GREATER LAKE TAHOE AREA, Calif./Nev. – The Sierra Avalanche Center supplies life saving avalanche forecasts for the greater Lake Tahoe region seven days a week, but this could soon be in jeopardy as a result of the federal government’s ongoing staff cuts.

The avalanche center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, functions via a private-public partnership with the U.S. Forest Service. As part of the federal government’s ongoing staff cuts, the U.S. Forest Service may lay off one of the three Sierra Avalanche Center forecasters.

The center says this would reduce daily avalanche forecasts down to four forecasts per week instead of seven, due to coverage and operational safety.

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“This decision puts lives at risk,” the center stated in an announcement posted on its website and social media.

Ski patrollers use the information to help keep thousands of guests at Tahoe-area ski resorts safe. Local search and rescue teams also rely on forecasts to conduct safe rescue operations during the winter. Additionally, each forecast provides vital data to over 200,000 individuals who use it to stay alive in the backcountry and would no longer have it on a daily basis, forcing them to rely on potentially outdated information.

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“The forecast can change as quickly as the weather,” the center’s executive director, David Reichel, says and explains it is common to go from low danger, for example on a clear calm day when it hasn’t snowed for a while, to high danger when a big storm arrives on a subsequent day. 

Although incoming new storms are a major piece of the avalanche equation, Reichel says, so is the existing snowpack, which is often more challenging to understand.

“The seasonal snowpack is a story that nature writes all winter long and skipping days,” he says, “makes it harder to really understand what is happening.”

While individual forecasters currently get days off work, there is always at least one forecaster in the field observing and forecasting, providing continuity of snow and avalanche observations. This is something the cut would change, reducing the overall quality of the forecasts.

The center says not only does this put lives at risk, the layoff comes with no fiscal benefit the government.

“This layoff will actually cost the government money,” the center says.

The nonprofit pays 75% of the forecasters’ salaries and had already funded all three forecaster positions this season. Laying off a forecaster would require the government to pay the nonprofit back.

This private-public partnership, the center explains, provides government efficiency because the majority of funding comes from the local nonprofit organization.

The avalanche center is urging people to call their congressperson to express concerns about the potential cut and ask for help to ensure the center’s forecasters remain essential public safety employees. This designation would make them exempt from Forest Service staffing cuts.

Their website says in past government shutdowns, avalanche forecasters were categorized as essential public safety employees and exempt from furloughs due to the critical nature of their work.

As far as when the cut could take place, Reichel, says, “We don’t really know.” The information they received implied terminations could occur as early as Monday, Feb. 10, but that date has already come and gone with no subsequent news.

The center continues to operate with three forecasters for now, but if one were cut, the forecasts would pivot to four days a week in a matter of days.