Nonprofit environmental and outdoor groups serving the Yampa Valley are reducing budgets, reconfiguring or cutting back projects and seeking other funding sources in the wake of federal staff cuts and frozen grants that are impacting the summer project season.

That means some repair, improvement or educational projects planned for 2025 will not happen, and multi-year project planning for 2026 and beyond is challenging and difficult, nonprofit directors said this week.

“We recognize that the federal administrative changes are impacting our community members, our economy and our region’s ability to manage public lands,” said Amber Pougiales, executive director of Community Agriculture Alliance. “Staffing cuts impacting management of our state and federal lands could result in increased conflict between users, reduced support for natural resource stewardship and an overall reduction in land management and oversight.”

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Yampa Valley Community Foundation staff compiled results this week from a survey sent to 104 nonprofits of all types that provide services in Routt and Moffat counties. The foundation wants to better understand the impacts of federal funding shifts and executive orders on the community, said Camille Sachs, grantmaking manager at the foundation.

Of the nine environmental nonprofits that responded to the survey, eight of those typically receive federal funding either through direct or indirect grants or contracts, including six nonprofits that receive funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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The overall loss reported by the responding environmental nonprofits is $857,000 of previously budgeted federal funding for 2025, both in direct or indirect grants or contracts, Sachs said.

“Of those, five (nonprofits) reported interruptions to their funding already this year, with two others noting anticipated interruptions to come and one noting uncertainty about future federal grants,” Sachs said. “Five of those organizations reported capacity shifts within those organizations, which they anticipate will result in nonprofits needing to fill roles previously filled by federal agencies.”

The survey showed the environmental nonprofits are working to diversify funding sources, expand fundraising efforts and increase collaborations with other organizations.

At a time when wildfire concerns are growing in Northwest Colorado, the Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council has cut its budget by about 30% to stretch out secure federal funding across more years, said Josh Hankes, executive director at the wildfire council.

“We had an aggressive budget approved going into 2025, which included new programs, expansion of existing programs, additional staffing, etc.,” Hankes said. “Those things have been walked back, with a focus on program continuity.”

The wildfire council will not roll out a mini-grant program for homeowners associations and will cut funding in half for the Routt Resident Rebate that helps reimburse residents who remove wildfire risks around their homes.

Hankes said the wildfire council is funded by three primary, multi-year sources, two of which are secure and controlled by the Colorado State Forest Service. One is through a multi-year federal grant. That federal funding was set to be paid out at $100,000 annually for five years. The first year of funding is secure, but the remaining pledged $400,000 is uncertain, Hankes said.

“In consideration of the funding freeze and uncertainty of future replenishments, we’ve decided to rewrite our 2025 budget in a way that will stretch that $100,000 out over the next two to three years, or until we have more certainty one way or another,” Hankes said.

Overwhelming uncertainty

Routt County Riders Executive Director Laraine Martin said the nonprofit is currently seeking alternative funding to replace a sagging and buckling wooden bridge at the entrance to the Creekside Trail. Martin said a trail maintenance and improvement grant of about $10,000 from the American Trails organization’s Legacy Trails Grant Program “has been halted for payments for the foreseeable future.”

Uncertainty is the overwhelming issue cited by environmental or outdoor nonprofit organizations working in the Yampa Valley.

“Perhaps it’s optimism that keeps us from calling projects ‘halted,’ but in reality, there are so many changes being issued so quickly, that we find ourselves working hard to stay up to date on the changes in order to know how best to negotiate and potentially find work-arounds or ways to support our partners to keep project activities moving forward,” said Michelle Stewart, executive director at Yampa Valley Sustainability Council.

“Several major projects we have been working to support are not progressing as expected due to stalled federal grants, in particular the Bucket 2 Environmental Drought Mitigation grants that were made available as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act,” Stewart said. “In some cases, these federal grant funds were being used as a match for other state monies that are now hanging in the balance.”

Stewart reported Thursday that the Sustainability Council had planned to be a supporting partner for work this summer to reestablish tree cover following area wildfires. The nonprofit planned to assist with a Routt National Forest contract for an AmeriCorps crew for five weeks.

“The dismantling of AmeriCorps has led to the cancellation of this crew,” Stewart said.

Nonprofits are working to be creative and proactive to counteract losses in federal support. For example, Hankes said the Wildfire Mitigation Council is adding revenue-neutral, or hopefully even revenue-generating programs such as selling residential address signs and requesting a $40 donation for Home Ignition Zone evaluations offered this summer.

Yampatika Executive Director Kristen Jespersen said a Forest Service budget cut of $15,000 put the nonprofit’s interpretative and guided tours at busy Fish Creek Falls in jeopardy. Jespersen hopes to find funding to transition the educational station to a paid, college-credit internship filled by a Colorado Mountain College student.

Multiple nonprofit groups report their projects have been adversely impacted by the loss of key project partner staff at the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Natural Resources Conservation Service. Projects that are continuing can become more challenging to organize and complete due to federal staff reductions, nonprofit directors said.

“We are disheartened, to say the least, to see many long-standing and cherished federal partners lose their jobs or leave their positions due to the untenable situation,” Stewart said.

Jespersen corroborated: “Some of the key staff we work with at the U.S. Forest Service have left voluntarily due to significant changes in duties or fear of future layoffs.”

Martin at Routt County Riders said a BLM recreation-focused staff member who helps with trail work days, projects and maintenance on the back side of Emerald Mountain recently left as part of the current federal Deferred Resignation Program.

“The BLM and USFS are in the midst of a total hiring freeze, so they can’t hire back for positions that have emptied — super frustrating,” Martin said. “So, our USFS and BLM partners are understaffed, with their hands tied.”

Some nonprofits are paying to keep seasonal recreational staff working or offering more volunteer hour contributions to keep projects progressing.

Last year, Routt County Riders “cobbled together various funds” to hire a Forest Service seasonal trail crew member as a Riders employee to work on a Forest Service trail crew, Martin explained. This year, the nonprofit received a $55,000 Colorado Parks and Wildlife Non-Motorized Trail Maintenance Grant to hire two seasonal trail crew members.

“These aren’t replacements for fired or laid off people but rather a more efficient way of filling positions that would have to remain empty this way due to the federal hiring and spending freezes,” Martin explained.

Stewart said volunteers cannot replace the value of dedicated crews, but the Sustainability Council will continue talking with federal partners “to see if there are ways that volunteers and our Yampa Valley Climate Crew can add capacity to projects that need it this year.”

Nancy Kellogg at Friends of Wilderness said the nonprofit helped to fund a summer wilderness ranger the past three years, but that position was not hired this year by the Forest Service.

So, the wilderness volunteer group will “continue to do our work as usual and may provide additional support for the Forest Service if they request, due to the reduction in local seasonal staff,” Kellogg said.

Since multi-year planning to budget for future projects including federal support remains uncertain currently, philanthropic, regional and state funding sources are being asked to bear more of the financial load of reduced federal funds, nonprofit directors said,

“Long-term and multi-year planning is key to successfully growing programs and projects, and this is challenged significantly right now,” Stewart said.

“Without federal funding, CAA will have to seek additional funds from state and local sources,” Pougiales said. “These sources, many of which were already receiving more interest than they could support, will be increasingly competitive, making it difficult to complete impactful and expensive water infrastructure projects.”

Pougiales noted even if projects retain federal funding, “the support needed from federal groups to complete the projects might be lacking and cause delays or a need to outsource additional support from contractors,” which can increase project costs.

The all-volunteer Routt County Conservation District hopes to find funding to help keep local agricultural conservation programs running due to recent staff reductions in the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Steamboat Springs.

“The loss of NRCS staff that Routt County has needed for over 10 years will impact local agriculture conservation programs and require the RCCD Conservation District to fill the void,” said Patrick Stanko, district board president.

Sachs said the Yampa Valley Community Foundation is committed to helping inform and engage the philanthropic community about the increased need for support. The foundation “is anticipating greatly increased reliance on philanthropic support to sustain nonprofit organizations and their work,” Sachs said.

“We are using a variety of strategies to help backfill the loss in funding, including engaging local donors as well as partnering with other foundations across the state,” Sachs said.