{"id":437,"date":"2025-03-18T11:01:01","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T12:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spanishliteratureintranslation.com\/?p=437"},"modified":"2025-03-18T19:28:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:28:37","slug":"opinion-utah-wanted-the-feds-to-get-out-but-trumps-draconian-cuts-are-hitting-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/spanishliteratureintranslation.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/opinion-utah-wanted-the-feds-to-get-out-but-trumps-draconian-cuts-are-hitting-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Utah wanted the feds to \u201cget out,\u201d but Trump\u2019s draconian cuts are hitting home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly 80 years ago, Bernard DeVoto, the Utah-born writer and historian, wrote an essay titled \u201cThe West Against Itself\u201d for Harper\u2019s Magazine.<\/p>\n

DeVoto summed up the platform pressed by Western elected officials of his day in a memorable punchline: \u201cGet out–and give us more money.\u201d This \u201ceconomic fantasy\u201d is still with us, as DeVoto predicted, \u201cyesterday, today, and forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new, fossil-fuel-friendly heads of federal land management agencies<\/a> are serious about the \u201cget out\u201d part of that plea, firing thousands of their employees and closing dozens of offices across the West. Their list targets Fort Collins, Colorado; Flagstaff, Arizona; Moab and Salt Lake City, Utah; Lander, Wyoming; Boise, Idaho, and more. Local economies will lose millions they\u2019ve depended on.<\/p>\n

But President Donald Trump and Elon Musk aren\u2019t doing so well with the \u201cgive us more money\u201d part. Voters who elected Trump may not get what they bargained for.<\/p>\n

I have a home in southern Utah, in Torrey, gateway to Capitol Reef National Park. My neighbors in Wayne and Garfield counties, who gave well over 70% of their votes to Trump, often complain about federal overreach. They see conservation of national public lands as \u201clocking up\u201d land.<\/p>\n

Yet Westerners love all that financial support coming in from the agencies they profess to hate. They rely on the federal government for so much more than they often acknowledge.<\/p>\n

After a charming presentation about cowboy culture at Torrey\u2019s nonprofit Entrada Institute recently, my wife asked a young rancher what his family did for health insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife works for the Forest Service,\u201d he said. Indeed, government employees make up 23% of the workforce in Utah\u2019s Garfield County and 25% in Wayne County. These salaries and the benefits that come with them are crucial to family stability.<\/p>\n

A revealing interactive map in Grist magazine<\/a> shows the reach of investment by the federal government through legislation passed by the Biden administration. I click on the town of Torrey and find tens of millions of federal dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law flowing into the county.<\/p>\n

Think upgrades of rural airports, solar panels on small businesses, bridge replacements, removal of lead from drinking water — and on and on.<\/p>\n

And then on February 14, \u00a0the Department of the Interior announced the firings of more than 2,300 public servants at the Department of the Interior, including the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Geological Survey. With this \u201cValentine\u2019s Day Massacre,\u201d southern Utah communities will feel accelerating impacts — loss of income and benefits, more money going to unemployment payments, understaffed parks and monuments, and irate visitors.<\/p>\n

My inbox and social media feed are flooded with anecdotes about what these firings mean. One man grew up in a Park Service family and then worked as a park ranger himself for years. He transferred to the Forest Service recently, becoming a \u201cprobationary\u201d employee only because he was new to his position. He lost his job and his career thanks to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

When rural Westerners say \u201cget out\u201d to the feds, I don\u2019t think this is what they have in mind.<\/p>\n

President Trump is also considering once more eviscerating national monument protection for Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears in southern Utah. These monuments have been good for local communities and economies.<\/p>\n

The monuments haven\u2019t locked up the land; ranchers still have their grazing permits. Pre-existing mining and drilling claims remain in force. And the conservation and tourism values of these designated preserves expand every year.<\/p>\n