How the West was lost
Despite anti-fed sentiment, rural areas depend on government presence

Nearly 80 years ago, Bernard DeVoto, the Utah-born writer and historian, wrote an essay titled “The West Against Itself” for Harper’s Magazine. DeVoto summed up the platform pressed by Western elected officials of his day in a memorable punchline: “Get out – and give us more money.” This “economic fantasy” is still with us, as DeVoto predicted, “yesterday, today and forever.” 

The new, fossil fuel-friendly heads of federal land management agencies are serious about the “get out” part of that plea, firing thousands of their employees and closing dozens of offices across the West. Their list targets Fort Collins; Flagstaff; Moab; Salt Lake City; Lander, Wyo.; Boise; and more. Local economies will lose millions they’ve depended on.

But Donald Trump and Elon Musk aren’t doing so well with the “give us more money” part. Voters who elected Trump may not get what they bargained for.

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 more than 70% of their votes to Trump, often complain about federal overreach. They see conservation of national public lands as “locking up” land.

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. 

After a charming presentation about cowboy culture at Torrey’s nonprofit Entrada Institute recently, my wife asked a young rancher what his family did for health insurance. 

“My wife works for the Forest Service,” he said. Indeed, government employees make up 23% of the workforce in Utah’s Garfield County and 25% in Wayne County. These salaries and the benefits that come with them are crucial to family stability.

A revealing interactive map in Grist magazine 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.

Think upgrades of rural airports, solar panels on small businesses, bridge replacements, removal of lead from drinking water – and on and on.

And then on Feb. 14,  the Department of the Interior announced the firings of more than 2,300 public servants at the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey. With this “Valentine’s Day Massacre,” 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.

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 worked as a park ranger himself for years. He transferred to the Forest Service recently, becoming a “probationary” employee only because he was new to his position. He lost his job and his career thanks to the Trump administration. 

When rural Westerners say “get out” to the feds, I don’t think this is what they have in mind. 

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. 

The monuments haven’t 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. 

According to a recent Colorado College poll, 84% of Utahns support establishment of new national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges and tribal protected areas. Still, Utah’s governor, attorney general and congressional delegation continue to waste millions on fruitless lawsuits attacking those same preserves. 

Westerners are evolving; politicians aren’t keeping up. And yet we keep re-electing these same officials. Maybe, just maybe, the Trumpian war on civil servants will force a reckoning. We’ll re-evaluate why we need a robust federal presence in the West. 

And our war against ourselves will end.

Stephen Trimble is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He worked for the National Park Service, BLM and Forest Service in his twenties and has been a conservation advocate ever since.