Colorado mountain fire stations concerned about federal support after government cuts
The partnership between the United States Forest Service and fire agencies in Colorado's Summit County, like Red White and Blue Fire District out of Breckenridge, has been long standing, but Matt Benedict, Division Chief of Wildfire and Community Preparedness, believes that partnership is in jeopardy.
"We work with them for fuels projects, we work with them for wildfire response, we know them," Benedict said. "They're our neighbors and we work well with the U.S. Forest Service here in Summit County."
RWBFD said it is currently working on three fuels reduction projects with the USFS, but the status of those projects is now concerning, considering the federal government's recent dramatic moves with not only funding for the organization but layoffs and rehiring.
"There's a project in the Swan River drainage...there's another one right here in Frisco, the Frisco backyard. There are additional projects in Blue River, Keystone and even the Upper Blue or the Lower Blue area," Benedict said. "We are worried about losing that momentum."
While there have been no layoffs of the current wildfire team in Summit County for USFS according to RWBFD, the agency worries that might change at any moment.
"The uncertainty related to employment right now is hard," Benedict said. "You can imagine a college kid coming out of school, you know, looking at jobs and would they want this (seasonal) job... and in the past, we've really depended on that type of employee to fill those positions, and we're just not sure."
"That's the hard part."
RWBFD said it is prepared to pick up any slack the USFS would leave if there are staffing changes that would affect wildfire response or mitigation efforts, but that it would much rather continue working as a team.
"That U.S. Forest Service rig coming to a fire on their land is really important," Benedict explained, referencing the 80% of lands in Summit County that are national forest. "It's an agency representative, it's a potential incident commander, it's someone that can represent the U.S. Forest Service in the required purchasing as we move forward in the wildfire, whether it's air assets or ground assets.
