Terry Zink has spent his entire life in the woods.
Zink, a 57-year-old third-generation hunting dog owner from Marion, Montana, a small town deep in Montana’s Flathead National Forest, hunts mountain lions and bears while running a small archery target shop.
He also voted for Trump, but Zinke publicly second-guessed his vote after the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) made deep cuts in 2025 to the federal agency that manages America’s public lands.
“You won’t meet a more conservative person than me, and I didn’t vote for this,” Zink told Politico (1). “You can’t fire our firefighters. You can’t fire our trail crews. You have to have selective logging, water restoration and healthy forests.”
The impact is already being felt across Montana. Hunters are running onto overgrown trails, ranchers are watching drought and wildfire mitigation funding freeze, and outfitters and guides — which brought in about $314 million in revenue to Montana in 2024 — are dealing with layoffs affecting their businesses.
This isn’t just happening in Montana.
A different version of this scenario is playing out across the West, with real consequences for rural jobs, small businesses and the cost of hunting and fishing on public lands.
The federal workforce managing U.S. public lands has shrunk by about 20% since the beginning of 2024, from 79,070 employees to 63,141 employees in September 2025, according to the Center for American Progress.
Cuts hit these specific agencies hardest(3):
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U.S. Forest Service: About 3,400 employees will be laid off
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National Park Service: About 1,000 jobs to be laid off
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Bureau of Land Management: About 800 employees will be laid off
Approximately 97% of BLM employees work outside of Washington, D.C., often in remote small towns where the federal agency is one of the largest employers (4). When rangers close or seasonal staff disappear, the economic impact can ripple through local gas stations, restaurants and diners, and hotels and motels.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, outdoor recreation will generate $1.2 trillion in economic output by 2023, accounting for 2.3% of U.S. GDP and supporting 5 million jobs (5). States such as Montana, Alaska, Vermont and Hawaii rely on outdoor recreation twice as much as the national average. In Montana alone, the industry will inject $3.4 billion into the state’s economy by 2023(6).
At the same time, all of these economic impacts depend on public lands being accessible, staffed, and well maintained.
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Cuts to the agencies that maintain public lands may sound like an environmental issue, but cuts also have an impact on the economy and your wallet. Here’s how:
Research from Headwaters Economics shows that rural counties with large amounts of federal land have historically experienced stronger job growth than other states. In fact, western counties with 30% or more protected federal lands experienced employment growth of 345% over 40 years, while counties with no federal public lands grew by only 83% (7).
Layoffs in 2025 will certainly impact those percentages, and stagnant job growth in counties with large amounts of federal land could have negative economic impacts on local communities.
Outfitters are not allowed to run tours without a permit, ranchers need grazing approval, and guides rely on well-maintained trails and open access.
Permits are piling up as federal agencies that manage America’s public lands have fewer staff. One outfitter in Colorado told reporters in May 2025 that his license for the year was already behind schedule, putting his entire season and revenue in trouble (8).
This backlog could lead to trip cancellations and reduced business for outfitters and tour guides, meaning tourists coming into town for tours may not be spending money or contributing to the local economy. According to the National Park Service, national park visitors spent $29 billion in nearby communities in 2024, generating $56.3 billion in total economic output (9).
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is trying to slip some language into Trump’s “Big Beautiful Act” that would make millions of acres of public land eligible for sale, according to the Center for American Progress. Strong bipartisan opposition killed the initiative, but Lee promised to keep pushing (10). In fact, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has repeatedly referred to public lands as “America’s balance sheet,” viewing them as assets waiting to be sold (11).
Today, Americans can hunt, fish, hike and camp for free or close to public lands, but that access has a real dollar value. On private land, hunting lease fees typically range from about $10 to $50 per acre, but these fees can vary. Base lease rates for 200 acres range from $2,000 to $10,000 per year. In major hunting states such as Texas, Kansas, and Illinois, prices can jump to $25 to $60 per acre(12).
Currently, Americans still have access to public lands for these activities, but if states inherit land they cannot manage, selling the land becomes the easiest option. In fact, Nevada retained only 3,000 acres of the 2.1 million acres it originally received from the federal government(13). When states sell public lands, the right to use the land for free could quickly disappear.
As for Schink, he still hunts and runs his business in the woods. But like many, he’s watching closely, wondering how long the land that sustains his livelihood will remain public, accessible and affordable.
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Politics (1); Center for American Progress (2); Mountaineers.org (3); Inside Climate News (4); Bureau of Economic Analysis (5); Bureau of Business and Economic Research (6); Water Economics (7); NPR News (8); National Park Service (9); Axis (10); PBS News (11); Land Applications (12); National Wildlife Federation (13)
This article provides information only and should not be considered advice. It is provided without any warranty of any kind.