For the first time in years, Coloradans across much of the state can worry a little less about the potential for summer wildfires, according to a Wildfire Preparedness Plan the Colorado Department of Wildfire and Control released in April.
It says current forecasts indicate normal fire potential is expected from now through July, except for southwestern Colorado, which will likely be above normal due to the continued drought and expected hot, dry weather before the monsoon develops.
That’s great news for everyone outside of southwestern Colorado. But what if you live in Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma or San Juan counties? Or what if the weather shifts and the part of the state you live in starts racking up red flag warning days?
It’s a question on many lawmakers’ minds, thanks to the federal funds slashing that’s been going on since President Donald Trump started his second term. His new Department of Government Efficiency has cut thousands of U.S. Forest Service jobs, including 150 in Colorado, held by people who help manage more than 24 million acres of public lands and are key to preventing blazes and making the work of wildland firefighters easier.
Twice now, U.S. lawmakers including Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet have asked the White House to reinstate those workers. On Friday, Hickenlooper’s office said they have not heard from the White House regarding their requests.
Preventing and suppressing fire
That makes the work of an army of largely unseen people earning on average $500 a week more important than ever, not only for fire prevention and suppression but for trail construction and maintenance, fence construction and removal, invasive species treatment and eradication, energy and water conservation, and historic preservation on Colorado’s 23 million-plus acres of public lands, which 73% of Coloradans recreate on once a week, according to Colorado’s Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan released in December.
They’re members of the federal agency for national service and volunteerism, AmeriCorps, working for eight land conservation service corps across the state that partner with local and federal agencies on wildfire mitigation, suppression and related work like rebuilding trails in areas flooded after burns.
Between 2020 and 2024, 3,025 fires burned 780,000 acres across Colorado, leaving “a tragic legacy of ensuing floods due to damaged soil and incinerated stabilizing vegetation,” said Scott Segerstrom, executive director of the Colorado Youth Corps Association, which oversees the two largest AmeriCorps grants in Colorado totaling $6.4 million.
Since 2006, Colorado has faced eight disaster-level flooding events, and the Colorado State Forest Service has identified 591 miles of trail within the highest danger flood zones.
But the various conservation service corps — composed mainly of 16- to 25-year-olds — have been working, without fanfare, to make Colorado’s natural spaces safer. Every year, the conservation service corps’ partnering agencies certify 350 chainsaw operators capable of performing critical forest-thinning to prevent megafires from starting, Segerstrom said.
Another 150 corpsmembers are certified as wildland firefighters. And the corps helps mitigate the impacts of flooding in burned areas by planting trees and vegetation to stabilize river banks, revegetating burn scars and constructing check dam structures that reduce the velocity of runoff, therefore reducing erosion.
In 2024, conservation service corps across the state deployed 947 total AmeriCorps members on conservation projects.
These members, according to Segerstrom, constructed or maintained 1,040 miles of trail and treated more than 3,000 acres for the threat of an uncontrolled wildland fire. They removed more than 25,000 hazard trees from fire-threatened forests. And they revegetated burned areas with 3,158 trees and plants.
The corps “are key partners for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. They provide added capacity and hands-on work for trail building, land reclamation and wildfire risk reduction just to name a few,” said Alison Lerch, DNR’s forestry and wildfire mitigation policy advisor.
“By the end of 2025, they will treat over 3,000 acres in priority areas in Colorado, completing tasks like clearing evacuation zones, creating fire breaks, or reducing fuel/brush in our forests to reduce the impacts of large scale wildfires,” Lerch added.
But their wildfire work is just the tip of the iceberg.
Conserving Colorado on a dime
Colorado has four national parks, nine national monuments, 42 state parks, more than 300 state wildlife areas, and 11 national forests. It’s home to around 39,000 miles of trail ranging from high alpine to multiuse paths to bird watching trails on the Eastern Plains. And it’s dotted with 2,000 lakes and reservoirs, and threaded with 9,000 miles of rivers and streams, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Conservation service corps members have their hands — and saws, and pickaxes and boots — in all of this, doing technical, high-altitude repairs on trails in sensitive ecosystems, constructing bridges and clearing trail corridors, constructing or removing barbwire, round wire and buck-and-rail fences, removing invasive species and retrofitting homes for energy and water conservation.
But the crux is that these positions could go up in smoke if DOGE continues slashing funds for programs it finds unimportant. Already, AmeriCorps has lost $400 million in funding, which hit 1,000 programs across the U.S., including some of the 37 in Colorado.
For the moment, the grants held by the Colorado Youth Corps Association have been spared, but the situation isn’t completely clean. “We go as our partners go,” Segerstrom said, meaning when agencies like the Forest Service, Department of Agriculture or BLM lose federal funding, the conservation corps lose opportunities.
“So we are patiently waiting as our federal partners navigate the next iteration of their spending plans and what they are able to accomplish with us,” Segerstrom said. “We’ll hopefully have another summer of our prolific lifesaving partnership.”
