Around this time a year ago, DOGE and the Trump Administration were making funding cuts and laying off employees with their stated goal of removing waste and fraud.
One of the stories WXPR shared about these cuts was the potential impact to the North Country Trail which falls under the National Park Service.
A year ago, the North Country Trail Association had major concerns about federal funding cuts and employees being laid off within the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service.
Roughly a quarter of their budget for things like trail building and maintenance comes from a co-operative agreement with the NPS, according to Brad Slagle, the treasurer for the NCTA Board of Directors.
“We weren't sure if that was going to go away or be frozen or delayed. We weren't sure what was going to happen to it, so that was a big concern,” said Slagle. “Luckily, after a little bit of time of sorting that out, it continued like normal. That was a big relief.”
The biggest impact that they’re still feeling is the loss of federal employees.
There used to be six NPS employees that worked with the trail association and another two that were going to be funding through the Inflation Reduction Act.
The funding never came through for those two positions, according to the NCTA.
Two of the existing employees lost their jobs. One because she still had a month on her probationary period and was terminated. The other because she lived too far away to follow the return to office requirement, despite having been hired as a remote worker.
None of the positions have been replaced.
“One of the most critical positions and person that they lost was the planner, which is an essential part of completing the trail,” said Slagle. “The 5000 miles has over 3000 miles that are trail in the woods, across the prairies, that sort of thing, but a big chunk of it, over 1000 miles, is on the side of roads, or even on primitive roads. Planning is the work that goes into figuring out how to get that trail off the road.”
NCTA Director of Trail Operations Val Bader says the office has been able to fill in some gaps left by federal government changes, but it’s not sustainable long term.
“I don't think we're going back to whatever our partnership with these federal agencies looked like before. We're probably not going back to exactly that,” said Bader. “We're going into a new era of something where maybe we do a little bit more and they do a little bit less here, or something else looks different. But I think we're going to have to think creatively if we want to finish this trail and close those 1,500 miles of gaps.”
Bader says in talking with the federal workers she knows there’s a lot less fear or uncertainty about losing their jobs than a year ago, but stress of fewer people trying to as much work comes through.
“The attitude is good, whereas last year it was more like, ‘I don't know if I'm gonna have a job,’” said Bader. “Now it's calmed down, but there's certainly less people and as much or more work to do, but they're working hard and they're good to work with.”
NCTA and other trail organizations were recently in Washington D.C. advocating for trails across the country at Hike the Hill.
Slagle and Bader say they met with dozens of lawmakers to stress the importance of the North Country and other National Scenic Trails in the U.S. for both their health and economic value.
“Both sides of the aisle can see the value of trails. They're huge value to the local economy. I mean, the people who are coming to use a section of the North Country trail aren't just coming to the trail and then turning around and going home,” said Bader. “They're having dinner, they're staying overnight, they're getting groceries, it's a big boost to a local economy, especially in some of these small, rural towns that the North Country trail goes through.”
They also have been advocating for the reauthorization of the Great American Outdoors Act signed into law during the first Trump Administration. It was a bipartisan piece of legislation that supported National Parks and other public land.
