At Gila National Forest, Rep. Vasquez Highlights How Forest Service Cuts Put New Mexico's Public Lands and People at Risk

SILVER CITY, N.M. - On July 10, 2026, U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez (NM-02) led local conservationists, veterans, wildlife experts, and community members on a hike in the Gila National Forest to hear firsthand how recent U.S. Forest Service staffing cuts are impacting wildfire prevention, trail maintenance, outdoor recreation, and public lands management in southern New Mexico.

The hike took place near the Trout Fire burn area, where participants discussed the growing challenges facing one of New Mexico's most treasured landscapes due to the Administration's recent decision to gut the Forest Service workforce, cut research stations, and reorganize the agency - a move which Rep. Vasquez has condemned due to concerns about wildfire risks and threats to public lands.

"The Administration is causing chaos, disruption, and thousands of consequential layoffs at the U.S. Forest Service, impacting rural forest communities like Silver City. We're at peak fire season, and folks on the ground shared great concerns about the next big fire to hit Grant and Catron counties, as the trail-clearing crews that help clear the way for fire lines in wilderness areas were fired or RIF'd over a year ago," said Vasquez. "Today I listened to a multitude of stakeholders, volunteers, business owners, and biologists about the future of the Gila as we took a hike through the Trout Fire burn scar. It's clear to me that we need MORE resources, not less, during this crucial time, while USDA instead is focusing on a massive relocation effort and staff reassignments that hinder the department's ability to respond quickly and decisively in rural communities. Fully staffing our Forest Service is one of my top priorities - for all public land users and for the safety and security of forest communities across my district."

To push back against the Forest Service cuts, Vasquez is championing the Public Lands Workforce Stability Act, legislation that would prevent reductions in force at the U.S. Forest Service and Department of the Interior through 2030. The bill underscores that safeguarding the Forest Service workforce is a wise investment of taxpayer funds to protect our public lands, public safety, tourism economies, and the local businesses that depend on outdoor recreation.

Vasquez has also repeatedly pressed the Administration to address declining trail conditions and spoke out against the Administration's decision to redirect approximately $90 million in National Park Service entrance fee revenue from essentials like trail maintenance to cosmetic pet projects in Washington, D.C., like painting statues gold.

Protecting the Gila has long remained a cornerstone of Vasquez's work in Congress. He introduced the M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic River Act, legislation that would permanently protect approximately 446 miles of the Gila River, San Francisco River, and their tributaries as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System - marking the most significant conservation effort for the region in more than a century.

Vasquez is a national leader in protecting public lands, founding the bipartisan Public Lands Caucus, which successfully prevented millions of acres of public land from being sold through last year's budget reconciliation process. He has also introduced bipartisan legislation to prohibit future attempts to sell or transfer federal public lands without congressional approval, the Public Lands Integrity Act.

Joining Rep. Vasquez on today's hike were representatives from New Mexico Wild, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, veterans, local conservation leaders, and residents of the Gila region, all of whom shared their experiences living, working, and recreating on New Mexico's public lands.

"The proper staffing and management of such an important national resource needs to be given serious attention by the current Administration, and they must quit treating our national forests as an irrelevant waste of money," said Al Gamboa, a Silver City resident and Marine Corps veteran who is passionate about protecting the Gila River. "DOGE slashed funding and staff without ever taking into consideration what an important resource and economic-driver these lands are to the country and especially our region."

"The Administration recognizes the enormous public support that public lands and conservation have, so instead of privatizing them - which they would love to do - they are destroying [our lands] and the agencies responsible for managing them by a thousand cuts," said Carlos Martinez del Rio, a Silver City resident, wildlife biologist, and board member of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation. "The restructuring of the Forest Service, the obliteration of the Forest Service's research branch, and the regulatory rollbacks that will threaten previous rules that balanced extractive uses with the need for sustainability and biodiversity conservation are all examples of this approach."

"Since 1905, there has been a Forest Service presence in Silver City, managing the Gila's 3.3 million acres, and woven into the lives and livelihoods of the people in Grant County, NM. Young people from the area could train as fish biologists, botanists, geologists or other resource careers and then secure meaningful work with the Gila National Forest serving their community, the National Forest system, and the country. That reality is no more," said Patrice Mutchnick, Director of Heart of the Gila. "The science and resource management class of the agency has been decimated and staffing locally is at bare bones minimum. With the continued cuts and confusing changes at the USDA and the U.S. Forest Service, the economic symbiosis between the community and the Forest, forged over a century, is unraveling at record speed."

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