There’s no bright side to what’s happening in Washington right now. Political chaos is spilling into everyday life, most painfully in the recent layoffs of thousands of people who maintain our public lands. As wildfire expert Amanda Monthei pointed out, trail crews in Montana have been particularly hard hit: Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest lost 15 of 17 people on a trails crew that managed roughly 1,300 miles of trails in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. When trails aren’t maintained they erode, overgrow, and become blocked by windthrown trees—often in a matter of months. Gutting those crews means less access to places we love; suddenly reaching favorite wilderness areas can require a chainsaw and gas rather than a simple backpack and boots.
There’s nothing good about losing these public servants, and there’s nothing good about the political choices that produced this. Feeling anger, sadness, grief, and frustration is normal. But life continues, and we face a choice: stay stuck in our despair or get up and do something useful. People who seek adventure don’t wallow forever. We dig out the collapsed tent, pick burrs from our socks, and keep moving even when it’s uncomfortable.
How we move forward matters. This isn’t a moment for the lone-wolf myth of rugged individualism. That ideal and technologies that isolate us have made it easy to believe we’re fine on our own. We aren’t. We have always depended on one another. What “pulling together” looks like will differ for every person and community, but we urgently need to rebuild and strengthen our networks.
Practical ways to help: offer housing to someone displaced by fire, bring meals or groceries to a neighbor who’s lost work, make a call to check in, volunteer with local trail crews or land trusts, donate to organizations supporting public-land workers, or simply ask a struggling friend what they need. If you want to help trails directly, look for local groups that train volunteers—untrained work can do more harm than good.
The most powerful work happens up close, person to person. It’s easy to get lost in headlines or to focus only on personal lifestyle changes. Real resilience grows when neighbors, friends, and communities show up for one another. Don’t know what to do for someone who’s struggling? Just ask them.
— Stephen Casimiro
Editor + Founder
