By Billy Arnold
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — Dwayne Meadows did not mince words in a Monday letter exhorting federal officials to exempt avalanche professionals from a hiring freeze.

Barring the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center from hiring seasonal avalanche forecasters as it traditionally does “will lead to a reduction of forecasting and education for the public and ultimately increase the odds of a loss of life on public lands,” wrote Meadows, executive director of the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center Foundation.

The foundation is the fundraising arm of the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center, a U.S. Forest Service operation that for the past few years has employed about six avalanche forecasters. That team is responsible for evaluating the snowpack across 7,000 miles in western Wyoming, and producing daily avalanche safety bulletins for backcountry users. The Avalanche Center also coordinates closely with forecasters employed by ski resorts and the Wyoming Department of Transportation, whose teams keep Teton Pass open throughout the winter.

In late September, with the U.S. House of Representatives proposing substantial cuts to the Forest Service’s budget, agency officials in Washington, D.C., said they’d halt all seasonal hiring for the current fiscal year, which started Oct. 1. That applies to temporary employees who repair trails, maintain parking areas, replace toilet paper and remove trash — jobs typically done in the summer. But it also applies to seasonal avalanche forecasters who work overtime in the winter to evaluate snowpack, investigate avalanche fatalities and communicate with the public.

In the spring, seasonal forecasters usually extend their tour beyond their original end date to be paid comp time for their winter overtime. In Jackson, others work throughout the summer season, funded by Avalanche Center Foundation fundraising rather than taxpayer dollars, to plan for next winter and maintain weather stations used by professionals and the public.

The hiring freeze would prevent the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center from hiring two of its six forecasters. It also would bar its other four forecasters from accruing comp time, and doing summer work.

Meadows’ effort is part of a larger constellation of lobbying efforts aimed at getting the Forest Service to reconsider part, or all, of the freeze. On Friday, a coalition of 42 advocacy, avalanche education outfits and ski resorts, sent a letter of their own asking for avalanche forecaster exemptions. The Teton County Board of County Commissioners piled on Monday, asking the Forest Service to reconsider its decision. And Republican Wyoming Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis said forecasters should qualify for an exemption.

“The Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center (BTAC) is vitally important to help keep local residents and visitors safe during the unpredictable winter season,” Barrasso said in a statement to the Jackson Hole Daily. “I will continue to work with the Forest Service on reaching the safest and most reasonable outcome possible so this essential safety work can continue.”

Lummis echoed Barrasso’s sentiment.

“The people of Wyoming deserve to be safe during our harshest winters, and a U.S. Forest Service hiring freeze should not impact the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center,” Lummis said in a statement of her own. “Lifesaving services like they provide need to be exempt to keep the people of Wyoming safe this winter.”

Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., was less specific: “USFS has made questionable budgetary and hiring decisions and I am looking into all options to ensure Wyomingites receive the services they are entitled to from their tax dollars,” she said in a statement. “The USFS’s efforts to cover for its bad decisions must not impact necessary services in our state.”

Firefighters are already exempt from the freeze. Two other avalanche centers — the Northwest Avalanche Center in Washington, and the Utah Avalanche Center — have been exempted, Meadows said in his letter. He wants to see that same leniency applied in the Tetons.

The larger group of advocates pointed to remarks that Forest Service Chief Randy Moore made in a Zoom call with employees.

“We can’t get the same amount of work done with less people,” Moore said, arguing that some work would be left undone. The coalition said that’s untenable.

“It is not possible to get the same amount of work done with fewer employees,” Hilary Eisen, policy director for Winter Wildlands Alliance, wrote on behalf of the group. “Avalanche Centers provide crucial tools for public safety and it is critical that these centers operate at full capacity this, and every, winter.”

Teton County elected officials are also concerned about safety.

Commissioners are “deeply concerned of the impacts that cutting the budget to exclude hiring temporary workers will have on the safety of our community,” Board of County Commissioners Chair Luther Propst wrote in their Monday letter. “Residents and visitors rely heavily on the avalanche forecasters in the winter months to evaluate the snowpack, and to provide public safety and education on avalanche conditions in the backcountry.”

Wyoming State Trails and the Avalanche Center Foundation currently fund two-thirds of the Avalanche Center’s budget, Meadows said in his letter.

Asking the Forest Service’s permanent employees to do the Avalanche Center’s work will not work, he added.

“Employing untrained and inexperienced Forest Service employees to write forecasts or service weather stations will lead to inaccurate avalanche information for cooperators such as the Wyoming Department of Transportation, local ski resorts and search and rescue personnel,” Meadows wrote. “Injuries and fatalities will likely be the result of this cost saving measure.”

The decision to exempt forecasters at the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center rests in part with Mary Farnsworth, the Forest Service’s regional forester for the Intermountain Region. Farnsworth did not respond to a request for comment by press time Wednesday, though the Daily has lodged a standing interview request with her office.