Officials in the Western U.S. who protect the public from avalanches are sounding the alarm about the Trump administration firing hundreds of meteorologists and other scientists.

A second avalanche has been reported at a California resort near Lake Tahoe, one day after a major avalanche roared down an adjoining mountain, trapping several people and killing a 66-year-old man.

A sign warns backcountry users about avalanche blasting near the Continental Divide near Vail, Colo., Monday, March 22, 2021. The experienced backcountry snowboarders weren’t injured, but the avalanche buried a service road in about 20 feet (6 meters) of snow and came dangerously close to Interstate 70, a major route for ski traffic. “Most people, if not everybody that travels in the backcountry, wants to make it safer and wants to report avalanches,” he said. The office filed a motion to quash testimony from the director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center — a state agency — and one of its avalanche forecasters. But he stressed that he is defending the snowboarders because a guilty verdict would set a dangerous precedent.

This image provided by Colorado Avalanche Information Center shows an avalanche that killed an unidentified snowboarder on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, near the town of Winter Park in Colorado. When you pile on more snow, there’s always one spot that’s going to break,” said Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. Jared Polis and the state parks and wildlife agency urged residents to check conditions this holiday weekend, citing the high danger. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center issued a special advisory Monday, warning that “large, wide and long-running natural and human-triggered avalanches are likely.”Are people getting the message? “The bottom line is that partner rescue is the only way we have positive outcomes in the backcountry,” Zinn said.