Working out of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lander office back in the 1970s, biologist Richard Baldes helped engineer a remarkable turnaround for species nearly or completely gone from the Wind River Indian Reservation, like pronghorn and bighorn sheep.
Learning this week that the Trump administration’s Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency is planning to eliminate the longstanding office when its lease ends in March 2026, the octogenarian Fort Washakie resident was aghast.
“This would be devastating to the fish and wildlife program on this reservation,” Baldes told WyoFile. “When you think of the big picture, this reservation … is probably one of the most important fish and wildlife chunks of ground in the United States.”
The whole purpose of the Lander Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office is to help steward habitat on the 2.2-million-acre Wind River Reservation, and the wildlife that depends upon it. It’s proclaimed right on the office’s homepage: From 2000 to 2022, the Lander office’s staff collaborated with the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes to restore 54,236 acres of sage-steppe, 1,721 acres of wetland and 26 miles of river, the website boasts.
It’s unclear if those historic successes were considered when the agency’s Lander office was added to the General Services Administration list of 2 million square feet of Department of the Interior office space that’s being shuttered across the country. Officials at the Fish and Wildlife Service’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. declined to comment.
“Nothing to share at this time,” Acting Chief of Public Affairs Laury Marshall wrote WyoFile in an email.
Fish and Wildlife’s Lander office isn’t the only Interior Department facility in Wyoming included on the General Services Administration list. Also in line to be eliminated is the U.S. Geological Survey’s Water Science Center in Cheyenne, which houses 17 full-time employees. It’s set to go sooner, with the facility’s lease up at the end of August.
What else?
The list of 164 Department of Interior offices slated for elimination was shared by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., a member of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, who blasted the planned closures in a press release.
“Shuttering these physical locations goes hand in glove with DOGE’s ‘destroy the government’ approach,” Huffman said in a statement, “and it will make their illegal cuts even more challenging to reverse.”
Soon-to-be-terminated building leases came up during a Wednesday roundtable organized by three U.S. senators, who spoke with former federal workers and a small business owner about Trump administration cuts to public lands management.
National Park Service managers learned this week of plans to shutter 34 offices that house eight visitor centers, law enforcement offices and other services nationwide. None of those planned closures are located in Wyoming.
The surprise termination of building leases comes as park managers already are grappling with hiring freezes, employee firings and employee buy-outs, said former Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow during Wednesday’s roundtable.
“Every day, there seems to be something new to adjust and adapt to,” Mow said, describing superintendents as “having to pick up the pieces from so many things in motion.”
“They’re navigating staffing impacts around the buyout, the indiscriminate firings of probationary employees, overcoming the delays in seasonal hiring, which are ongoing now,” Mow added. “In the last two days, the surprise termination of building leases — very much a surprise to many managers — and now waiting to hear the impacts of the upcoming reduction in force.”
The “ripple effect” of so much chaos and uncertainty is “palpable,” he said, for national park staff, their organizational partners and even nearby gateway communities.
Outside of the Interior Department, a handful of other federal facilities in Wyoming are on the Trump administration’s chopping block.
The Dick Cheney Federal Building in downtown Casper had been “designated for disposal” on a General Services Administration website page that has since been removed, Oil City News reported on Thursday. The 116,799-square-foot building’s four stories provide office space for roughly 20 federal agencies, including the U.S. Postal Service, the Casper-based news outlet reported.
More Wyoming leases being nixed
Several more non-Interior Department federal building leases in Wyoming are in line to be eliminated. According to DOGE.gov/savings, they include the Mine Safety Health Administration Office in Green River. In an interview with Wyoming Public Radio, Green River trona miner and local union president Marshal Cummings condemned the planned closure of the 2,297-square-foot facility.
“Just like the language they use to identify the spending being reckless and wasteful, this is reckless and irresponsible,” Cummings told WPR. “Say there is a disaster, and [the Mine Safety Health Administration] needs to be there right now. That’s what the field office is there for.”
The 4,140-square-foot U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lander and the 4,131-square-foot Social Security Administration facility in Rock Springs are also in line to go, according to the Department of Government Efficiency. The last Wyoming facility known to be on Musk and Trump’s list of cuts is the 2,311-square-foot Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration office in Cheyenne.
Altogether, the termination of five federal government leases in Wyoming will save taxpayers roughly $451,000 annually, according to DOGE. That figure doesn’t account for any defrayed costs from the potential elimination of the Lander Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office and Dick Cheney Federal Building, neither of which is included on the DOGE webpage.
Wyoming’s congressional delegation has lauded Musk’s cost-saving efforts, claimed to be $105 billion to date, though the accounting has been riddled with errors so far, the New York Times has reported.
The day that an untold number of Wyoming residents were fired by the federal government, U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis spoke glowingly to the Wyoming House of Representatives about the change of administration, which was ushering in a “new golden age.”
“If you’re watching network television, you’re not seeing and hearing what Elon Musk is actually doing to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse,” Lummis told state lawmakers, who applauded.
But the senator has simultaneously advocated to ease the impacts of DOGE cuts on the Equality State, according to a statement from Lummis’ office.
“Senator Lummis is sympathetic to Wyoming communities affected by proposed cuts and has made sure the administration understands how important it is [that] our national parks and federal lands are properly staffed,” a spokesperson said in a text message. “Lummis will continue to weigh in with the White House, Departments of Interior, Agriculture, EPA and others, to make sure Wyoming’s interests are advanced while the President fulfills the campaign promises he made to the American people.”
Implications hard to call
At the U.S. Geological Survey office in Cheyenne, 17 federal employees who study hydrology, streamflow and an array of other water-related sciences don’t know what they’re going to do come September when their building is supposed to be vacated. Terminating the lease, according to DOGE, will save $183,415 a year.
One federal employee who’s familiar with the office’s plight said that USGS staffers intend to make the best of a difficult situation.
“The termination, from GSA, of the lease of this building does not mean that the functions of this office or our agency will cease in Cheyenne,” the federal worker told WyoFile. “What it means is we will have to find another place to locate that fits within the parameters of what the new leasing requirements will be.”
WyoFile granted the worker anonymity because of the potential for retaliation. An inquiry to the USGS’s regional office in Denver for information yielded no response.
Another possibility, according to the source, is that USGS staffers would scatter, and relocate their workspaces to other federal facilities in Cheyenne or to the Water Science Center’s other offices, which include Casper, Riverton and four locations in Montana.
It’s equally unclear what Fish and Wildlife Service employees who are losing their office in Lander will do. Five full-time staffers work out of the office, according to Steve Stoinski, a retired Fish and Wildlife law enforcement officer.
The Lander lease cost was not listed in the spreadsheet posted by Huffman, the California representative. But Stoinski characterized the lease as “pretty expensive,” and said there’s been a discussion about moving out of the office for years.
“It’s not surprising that they want to get rid of the office space, especially where GSA is getting gouged,” Stoinski told WyoFile. “I think it would be prudent if we renegotiated the lease agreement.”
If the outcome is that the remaining Fish and Wildlife Service staffers scatter, it’ll hurt the agency’s operations in west-central Wyoming, he said.
“When I needed help, they were there,” Stoinski said. “If I needed an ATV to cruise a power line looking for dead eagles and mine was broken, I always had [a colleague’s] to use.”
Baldes, the retired biologist, was the person who launched the Lander Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office. As long ago as 1982, he said, there were efforts within the federal government to close the office.
Baldes and other parties advocated to keep it open — and they succeeded.
“Only because of support from the tribes,” he told WyoFile. “They got Wyoming congressional support. And the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the time was supporting this office, and the National Wildlife Federation.”
In the years and decades that followed, the Baldes-led Lander Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office was instrumental in developing and helping to enforce a tribal game code. It worked, and today, the Wind River Indian Reservation is actively managed and full of native ungulates and large carnivores that were scarce or absent during much of the 20th century.
WyoFile Collaborations Editor Rebecca Huntington contributed to this story.
Correction: This story was updated to remove a reference to a federal employee who was terminated. —Ed.
Maybe people like soros/crats can fund them instead of protests.
My residence is less than a mile from an entrance to the Bridger-Teton 3.4 million acre Forest. I hike, snowshoe, mountain bike, snowmobile and motorcycle in the forest hundreds of times a year. There is also a campsite open from May to October. NOT once have I ever seen a Forest Service employee. NOT once has anyone asked to see my fishing license, Christmas Tree, firewood or ORV permit. The only engagement was with the Camp Host cleaning the rest rooms?
Following the conversations below for the past week, I thought it a good idea to set the record straight and download the 2025 budget for the Forest Service. Here is the website for this 290 plus page document:
//www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fs-fy25-congressional-budget-justification.pdf
Here is the budget summary word for word:
The FY 2025 Budget request prioritizes critical investments to address threats from wildfire, tackle climate change, protect communities, provide economic relief through job creation, reduce deferred maintenance backlog, advance racial equity, address environmental injustice, and further improve the Forest Service work environment.
With the above said, “Asking what five things you have done the past week should be easy to answer”! America and Wyoming are drowning in waste! Wake up!
The environmental fall out can be felt for years to come. If price of the space is to high then have native 1st nations build facility for this government agency. Let them rent it back to government. This could be great for both parties. I think we should use out of box thinking.
Kiss the ring Barrasso, Lummis, and Hageman. Kiss the ring.
there would have to be ~133 MILLION federal jobs cut to offset chrump’s addition to the deficit on his first go round. that’s assuming a 60k average salary.
why do the chrump lemmings continue to believe stupidity and lies?
Is this what Wyoming voted for?
This is a propaganda article pushing leftist lies. What have these offices done for the people in the last ten years? Nothing. It’s just useless government bloat, not needed.
And you know this how….?
Good to know Lummis is protecting your regular Wyoming resident, especially our native people.
This is a travesty for Lander, for the Wind River Reservation, and most especially for wildlife. I hope we can find ways to stop Trump, Musk and his Doge juveniles!
Great job DOGE! Clean up all federal waste and for tribal lands, the tribe’s can govern their own wildlife as they did before the federal government came along and forced them to do different!!! Enjoy tribals as you should!! All Americans are rooting for you!! USA USA USA 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
Wyoming is the reddest state in the land……..so look in the mirror to see who has caused this mess and quit whining about the cuts which are just beginning. For Wyoming’s fed workers……Don’t forget to send in your answers to Musk’s email about 5 things you did last week.
This is the most idiotic authoritarian regime of all time. The Illegitimate,
indiscriminate removal of Fish & Wildlife tribal office, USGS water science station and the others is pathetic. Wack a mole.
And all WY Republicans normalize this.
Rep Lummus is shameless in her support of Donnie’s dangerous facist attacks on our country. She is a traiter. She has repeated that bs “new golden age”. So disgusting. This is perfect: French Senator Claude Malhuret ripped Donald Trump “Washington has become Nero’s court, with an incendiary emperor, submissive couriers and a jester high on Ketamine.” NOT MY PRESIDENT.
Disgrace after disgrace
disregard for wild places
distain for science continues with this sad bunch of humans in charge of this nation now..
The most interesting item in this story is the fact that we had to learn about it from a Representative from California. Where was a Congressional delegation? Oh, that’s right they were all too busy praising the illegal immigrant to pay attention to what is happening in their own state and report back to the people who elected them.
It is a lie. The animals were never on the verge of extinction. They only say that to open a new government office and land cushy jobs.
Seems the solved a problem in the river system and are now downsizing. The office manager in the article even says they have lease parameters for their new leases so it sounds like downsizing and cutting fat and places where the government is being gouged.
Also I keep hearing you trump supporters all every one of you all exactly what you hear on FOX do you know there are hundreds of other places to get info? Let’s talk about common sense for a minute take everything else out of the equation.
Does anyone have THAT ANYMORE? I sadly believe NOT!!!
We ONLY have 1 planet that teams with beautiful life it is had taken decades for people and things to change to look out for animals that cannot look out for themselves that have been here for millenia and within 1 MONTH its gone.
Horrible, sad, destructive, immoral, Ludacris, I could go on and on and save money instead of nature absolutely shameful and appalling
I don’t know about Wyoming, but I do know in PA, Fish and Wildlife also have to do with boating regulations and enforcement. If those are eliminated, it would be like having no automobile traffic rules on the water. I can easily see disaster with that plan.
Trump is allowing for Musk who is
Un-American and Un-patriotic to destroy America government. These actions are crimes against the citizens of the United States. Very Unfortunate.
I want to know who (the names) owns the land and buildings that the numerous federal agencies lease from in Wyoming.
Excellent. Someone else finally sees the truth that the states should be managing the land and resources within their borders.
Just like the brilliant educators in each state should be leading the education of their children.
Go back and read the tenth amendment to realize how far we have gone astray from the founders vision. Long live the Republic.
All these offices support good programs that may go away or be cut back. But we can move on. Some expensive office leases will go away…..that should have taken place years ago! Some dead eagles will not be counted. The Indian Tribes may have to manage their own land as they did before the “white’s man lived here. They are capable to do so on their own. Maybe the Junior Ranger program will be cut, but kids will still learn and enjoy the outdoors. Maybe the restrictions on how many can use and camp some areas will go away and hikers will have to decide on their own if they want to go to a different area that is less crowded or not.
All these aspects of management are good, but our government is broke, we owe $36 trillion dollars. The over spending has to stop. And yes things will have to change, but it doesn’t mean the end of the world.
Elon Musk is taking apart vital environmental aspects of our country. Peice by peice this administration is eliminating government run programs that benefit the health of our planet and we might never see them come back. That’s the scary thing to me once some of these programs are gone we better see them come back better to serve our country and planet. But I don’t think that’s part of the agenda. Conservation of plants, animals, our water, is so important. How important is money if we aren’t alive to spend it? Or hand it down to our children??
While I sympathize with the hassle some will experience during this reorganization, I think it has to happen. This isn’t destruction or elimination of anything, it’s a refresh. The only target is waste. At some point, you have to clean your closets.
Think, if there was a methodical rational transparent review it would require forensic auditors and financial fraud experts involved and that’s not what is happening just Chaos and disfunctional government. No there’s no critical assessment of any agency. We the people will suffer and feel the pain of the ignorance of Trumpism and Musk. Little men with small ideas .
In a perfect world the government would function as you suggest but as an auditor performing forensic and financial audits of Federal State and Local government entities for the US Treasury Department, for the US Air Force, and for the US Department of State that is a far cry from reality.
I am ecstatic that someone like Musk has come along to break down the dysfunction that permeates our government. The system in every organization is structured to stifle any kind of meaningful examination or review. When you walk into any department the first thing they do is circle the wagons while telling you they are there to help but then they do just the opposite.
We need government reform but even here in Wyoming we have a congressional delegation that acts more like scared rabbits afraid to introduce any legislation to upend the madness. Ultimately it is the people who are responsible to say things must change. I kind of think that was what they were doing when they voted for Trump. Now we need people in Congress who will change the system. We will see how that pans out.
What has to happen is taxing the wealthy. This is all about making the wealthy richer, not cutting ‘waste’.
No Gordon. More taxes on the rich or any taxpayers is not the answer. The answer is balance the budget. Don’t spend money you don’t have. This leasing of buildings has gotten way out of hand. One time it was public record who owned these buildings and how much the lease was and length of leases. All USPS buildings are leased as well. With terrible terms. But that was stopped to favor the building owners. Time to correct it. Also how many of these buildings sat empty with the work from home program?
Im still waiting for a good answer on how national parks, fish and wildlife staff and offices that those people are required to work at are “waste”
And what does Senator Barrasso intend to do about these closures? Probably nothing. Our two Senators are in the hip pocket of Pesident Trump.
They’re the biggest groveling boot lickers that I have ever seen. Throw Hageman in the mix also. Very dishonest.
I think Elon Musk and Trump need to look in their governments own back yard first before they cut all the national parks workers. There will be chaos in the parks now because of Musk. These parks bring in billions of dollars each year from tourists. By cutting these jobs it will hurt the economy of each park and the surrounding cities that rely on the revenues that come from the tourists. Why hurt the low man on the totem pole first. It discusting what they are doing and I strongly disagree with what they are doing.
As an employee of the fed i see tons of waste and abuse daily so if they see fit to downsize I can understand im not sure of employees fired but jobs have not been eliminated that are absolute functional staff. offices absolutely over staffed as for probationary employees end employer can and will terminate those positions first we all know this so no need to get up in arms over that
Wyoming overwhelmingly voted for Trump. What did you expect? Did you think you were going to get thoughtfully planned investigations to find waste and fraud? You got what you voted for which is hate all government, chaos and lies. You will also get 4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the top 3% in the country.
All of this is a move to have no restrictions to drill. We have worked so hard all over the nation to improve biodiversity. I pledge to still fight to leave the places that we are borrowing from our kids in better shape than we found them. As an outdoor educator my passion is deeper than my pocket book. I will never stop influencing the youth of New Mexico and Wyoming to positively impact biodiversity one community at a time.
I’d like to know how much money Musk is making getting rid of people and doing away with some of these jobs. He is the one that needs to go. Is this the anti-christ in the White House and Donald Trump is his puppet!!!
Musk is not making anything. He doesn’t need another dime. Right now, the people finding the waste are picking the low hanging fruit, the obvious, How many times do they have to beat it into your heads? Our Government is broke.
3 CHEERS FOR DOGE
I wonder if this idiot move violates treaty rights?
Robert. Tribes are sovereign nation. Let them handle it.
The National Parks have been turned into Disney World. All the people, concrete, sewers, showers, roads, visitor’s centers, pools, playgrounds, hotels, cabins, museums, children’s programs, organized tours, well you get the point. I say strip it to the barebones like it was just a few decades ago.
AMEN!!!! I have been going to Yellowstone since I was a kid in the late 40s. Now the park is a big city with lot of buffalo (decendents of imports) deer and elk, also a few sheep. Lot’s of bears in those days also. There is no report of a wolf on the first exploration except for the poor old guy that nearly strved after getting lost. He reported hearing one the night before he was found starved and probably incoherent after so many days .
Musk,the idiot maybe dumber than trump,big toss up
LOL, Musk was a champion of the Left, heralded as one the richest and smartest for years.
No one called him dumb then.
Professional wrestling characters often change “sides” for good guy to bad guy and vice versa for audience entertainment. Enjoy the Kayfabe.
Yeah, he’s so dumb he’s the richest man in the world. How does that even work?
SMH
I was a State Game Warden for 30 years. The FWS has had 1 (one) a single, enforcement officer in Lander covering nearly half the State as well as the Wind River Reservation. There is virtually no reason for that position. Tribal G&F enforces tribal game code. Once the Grizzlies are delisted there is no reason for FWS personnel. Wildlife belongs to the State and is managed by the State. The tribes can set their own regulations.
I agree with you.
When I worked for the US Treasury Department I covered just about all of California. Travel was part of the job. People need to better understand what government employees should be doing not what newspaper reporters write with stuff like this.
This is insane ! Wind River Reservation is 2.2 million acres of the finest fish and wildlife habitat in the lower USA. Without.profrssional wildlife and fisheries management it will gp to hell in a hurry.
This is a sad commentary on this administration.
Were the Tribea even consulted on this moronic decision? I doubt it.