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The eastern edge of Jackson borders the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Just across the boundary line, right inside the forest, is a gravel lot that allows access to the popular Putt-Putt trail.

It’s been part of Sophia Draznin-Nagy’s job to maintain this trail and others with her crew at the Jackson Ranger District.  In fact, she and some coworkers live right across the street. In one of the nation’s most expensive neighborhoods, they’ve landed spots in forest service employee housing.

Right now, if you were to enter the boxy brown bunkhouse, you’d find Draznin-Nagy’s room with pictures of family and friends on the walls and tattered work pants and old backpacks in her closet. That’s just how she left it, so it would take minimal time to move back in May.

“I left my room set up in a way that wouldn’t be completely bare bones when I got back again in the spring,” she said.

Prior to Valentine’s Day, Sophia Draznin-Nagy figured she’d be moving back into her employee housing on Nelson Drive in May. (Courtesy photo)

On Feb. 12, while away from Jackson visiting family, she signed paperwork for another season of trail maintenance starting in May, a job she’s done for four years, the last two in Jackson Hole. Two days later, on Valentine’s Day, she got a phone call from her supervisor quickly followed by an email. She had been fired for her “performance.”

“Not only did I lose my career through this termination but I also lost my housing that was provided by my job,” Draznin-Nagy said, “I lost my health insurance and I lost my community.”

 To the 28-year-old, this didn’t add up. In three recent performance reviews viewed by KHOL, her supervisors noted among other positive notes that her role is “crucial to the success of the crew and highly appreciated.”

She’s kept this as a reminder that her subsequent firing wasn’t her fault. 

“This is about something else that they are not communicating to employees,” she said.

They, being the federal government. Draznin-Nagy is one of over 30 probationary employees in the Bridger-Teton being fired, according to several sources within or closely connected to the Forest Service. According to the local paper, when fully staffed in summer, the Bridger-Teton National Forest employs around 220 people, about 100 of whom are based in Jackson Hole. 

Draznin-Nagy said all probationary employees in the Jackson Ranger District had been let go and seasonal employees who planned to return were not rehired due to a separate executive action: a federal hiring freeze.

U.S. Forest Service workers are among many others being fired by the Trump administration and agencies not allowed to hire the typical seasonal staff — with some exceptions including firefighters. The administration has fired at least two thousand employees across the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Associated Press reported that the National Park Service has fired 1,000 employees, including 16 of 17 supervisory positions at Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, leaving just one person to hire, train and supervise dozens of seasonal employees.

In an email to KHOL, the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not clarify how many cuts could be expected for Bridger-Teton National Forest. The National Park Service has not replied to several emails from KHOL. 

Impacts in Teton County could be extensive. 

About 97% of land in Teton County is public — largely managed by the forest service and National Park Service. Draznin-Nagy worries a slashed staff won’t be able to handle a swarm of tourists come summer. 

And she’s not the only one. Teton County Commissioners like Wes Gardner worry as well. The board of five sent two letters to Wyoming’s congresspeople, one on Feb. 18 and another on Feb. 24 asking them to work with Trump to maintain funding for federal seasonal employees and provide a plan for the valley’s economy, public safety and quality of life without dozens of recently fired federal employees.

“I think we asked the key question,” Gardner said. “What’s the plan?”

Gardner said local decision-makers are in the dark. He said the public deserves to know how cuts may impact the community, which relies on the public lands.

“It’s a struggle to operate without certainty,” Gardner said. “Right now, there’s a lot of chaos and this is one element of the chaos. It could have catastrophic impacts when it comes to our ability to manage those forests.”

However, Teton County might be better off than other places, where the same wealth that makes housing out-of-reach for most, means millions in philanthropy for nonprofits that prop up public land. 

Throughout the West, public lands have polled consistently popular among voters. But Gardner says this move doesn’t reflect that.

“I’m a moderate and I feel really out-of-touch with what’s happening coming out of the executive branch and being allowed by the legislative branch,” Gardner said. “And then I feel out of touch with my state legislature.”

Rep. Mike Yin,  a Jackson Democrat, is in Cheyenne through early March while lawmakers are in session. He agrees with Gardner that Trump’s heavy-handed approach feels unique in recent history.

Though he’s worried about federal firings in the county and wondering what he and the state legislature could do, he says most lawmakers in Cheyenne are celebrating Trump’s executive actions. 

“They are outwardly excited about what the president is doing,” Yin said, “but I don’t think enough people are really expressing the worry of what a large impact, not just in our community, but around the state, it will have.”

Both Gardner and Yin expect Federal layoffs to impact Teton County, but feel like they know too little about who and how many are being fired to estimate or plan for full impacts. (Courtesy photo)

In response to questions about the impact of layoffs on Wyomingites and the state economy, Gov. Mark Gordon declined to comment saying he does not know the scope and size of the issue.

U.S. Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barasso and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman each responded they support what they see as Trump’s efforts to cut government spending while ensuring that essential federal workers are kept. 

“I fully support President Trump’s effort to ferret out the reckless and wasteful spending that has infected our government,” Lummis, one of the recipients of Teton County commissioners’ letter, said.

In Draznin-Nagy’s nearly empty room in Jackson, the future is hazy. The trail worker still isn’t sure when she needs to move out.

“I haven’t been told that I need to immediately get my stuff out,” Draznin-Nagy said, “We don’t really know what’s going to happen with that.”

But it’s clear without her housing she’ll have to move away from Jackson. 

“It’s hard to feel what that community loss is like when it’s all happening so quickly,” she said.

She, Gardner and Yin are worried about what this summer might hold.

If this summer is similar to recent years, over 3 million people will make their way to Grand Teton National Park and another 3 million to the Bridger-Teton National Forest. This time, that will be without the help of many who guide hikes, clear trails and manage wildlife for recreators of the millions of acres of public land in Teton County, keeping them accessible, clean and safe.

“I’m just really thinking about what’s next for our public lands and what is next for access to those public lands,” she said.