Bridger-Teton National Forest officials have hired nine new employees for positions ranging from forest supervisor to safety officer after officials and community members raised concerns about roughly 20 vacancies in the forest supervisor’s office last week.

The new staff members fill vacancies at the supervisor’s office and the district level in areas including range, recreation, safety and wildlife biology. A new forest supervisor, Jacque Buchanan from the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico, will begin as acting forest supervisor of the Bridger-Teton in July. A permanent forest supervisor, who will replace the outgoing Kniffy Hamilton, is expected at the end of Buchanan’s 120-day detail.

The forest is also filling the Afton and Pinedale district ranger positions, which should have permanent employees by October, forest spokeswoman Mary Cernicek said.

Some positions in the forest supervisor’s office that remain vacant include GIS coordinator, forest engineer, resource specialist, forest planning and budget officer, Cernicek said. 

Last week, Bridger-Teton planning and lands officer Michael Schrotz raised concerns about the estimated 21 vacancies in the forest supervisor’s office, many of which are due to longtime employees retiring.

“Some of those we can’t afford to fill right now,” he said, explaining that the forest typically has to pay moving expenses for new employees, which can cost as much as $80,000.

While the high cost of housing and the shortage of employee housing isn’t necessarily driving people away from the Bridger-Teton, Schrotz said those housing concerns do dissuade people from taking jobs in the region.

While some jobs, such as the forest engineer position, can mean tangible lapses in maintenance such as roads and bridges, many jobs on the forest are performed by seasonal employees or employees in the district rangers’ office. Vacancies in the supervisor’s office mean lapses in administrative tasks.

Some projects that have slowed down due to staff shortages include environmental studies on energy development on the Hoback Rim and the Wyoming Range.

Citizens who are involved in some of those issues have raised concerns about the lack of supervision from the Forest Service, according to Louise Lasley, public lands director for the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.

“At a recent meeting with people from all over western Wyoming looking at Hoback Wells draft EIS process, [some were] very concerned that the lead person on that [project] is no longer here,” she said. “There’s nobody to assess the private consultants’ work to determine if it’s in line with the Bridger-Teton priorities.”

Lasley said she wonders why the forest hasn’t filled some of those positions with local people.

“[It] makes me wonder if the cry of lack of housing... is not as important as lack of funding to fill those positions,” she said. “It seems a bit disingenuous to claim that it’s a lack of housing that is responsible for these vacancies when they could hire from the community.”