JACKSON, Wyo. — Nonprofit Friends of Bridger-Teton (FBT) has stepped up its efforts to assist the Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) with staffing and public toilet maintenance this summer, after federal cuts have impacted basic services.
Recent budget cuts have resulted in BTNF employee layoffs, and a delay in projects including clearing trails, pumping toilets and repairing infrastructure. FBT Executive Director Scott Kosiba told Buckrail that the FBT has worked to raise funds for a “small subset” of the forest’s needs.
“Our role is never to replace the personnel or the capacity that the forest has or should have,” Kosiba said. “Our role is to amplify and augment the work that is already being done. That is becoming more and more difficult because we are losing people. It has become almost a daily occurrence now, where I’ll walk into an office and find out that X person took early retirement or took the deferred resignation.”
Kosiba said that FBT received 100% in private funding to hire 15 seasonal employees this summer, which is a jump from its usual staff of four people. The Forest Corps and the river crew started working on the ground on May 19.
“Friends is really scaling up in this moment,” Kosiba said. “We’re basically taking over the Snake River Ranger program because they couldn’t hire most of their crew on the Snake River.”
Kosiba explained how the FBT worked to secure funding to pump toilets, in spite of the recent challenges.
“We don’t have a pot of money,” Kosiba said. “We are bound by the same rules, restrictions and regulations as the Forest Service. But, we have more flexibility than the forest service does in being able to use fee dollars (FD). … One of the best and easiest ways that we can help the forest service is by leveraging funding that they have, and this is almost 100% non-Congressionally appropriated dollars.”
Kosiba said that FD are not Congressionally appropriated dollars, but dollars collected from outfitter guides and businesses operating on the forest. He said that in theory, the BTNF should be able to utilize its FD money. He said that over the past couple of years, through a grants and agreements process with the national forest, FBT has secured approximately $1 million in FD for toilet pumping, lumber yard procurements and for keeping volunteers on the ground.
“We’ve pumped almost every single toilet on the forest,” Kosiba said. “Last year, we did a big rehabilitation and restoration project at Granite Falls, where the hot springs are — that was done almost exclusively with forest service dollars.”
Kosiba said that historically the Forest Service would write out a spending agreement, which would then be reviewed at the regional office. After any modifications, BTNF Supervisor Chad Hudson and FBT would then sign the agreement to allow the Forest Service to use the designated funds.
Kosiba explained that the agreement application process has recently become more challenging. He said that a written agreement is now sent from the regional office to the Forest Service headquarters in Washington D.C., then it goes to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), back to Washington D.C., returning to the regional office and then finally back to BTNF.
“If you are lucky, it gets signed,” Kosiba said. “There’s all these new exceptions … so even if they have the money, if the stated purpose is not within this list of exceptions, it’s just dead in the water.”
Kosiba said that the list of funding exceptions — “what you can do and how you can do it” — changes on a daily basis, making the approval process uncertain. He said that he had “zero confidence” that an agreement for toilet maintenance on BTNF would go through this year.
“It was looking like we were going to have locked toilets, overflowing toilets and just a whole big mess,” Kosiba said. “Not to mention public health and safety issues, and the downstream effects of what that might do to the natural resource and water quality.”
According to Kosiba, BTNF’s six districts (Big Piney, Jackson, Pinedale, Blackrock, Kemmerer and Greys River) have all contributed different amounts toward its recreation fund. After many months, FBT and BTNF’s six districts were able to push through the Developed, Recreation and Site Maintenance Agreement with the federal government to use these FD to pump approximately 150 public toilets. On April 30, Kosiba signed this agreement to cover $80,000 needed for pumping public toilets, with the remainder set aside for procurement costs and volunteer support.
Kosiba says that the Pinedale District has the most toilets of any forest in the BTNF (49), followed by the Jackson (48) and Blackrock Ranger Districts in Teton County.
“I was on my way to Laramie for the Outdoor Recreation Conference that the University puts on,” Kosiba said. “I pulled off the side of the road and signed it immediately because it could change that same day.”
Kosiba said that while the experience on forest lands will be noticeably different this year, the BTNF is fortunate to have so many beneficial partners. He added that other forests, including the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and the Shoshone National Forest, do not have partnering friend groups.
“The Bridger-Teton is almost acre for acre the size of Connecticut,” Kosiba said. “Teton County is 52% national forest land. It takes a lot of work and hard working personnel.”
