Take Angus King, the former governor and moderate independent senator from Maine, who crusades against partisanship. “The federal government can’t work if there’s nobody to answer the phone,” he said in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee meeting. The latest victim is the great outdoors. Recreation pays huge fees to use the national forests, about $65 million a year, $37 million from skiing alone (about $27 million from Colorado). Yet, in order to make changes or improvements to respond to the demands of growth and popularity, resorts can wait months and sometimes years to get inspections and approvals. While staffing for the National Forest Service has shrunk by 20% since 2010, skier visits grew by 30%, according to the Lakewood-based National Ski Area Association.