Woodsy and winding, the Florida National Scenic Trail is a beacon of the Sunshine State. It draws 400,000 people annually, from casual walkers out for an evening stroll to die-hard thru-hikers trekking its 1,500 mile length from the Keys to the Panhandle.
Jenna Taylor has spent years bush cutting in its cypress swamps and building bridges over its muddy creeks. In February, she received a performance award for taking on four months of extra work while her supervisor, the trail’s administrator, was away on assignment.
A week later, on Presidents’ Day, she was laid off.
As a probationary employee 23 days short of completing one year with the U.S. Forest Service, Taylor knew she was “on the list” for nationwide cuts to federal agencies.
“Still, it was still really shocking, especially on a holiday, in the evening, to get such an insensitive dismissal,” she said.
The Florida Trail is one of 32 National Scenic and Historic Trails managed by the federal government. Congress first codified the trails’ importance in 1968, beginning with the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail. Stewart Udall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior at the time of their federal designation, called each National Trail “a gateway into nature’s secret beauties” and “an inroad to our national character.”
The Florida Trail joined the ranks in 1983, turning one Floridian’s dream of a local long-distance trail into a well-preserved time capsule of wild Florida.
Federal agencies and nonprofit organizations, many funded through governmental cost-share programs, jointly maintain the National Trails.
Taylor is one of thousands of federal workers fired in the Department of Government Efficiency’s deluge of budget cuts. A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, confirmed 2,000 firings in an email to WUFT, but Frank Beum of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees estimated the number at 3,400.
Taylor’s departure leaves one federal administrator for the entire Florida Trail.
A path to the trail
Taylor’s love for the outdoors was born out of a previous role as an AmeriCorps director in southeast Florida. She guided pre-k students and their families on nature walks, watching many of them experience a trail for the first time.
“It awakened a passion in me that I didn't quite know that I had,” she said.
Taylor joined the Florida Trail Association, the nonprofit complement to the federal trail, in 2020. She spent four years coordinating volunteer efforts in the central and southern sections of the hike, launching a partnership with her alma mater, Flagler College, to introduce students to trail work.
She treasured the memories made in the trail’s most remote, starry-skyed corners: Helping a student pitch their first tent and scrambling to find a birthday treat for a volunteer during a backcountry trip. (She settled on a roasted pineapple.)
When the deputy administrator position opened, “It felt like a really great fit.”
After landing the position in March 2024, Taylor secured permits for projects including bridges and boardwalks, made sure nonprofit partners spent federal dollars appropriately and negotiated agreements with landowners.
Unlike the Appalachian Trail, which sits entirely on federal land, the Florida Trail crosses through “A melting pot of lands” managed by state agencies, water management districts and private owners.
“If we don't have an agreement in place with the land manager at any time, they can tell us: ‘Thank you, but no,’” and that portion of the trail would close, Taylor explained.
Keeping the trail safe is as important as keeping it contiguous.
The Florida Trail includes about 250 miles on backroads, state and U.S. highways. Taylor worked on projects to reduce the stretches hikers spent alongside cars. An ongoing effort in St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge will build boardwalks and a bridge, cutting 20 miles of so-called “roadwalk.”
Near Eglin Air Force Base, a collaboration with the Florida Trail Association and Okaloosa County will build a bridge over the Yellow River, transforming the roadside trek into a destination hiking area.
The projects are, “probably one of the bigger gaps that I'm concerned about,” Taylor said, “seeing that I was the main contact there.”
On Wednesday, the Merit Systems Protection Board ordered the USDA to reinstate around 6,000 workers while it continues to investigate if the firings were illegal. As of Thursday morning, Taylor hadn’t heard from her former employer.
Even if employees are invited back, Taylor said, “I wonder how many really talented people in their fields are going to have found other positions by then or be so burned and so scared that they don't want to come back.”
“An immense amount of experience and love and loyalty is being lost,” she said.
Uncertain finances
Volunteers dedicated over 32,000 hours of work to the Florida Trail last year.
They cleared hurricane debris, mowed, installed boardwalks, posted signs and did dozens of other activities required to keep the trail protected and accessible.
While their labor was free, their tools and training were not.
“A substantial amount of our operating budget comes from the Forest Service,” said Jane Pollack, communications and outreach manager for the Florida Trail Association.
Last year, the U.S. Forest Service provided the Florida Trail Association $800,000 for construction, maintenance, acquisition and education. In return, volunteers provided more than $1 million in value to the trail.
While none of the organization’s funding has been frozen yet, Pollack is holding her breath.
“There are still a lot of unknowns,” Pollack said, “But we’ve heard rumors that there may be reduced funding to our budget.” Any cuts to the organization’s funds would reverberate through trail crews, conservation efforts, and building projects.
If budget cuts come, “We’d be forced to cancel volunteer programs that are essential for keeping the Florida Trail open,” Pollack said. It’d be a devastating blow to trail users and volunteers: looking to give back to the trail but without an avenue to do so.
Things like bridge repairs or trail rerouting require permits that volunteers can’t access on their own.
“All of the planning that goes into [permitting] has to be done by somebody who has the legal authority to do that planning,” said Courtney Lyons-Garcia, executive director of the Partnership for the National Trail System. “It isn't just something that a random person can show up on a weekend to do.”
The other trails
Nonprofit partners provided $15 million in private investments to match federal funds and contributed more than $28 million worth of volunteer labor to the trails last year.
“That’s a significant value add the American taxpayer is getting with trail nonprofit partners,” Lyons-Garcia said, “So it’s a net loss when we’re not properly staffed and nonprofits are not supported.”
Last week, Lyons-Garcia and nearly 100 others traveled to Washington D.C. to advocate for protection and staffing for the trails. The 28th year of the “Hike the Hill” event took on a particular importance in light of the federal cuts.
“It felt more critical than ever, getting terminated on that Monday and knowing they were leaving the following Monday,” said Taylor, the former Florida Trail employee.
Silently, she sent them off with confidence: “‘Yes, go fight.’”
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