Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper didn’t mince words Tuesday on the threat to public lands in the West during a tour of the Western Slope that included stops in Breckenridge, Eagle and Glenwood Springs. 

“There are a lot of people out there that have never been to the West,” Hickenlooper said during a stop at the Eagle River Park. “They don’t give a crap. They think government’s too big and they’re just going to cut. Elections have consequences. The way to fight back on that is to bring them lessons from the West in graphic detail. Information is power.”

Hickenlooper’s tour across Western Slope communities comes as the Trump administration continues to issue orders regarding public lands. 

His stop in Eagle was one of several Western Slope stops the senator made, engaging in discussions about the Colorado River, housing and the economy in neighboring counties.

Representatives from local governments, fire districts, and nonprofits joined Hickenlooper at the Eagle River Park in Eagle to discuss the public land impacts in Colorado. 

The conversation in Eagle touched on local concerns of increased wildfire risks, workforce shortages, funding freezes and public land sales. 

Hickenlooper said sharing stories would play a crucial role in fighting back against the chaos in Washington. 

Individuals from Summit, Pitkin and Eagle counties shared how federal workforce cuts made under Trump’s workforce optimization order to eliminate agency “waste, bloat and insularity,” as well as federal grant funding freezes, were impacting communities. 

“I think it’s going to be a war to see who can get their funding and get their people back sooner,” Hickenlooper said. 

Dan Gibbs, the director of Colorado’s Department of Natural Resources, shared Tuesday that the state department has 490 employees and 350 grants funded by federal dollars. The grants generate $300 million for the department and fund mitigation projects with the State Forest Service, abandoned mine cleanup, orphan well programs, water conservation work and more, Gibbs said. 

Gibbs shared that the department has started to receive some of the updated terms and conditions for some of these programs but that they include troubling clauses that would require it to cooperate with ICE as well as prohibit the department from engaging in diversity, equity, and inclusion work while using the funding. 

“The Feds expect me to sign this, and this is just one example of potentially 350 different federal grants that may be coming down the pike that us as local governments and the Department of Natural Resources are going to have big-time decisions to make and whether or not you sign that or not,” Gibbs said. “This is something that we’re grappling with.”

According to information shared by Marcia Gilles, the director of open space and natural resources for Eagle County and former deputy district ranger for the Holy Cross Ranger District, the White River National Forest — the most visited national forest in the country — has 43 permanent employees who are not returning following deferred resignations and voluntary early retirements. 

This number accounts for around 29% of White River’s total workforce and does not include the 50 seasonal employees that will not be hired this summer, Gilles added.. Among those that took the federal buyout was White River National Forest’s top official, Scott Fitzwilliams. 

Gilles reported that these losses will gridlock progress and result in large project delays and reductions, as well as impacts to maintenance and cleaning on trails and lands. 

This reduction in capacity and resources is in direct competition to some of the other asks — including executive orders to increase energy and timber production on public lands — made by the Trump administration, Gilles added.

Hickenlooper agreed, adding that this disconnect shows a concerning motive from the administration.

“I hope this is not true, but it seems like they’re trying to set the government up to fail,” Hickelooper said. “This is just making a situation where there’s underfunding and understaffing in a lot of parts of the federal government, and now it’s much, much worse.”

One of the impacts that the group honed in on was how these staff reductions and federal changes will impact wildfire prevention and response, something Colorado leaders have been raising the alarm on since federal staff cuts started. 

In the face of federal uncertainty, Rick Ihnken, Frisco’s mayor and the Summit Fire & EMS deputy fire chief, said that fire departments are “scrambling again with public dollars to come backfill the federal shortfall” around staffing. 

“We feel like no one’s answering the door now and it’s a challenge,” Ihnken said. 

In March, Hickenlooper joined other Western lawmakers in introducing two pieces of legislation: the Save Our Forests Act of 2025 and the Protect Our Parks Act of 2025. Both seek to rehire the recently terminated employees and restore staffing at both the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service. 

However, Hickenlooper acknowledged that by the time these bills work their way through the legislation, Colorado will already be making its way through the time of year when wildfire risk is the highest. 

“We don’t have a lot of tools,” Hickenlooper said. “The only top tool we really have is we can organize.”

This was a point that Hickelooper returned to on several occasions on Tuesday. 

“It’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be a war. And the only real leverage we have as a Congress, as a constitutional democracy, is to have people rise up,” Hickenlooper said. 

Community members expressed support for the SHRED Act, which, amid cuts, is one piece of legislation that would add resources for the Forest Service by allowing local forests to retain revenue from ski area fees that operate on their land. Hickenlooper and other Colorado legislators reintroduced the bill for the third time earlier this year. 

The act is estimated to bring in up to $27 million for national forests in Colorado. The majority, around $20 million, would come from the White River National Forest where Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek Resort, Breckenridge Ski Resort, Keystone Resort, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, Copper Mountain Resort, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, Snowmass and Sunlight Mountain Resort all operate. 

Another piece of legislation that Hickenlooper and other lawmakers are bringing back is the CORE Act, which would add protections to 420,00 acres of public land in Colorado. 

“The CORE Act is still stalled,” Hickenlooper said. “Once we get on the (Senate) floor, that’s just about doing some trading and doing a little bit of work, but I think we can definitely get the 60 votes there. So it’s not out of reach.”

Will Roush, executive director of the Wilderness Workshop, argued that the type of proactive action the CORE Act brings is needed. The Wilderness Workshop was a key leader in securing a mineral withdrawal from the Thompson Divide in the last presidential administration. 

“Part of this work to make sure that we protect our public lands is just to keep our public land,” Roush said. “What I’d encourage you to do even more (have) a good offense, right? If we can have a conversation about protecting public lands, then we’re not having a conversation about selling public lands.”

The sale of public lands has been floated by Republican lawmakers as part of the budget reconciliation process.  

Hickenlooper said any such large sales of public land would happen “over my dead body.” 

“Some things just shouldn’t be for sale and selling our public lands, which is one of the greatest assets we have as a country, is unthinkable,” he said. “Selling broad tracks of BLM land or National Forest, that’s unconscionable. So yeah, I’ll do everything humanly possible to block that. And I’ve talked to enough Republican senators. That I can’t imagine that’s ever going to happen; famous last words.”