Advocates Fear Federal Cuts Will Hurt Wildfire Recovery at Colorado National Park

An active wildfire has burned over 4,200 acres in Colorado's Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, devastating the south rim area of the park in Montrose County.

The South Rim fire is only 14 percent contained as of Friday, July 18, eight days after the blaze was sparked by lightning. The park's South Rim Campground, facility management building, welding shop, Western National Parks warehouse, and numerous bathrooms and overlooks have been destroyed or heavily damaged, according to the National Park Service.

The park is closed until further notice. All camping reservations have been canceled and no new reservations will be accepted for the rest of the year, with no re-opening date scheduled.

"Recovery will be a slow process," said Stuart West, the park's superintendent, during a community meeting on Tuesday, July 15. "We realize that the Black Canyon is a valuable resource to this community and to the country, and that return to normal is in everyone's best interest. But it's going to take quite some time."

As park staff prepare for the daunting recovery process, advocates fear the effort will be impaired by federal staffing cuts.

The National Park Service has lost 24 percent of its permanent staff since January amid layoffs and buyouts from President Donald Trump's and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, a watchdog-advocacy group.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park lost one-third of its staff, according to the association. The association reports that the park is unable to fill 24 of its 74 positions, and that all custodial staff at the park were terminated, requiring other maintenance employees to be "directed away from their regular duties to perform custodial functions."

"We don’t know if or how the fires were impacted by staffing shortages, but we do know that every single one of America's national parks are increasingly susceptible to damages from wildfire as fires grow more intense and unpredictable," says Kati Schmidt, spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association. "Meeting this moment means national parks need to have funding and people in place to be able to respond to disasters like these."
A spokesperson for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park declined to comment on the park's staffing or how it may influence recovery efforts. She directed Westword to the National Park Service Office of Communications, which did not respond to an inquiry.

However, staffing issues crept into the conversation during Tuesday's community meeting when a representative from the Bureau of Land Management spoke of employees being stretched thin.

"We are short staffed through the district, as you might know. We've got multiple fires across the unit," said Jon Kaminsky, Gunnison field manager for BLM. Two other major, uncontained wildfires are currently burning in Colorado: the Turner Gulch fire in Mesa County (15,286 acres), and the Sowbelly fire near Delta (2,274 acres).

This year, around 1,880 employees were cut from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the BLM, and more than 1,100 employees took buyouts, according to a New York Times count. Around 450 employees were later reinstated.

Colorado outdoor groups have warned that federal layoffs could result in increased wildfire risks by reducing the number of employees who maintain public lands and are trained in wildfire response. More than 110 outdoor organizations and businesses sent a letter to Congress in March urging legislators to restore lost jobs and ensure adequate staffing of public lands agencies.

This comes as Colorado has suffered increasingly frequent and severe wildfires; the state saw around 7,200 fires annually from 2020 to 2023, compared to around 3,400 per year between 2000 and 2003. The twenty largest wildfires in Colorado have all occurred after 2001, including the state's largest wildfire (Cameron Peak in 2020) and its most destructive wildfire (Marshall in 2021).

The South Rim fire has burned 4,227 acres as of Friday morning, according to InciWeb, impacting 85 percent of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park's south rim area.

"Since the fire is still active and not contained, the park’s total estimated loss is unknown. When the fire is 100 percent contained, formal damage and safety assessments will begin," the National Park Service said in a statement on Friday. "A reopening date for the park will be considered when the fire is contained, and safety assessments have been completed."