Vox: This story was published in collaboration with High Country News. “Americans visit hiking and camping areas managed by the US Forest Service more than 150 million times each year. If you have climbed a peak or hiked in a golden aspen forest, paddled a protected river or visited a cultural site on any of the hundreds of millions of acres of public national forest land, there’s a good chance any federal workers you encountered were not full-time employees. The agency relies on a large, often underappreciated army of seasonal or temporary workers who clean bathrooms and campgrounds, empty trash cans, maintain trails, welcome people at visitor centers, and do critical research work on the environment. These employees help monitor the health of the public waters and forests the agency oversees, clearing brush and trees that pose wildfire danger and monitoring the health of Alaska’s sockeye salmon. The Forest Service-managed portions of the Appalachian Trail that were damaged by Hurricane Helene will likely be repaired by temporary workers. (Hikers are currently advised to stay off over 800 miles of the Appalachian Trail.) Next summer, however, most of these tasks will be performed by other staff — or not done at all. Due to a looming budget cut, the agency will not be hiring seasonal staff for the next fiscal year, leaving thousands of people out of work and putting essential conservation and biodiversity work at risk. The spending bill recently passed by the House gave the agency around half a billion dollars less than it requested, meaning that the Forest Service, within the Department of Agriculture, faces a large budget cut. Most other environmental and science-based federal agencies also face large cuts. Meanwhile, the money the agency received from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration’s signature climate law, has already been spent. All of this, combined with recent cost-of-living increases for staff, means the agency is feeling strapped for cash. The next year “will not likely be a very robust budget environment,” said Forest Service Budget Director Mark Lichtenstein during an all-staff call in mid-September…”