archaeological research.
Could nonprofit groups help?
Federal land managers “are realizing … they’re going to have to rely on volunteers to get things done,” said Tim Davis, founder and executive director of Friends of the Owyhee, which lends a hand to the Bureau of Land Management on 5 million acres in southeastern Oregon, southwestern Idaho and northern Nevada. “Overall, it’s not good for our land management agencies to be spread so thin.”
Interior has already shed nearly 11 percent of its nearly 70,000 employees via buyouts or early retirement since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. That doesn’t account for employees who left the department amid uncertainty about future employment or other motivations.
