When the U.S. Forest Service’s budget shrinks, who pumps campground toilets?
When the U.S. Forest Service’s budget shrinks, who pumps campground toilets?
Taking care of a national forest might seem like a job that involves beautiful mountain vistas and days spent on scenic trails, but sometimes the reality is a little different.
“It’s going to be loud — so be aware,” Snake River Sanitation’s Rhett Jones said as he fired up a toilet pumping truck.
Jones and another worker are emptying Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) campground outhouses in western Wyoming.
“A lot of trash bags get thrown in here, loaded with stuff — bottles, cans, chew cans,” Jones said, peering into the bottom of a pit toilet.
Wearing thick rubber gloves, Jones manually fished out the trash. He then siphoned about 2,000 gallons of human waste into his truck’s tank.
This is an annual process for 62 toilets in the BTNF. It is the third largest national forest in the lower 48, and in its boundaries are Wyoming’s tallest mountain peak, rivers and lakes jam-packed with trout and thousands of miles of hiking trails.
Pumping toilets is just one of the many essential jobs in national forests that could fall by the wayside in the near future. That is because Congress is in the middle of hashing out a federal budget. Folded into that is funding for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). So far, it is looking like at least millions of dollars in cuts and a suspension in seasonal hiring — which is thousands of jobs.
So, national forests may have to get by with less funding next year. But even before the looming cuts, the Forest Service has been short staffed and behind on things like clearing trails … and pumping toilets.
Which was the case on the BTNF in 2023. “This was absolutely a crisis situation,” said Scott Kosiba who heads up the nonprofit, Friends of the Bridger-Teton.
The toilets at campgrounds and trailheads on the BTNF were almost locked. It would have meant thousands of campers and hikers possibly using the woods as their bathroom — easily a public health hazard.
But the federal government is limited by who and how it can negotiate contracts for work like pumping toilets. It was quoted about $120,000 for the job; Kosiba said that would have bankrupted the BTNF’s recreation budget.
“We’re talking no trails cleared. We’re talking no campground hosts,” he said.
The agency’s hands were tied. But that was not the case for Kosiba’s nonprofit.
For about five years, the BTNF has partnered with the ‘Friends’ group to help fill in the gaps, like pumping toilets. The nonprofit model is a relatively novel concept in the Forest Service and could be a key model for the agency going forward.
“We’re able to do collectively, far more than the agency [USFS] is able to do,” Kosiba said, adding that it is because of how the agency is funded, staff capacity and bureaucratic limitations.
The BTNF essentially hired Kosiba’s group, which could then contract out with other private companies. They agreed to do the job at about a third of that $120,000.
“It’s not a sexy part of keeping access for the public, but it is so, so important,” said Kosiba.
The toilets stayed open and clean, thanks to workers like Rhett Jones. He showed off a remarkably clean campground outhouse after his day’s work was done.
“See these old fly nests that were in the corners? We’ve knocked them out, sprayed them down — your window sills, everything,” Jones said after cleaning the outhouses with a mix of Pine-Sol and high pressure wash.
But it is not just toilets that need a little help in the BTNF. There is a never ending list for keeping up 3.4 million acres of public land.
“It exceeds our capacity pretty quickly,” said Mary Cernicek, BTNF’s public affairs officer.
Cernicek said Friends of the Bridger-Teton has also helped with fundraising, which a federal agency cannot do. That money can go toward fixing trails, campsites, washboard gravel roads, etc. The ‘Friends’ group also sends out outreach volunteers, who warn visitors about bears and put out unattended campfires.
“We’re no longer just the Bridger-Teton National Forest, you know, trying to go at it alone,” said Cernicek.
She is tight-lipped about looming budget cuts. But Kosiba in his role running the nonprofit is not: “The Forest Service is about to get its knees cut out from under it financially,” he said.
The agency is still making its case to Congress. But so far, it looks like it will get about a half billion dollars less in funding than the $8.9 billion it requested. On top of that, supplemental funding to the agency from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act is about to expire.
This budget scenario makes Kosiba’s group and volunteers even more important to the BTNF’s future.
“It is astounding that a nonprofit has to exist to help fund and help support a federal land management agency,” Kosiba said.
In October, Congress put off passing a comprehensive budget for the next fiscal year. They now have through Dec. 20 to hash one out, leaving the forest’s future in limbo.
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