A federal hiring freeze on seasonal U.S. Forest Service workers could mean fewer people putting out abandoned campfires, constructing trails and preventing wildfires across Colorado next year. The freeze is projected to impact 156 temporary seasonal positions across Colorado. Those employees cover a wide range of critical tasks: wildfire prevention and education, campsite management and biological fieldwork as well as trail construction and maintenance. Local government leaders said the staffing reductions would be felt hard in Colorado’s central mountains, where highly trafficked Forest Service land dominates much of the area and is the center of recreation tourism that fuel economies. Several counties pay to fund seasonal positions, but the hiring freeze means those paid-for positions could remain vacant, putting years-old agreements in jeopardy. …The hiring freeze, announced in September, is the result of a potential $500 million budget cut to the agency in the coming fiscal year.