FRIENDS OF THE BRIDGER-TETON Forest Corps Report
Like many public lands across the country, last winter and spring the Bridger-Teton National Forest faced serious staffing cuts. With the busiest season on the forest approaching—summer—Friends of the Bridger-Teton saw the need for additional hands to help care for this vast, beloved landscape. “We worked in partnership with the forest to figure out how we could add capacity and make sure that its users would have good, and safe, access,” said Scott Kosiba, FBT’s Executive Director. The FBT Forest Corps was born.
By the end of May, five women—with a combined 15 seasons of experience doing trail work on public lands—had been hired. Before that month was over,
as they waited for trails to melt out, the team refinished 55 picnic tables at campgrounds on the Pinedale District. “They really hit the ground running,” Kosiba said. “And that spirit continued throughout the summer. The scale and breadth of the work that they got done was tremendous.”
FBT’s Forest Corps is not a substitute for federal investment or staffing. It’s a community-driven response to an immediate need—a way for those who care about the BTNF to step up and help protect what we all love.
“This summer’s Forest Corps Trail Crew Program was a great first step—and a successful step—in helping the Bridger-Teton bridge the gap between the work that needs to be done and what there are resources for,” Monica said. “We helped open trails to users that otherwise would have been nearly impassable and unsafe. But the amount of work required, including the backlog of work within the Forest Service in general, is so vast. The program could have a crew for each of the six districts and still not get through it all. For now, I’m happy to celebrate the successes of our single FBT Forest Corps team and am looking forward to seeing it grow.”
FROM FOREST CORPS CREW LEAD, MONICA ELLIOTT
FACES OF THE FOREST CORPS
Forest Corps leader Monica Elliott. “This crew was so special. I’ve worked on a handful of trail crews but the Forest Corps crew was remarkable. The bond and support we built were unlike anything I’d experienced before. We worked hard, laughed a lot, and had some incredible experiences in the forest—even when chainsaws broke down and tents ripped along the way.”
Kat Ergil grew up a couple of hours from the Adirondacks in upstate New York—but she was 18 before she visited them. “I lived near a lake and state parks which I often swam in and visited, but bigger public lands weren’t on my radar,” she said. It was a position with AmeriCorps at Vermont’s NorthWoods Stewardship Center that she says really introduced her to federal public lands and the many opportunities they offered. “Forest Corps offered the exciting opportunity to see and work on five of the six BTNF districts and to learn about what working on public lands looks like during a weird time for the [Forest Service],” Kat said.
Jillian Greene’s grandparents lived next to the Custer-Gallatin National Forest in Montana and she visited them every summer as a kid. In 2022, Jillian took a job on the Custer-Gallatin with the Forest Service. “I worked there intentionally so that I could be close to where my grandparents had lived because the area is special.” She joined FBT’s Forest Corps because she just loves trail work. “I made the decision to leave the Forest Service because I couldn’t deal with the uncertainty—it stressed me out wondering if I’d have a job or not. But I didn’t want to leave trail work behind,” Jillian said.
Sage Abate grew up in Winthrop, Washington, a town in the Methow Valley surrounded by public lands. The Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest pretty much starts at the edge of town. “There was a lot of running and hiking and generally being outside,” she said. Sage moved to Wyoming in 2019 and did two summers on the wilderness ranger trail crew on the BTNF’s Pinedale District and says she loved it. About Forest Corps, she said, “I love being able to work on the trails that I use everyday—to give back in that way.”
From Anacortes, Washington, Elly McFarland got her love of the outdoors from her parents. “They gave me the idea that we could go hiking and camping and then I became the one in the family who was like, ‘let’s do this hike,’ and ‘let’s go here,’” she said. She worked on her first trail crew in 2020, and has done trail work every summer since.
The total cost of FBT’s 2025 Forest Corps was $123,000. This covered crew compensation, vehicle use, insurance, marketing, and admin support and came from private donations and generous contributions from the Wyoming Wilderness Association and Trout Unlimited.
FOREST CORPS SPENDING FOREST CORPS FUNDING
“FOR ME, FOREST CORPS WAS A MAJOR, TANGIBLE DIFFERENCE THAT FRIENDS MADE IN 2025. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FEDERAL MONEY THAT PAYS FOR THE FEDERAL STAFF THAT DOES THE WORK FOREST CORPS DID, BUT IN THE ABSENCE OF THAT, WHAT A GREAT THING THAT FBT WAS ABLE TO STEP UP AND DO. THROUGH LEADERSHIP AND PRIVATE DONATIONS, FOREST CORPS ENSURED THAT SOME OF THE BTNF’S TRAILS STILL RECEIVED THE MAINTENANCE THEY NEEDED. I HOPE FOREST CORPS IS SOMETHING THAT CAN CONTINUE: EVEN WITH NORMAL FEDERAL STAFFING AND FUNDING, THERE IS SO MUCH WORK IT COULD ACCOMPLISH ON THE BTNF FOR BTNF USERS.”
—TIM GARDINER, FBT BOARD MEMBER
A DAY WITH FOREST CORPS
FBT Board member Tim Gardiner spent a day in the field with the Forest Corps during their hitch on the Big Piney District.
“I met the crew in the back parking lot of the Big Piney Ranger Station. I show up and see four women loading chainsaws, shovels, and picks into a truck. ‘Come on, follow us!’ they told me. We drove for the better part of an hour to a section of the Wyoming Trail that hadn’t seen
a rainy day, but that didn’t diminish the crew’s plans for what they wanted to accomplish. We walked the trail cutting trees with chainsaws and handsaws. What amazed me the most was how happy the team was and how much fun they were having while doing such hard work. When I got home I was tired—they kicked my butt. But I knew that it was only the first day of that hitch for the crew. They were at it for six
“The layoffs last winter and spring were the catalyst for FBT to found Forest Corps, but, even in good times, the BTNF would benefit from the extra hands Forest Corps can provide. After seeing how successful Forest Corps was this year, we have every intention of fundraising to continue it into the future.”
—SCOTT
KOSIBA, FBT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
FBT FOREST CORPS 2025 BY THE NUMBERS
Cleared 112 trees over approximately 30 miles of trails around Willow Creek, Lick Creek, Mumford Creek, Hunter Creek, and Phosphate Creek
Cleared and maintained 5.4 miles of tread
Replaced 7 stringer logs and 63 feet of decking on old bridge
Installed 3 kiosks
239 trees cleared from 16.9 miles of the Wyoming Trail
55 picnic tables sanded and refinished;
Cleared 35 trees over 23.8 miles of backcountry trails
7 trees cut and 55 drains cleared on 3.2 miles of trail;
51 trees cleared from 8.6 miles of trail
Cleared and maintained 4 miles of tread;
227 trees logged out, 10 CDT trail posts installed
TOTAL
1,179 trees cleared/logged out 134 miles of trails cleared 9 miles of trails maintained 2,590 hours worked
27 trees cut and 38 drains cleared on 3 miles of trail;
Cleared 155 trees over 14.5 miles
Cleared 296 trees (from a prior blown down event) from 20.5 miles of trail
10 trees cleared and 3 drains cleared on 2 miles of trail; 1 beaver dam deconstructed
8 trees cut and 15 drains cleared on 4.8 miles of trail
