Scott Fitzwilliams is pictured at the White River National Forest headquarters office prior to his retirement.
Since his early retirement just over three weeks ago, former White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams has been soaking up his favorite activities on public lands.
“The public lands are my life,” Fitzwilliams said. “Not just because I worked there. That’s where I get my sense of wellbeing and quality of life.”
Fitzwilliams, who led the 2.3-million-acre White River National Forest for 15 years, left his position in late March as part of the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program. He said when he left, the White River was down 27 or 28 positions since Jan. 1, 2025, and just over 50 fewer positions in the past 12 months. The cuts account for nearly a third of the forest’s workforce, which by his count stood at 155 positions about a year ago.
“It’s pretty bleak right now,” he said.
The U.S. Forest Service announced last fall that it would not be hiring any non-fire, seasonal workers for summer 2025 and it saw an additional round of cuts involving thousands of positions nationwide on Feb. 14, led by the Department of Government Efficiency. Even more drastic cuts are expected as the Trump administration moves to consolidate operations.
“Pretty much across the country, there will not be any of our normal seasonal workforce that cleans the bathrooms, that clears the trails, that maintains our recreational facilities, that enforces regulations. Across the country, we won’t have those people this year,” Fitzwilliams said.
While the current administration’s cuts have made exceptions for federal firefighters, he is concerned that firefighting efforts will be hampered by the reduced workforce.
Those Forest Service employees who work out in the field “are also the people that often are the first to spot or respond to a fire,” Fitzwilliams said.
The organizational structure and support for fighting fires on the White River National Forest has been cut, too; drivers and those who buy supplies and food for firefighters are among the lost positions, he said.
Local White River National Forest officials declined to comment and requested any questions be sent in writing. Aspen Journalism received a response from an unnamed spokesperson at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Wildland firefighting positions continue to be exempt from the hiring freeze a (sic) operational readiness is not impacted,” the statement read. “The U.S. Forest Service, along with our other federal, state, tribal and local partners continue to prepare for and respond to wildfire incidents as needed.”
Fighting and preventing major wildfires is often top of mind for those living in the drought-prone, arid West, but it’s far from the only job with which the Forest Service has been tasked. The agency is responsible for managing forests for multiple uses, including wilderness, wildlife, recreation, logging, grazing and clean water.
“Our public lands, when we live amongst them, we do tend to take them for granted,” Fitzwilliams said. “But they cannot be anymore.”
Scott Fitzwilliams is shown at Hanging Lake. Partnerships developed with local communities developed under his tenure as White River National Forest supervisor include a reservation and shuttle system to access the popular hike to the lake, located in Glenwood Canyon.
‘The strength of America’
The U.S. Forest Service oversees 193 million acres of land, including the 2.3 million acres of the White River National Forest, with its 11 ski resorts, eight wilderness areas and five ranger districts. And Fitzwilliams thinks the value of public lands far exceeds what can be tracked on paper.
“I believe public lands in America are part of the strength of America,” he said. “It’s a uniquely American ideal.”
Fitzwilliams noted that this ideal is not one enshrined in the Constitution; it relies on public engagement.
“Public lands provide so much to so many and it’s not easy to manage them for all the different uses. National forest management is hard,” Fitzwilliams said. “You have to manage for wilderness and logging and grazing and mining and recreation and all these things, and clean water and wildlife — it’s hard, and so people get frustrated. It may not align perfectly with everyone’s values.
“But it’s a system of public lands in the public trust that, thank god, we have the ability to argue over them. I’m worried that if they’re dismantled, what appears to be organizationally dismantled, we could lose this incredible part of America.”
While there are indications that the Trump administration may sell off public lands, Fitzwilliams said he’s more concerned at this point that neglect and a lack of maintenance and staffing will effectively dissolve federal land management organizations.
“I just think it’s a devastating thing to think of a future that we don’t have this system,” he said.
The Forest Service was facing budget shortfalls prior to the current cuts. The budget for the White River National Forest for this fiscal year is “abysmal,” Fitzwilliams said.
There are 2,800 miles of roads across the forest. “Our road maintenance budget this year, when I left three weeks ago, was a whopping zero. Zero.”
There is no funding to support the work that it takes to rebuild culverts when they are blown out by spring thaws, for example. Instead, Fitzwilliams said there’s a three-person crew with limited machinery that can try to address emergencies.
The White River National Forest attracts about 18 million visitors every year; Fitzwilliams said the forest regularly collects more money than it spends through the appropriated budget. Nevertheless, the recreation budget is bare.
“Our recreation budget — the most profitable, most efficient, most visited forest in the entire country — I think the recreation budget was $150,000,” he said. “That’s not enough money to pump the toilets this year.”
The Department of Agriculture’s statement to Aspen Journalism — received after questions were sent to local forest officials — acknowledged that “recreation services and public access are vital to local economies.”
“The Forest Service remains committed to ensuring public health and safety while balancing access to recreation areas during this transitional time. … It is our intent to maintain access to recreation opportunities to the greatest degree possible,” the statement said.
Such a response reflects what Fitzwilliams described as an agency directive that requires all interactions with the media to be cleared by top officials in Washington, D.C.
“This is the biggest gag order anyone has ever seen,” he said. “In 35 years, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Public lands are where “I get my sense of wellbeing and quality of life,” says Scott Fitzwilliams, who took an early retirement offer and stepped down last month as supervisor of the White River National Forest after a 15-year tenure. But he fears that actions undertaken by the new administration may lead to neglect of treasured public lands.
Aspen Journalism also filed a request for information about budget and staff cuts through the Freedom of Information Act in early April and has not received a response.
There are places, Fitzwilliams said, where the Forest Service could certainly improve efficiency and cut costs. He said he shares concerns about the federal debt and would welcome the opportunity to work on efficiency and cost savings.
“It should be a systematic, collaborative approach, by focusing on mission-critical work first,” Fitzwilliams said.
Instead, in the mass cuts on Valentine’s Day, the White River National Forest fired 16 people, 15 of whom were permanent part-time workers whose job was in the field, out on the 2,500 miles of trails in the forest. They earned about $19,000 per season, Fitzwilliams said, and six of the positions were paid for by other agencies or governments, like Pitkin or Eagle counties. The rest were funded through fees collected by the White River National Forest.
“The United States taxpayer saved zero dollars in the initial firings,” he said.
Finding ways to reduce spending and become more efficient would involve detailed analysis and hard work, which Fitzwilliams said he would welcome.
“I don’t think the hard work is sending out a note on Valentine’s Day saying a bunch of people are fired, with no analysis whatsoever of who these people were. None. There was none. It was low hanging fruit and they took it,” he said.
Fitzwilliams had been planning to retire in about a year, but decided to take the buyout offered to federal employees under the deferred resignation program, and receive full pay and benefits through Sept. 30. He sent a letter to White River employees and partners announcing his resignation on Feb. 25.
“Quite frankly, I didn’t have the energy to be part of what is looking more and more like the dismantling of the agency,” Fitzwilliams said. “That last month or two at work was — I’ve never been that stressed out ever. I was feeling hopelessness, having to fire people for no reason and trying to figure out how we would get the work done, serve the public and meet the agreements with our partners. It was stressful.”
Brian Glaspell, who previously was director of strategic planning for the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain region, is the acting supervisor of the White River National Forest.
Forest health depends on partners
The White River National Forest is the largest national forest in Colorado, spanning parts of nine counties and bordering communities including Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Vail, Breckenridge and Leadville. Much of the identity and economy of these communities is tied to the forest.
“Aspen isn’t Aspen without the forest around it,” Fitzwilliams said.
These communities rely on the forest in other ways, too, including for a healthy water supply and air quality.
“Every single community on the West Slope gets its drinking water off of national forest,” he said. “We ought to have people taking care of that.”
In his time with the White River National Forest, Fitzwilliams built partnerships with local governments, nonprofits and other agencies that helped to share stewardship of the forest as recreation numbers boomed in the past decade. For example, Pitkin County has provided funding for forest protection officers at North Star Nature Preserve and works in partnership with the agency on several other properties that share boundaries with the White River National Forest.
“These partnerships were the epitome of efficiency,” said Gary Tennenbaum, director of Pitkin County Open Space and Trails.
The Forest Service worked with Pitkin County, the city of Aspen and the Independence Pass Foundation to bring more rangers to heavily trafficked areas like Independence Pass, Wildwood, Richmond Ridge, Pearl Pass and the Castle Creek area.
The county’s public works and open space and trails departments pay for two, full-time seasonal Forest Service employees; for now, those positions remain intact. A third position, paid for by a partnership between Pitkin County, the city of Aspen and the Independence Pass Foundation, has been cut by the Forest Service because the employee was in their probationary period.
Fitzwilliams is proud of his legacy of cross-agency work.
“It’s the part of the job I’m going to miss the most. We roll up our sleeves and figure out how to solve problems with only one objective: how do we serve the public?” he said. “It’s a symbiotic, shared stewardship. We’re doing this work together. We’re leveraging in a very innovative, creative, efficient way.”
But he’s concerned that the Forest Service now has less to bring to the table in terms of staffing and funding.
“I don’t know how long we think that local governments can support this, and the scary part that keeps me up at night is then what happens afterwards,” Fitzwilliams said.
In many respects, the White River National Forest is fortunate and unique in the level of support it receives from surrounding communities. According to a 2019 economic analysis of national forests, the White River contributed more than 22,000 jobs, bringing in $960 million to local communities and workers.
Local organizations, like the Independence Pass Foundation and Roaring Fork Transportation Authority, provide labor, funding and support that enhances public lands management of the White River National Forest as well.
“We’re fortunate around here, we have those organizations. That’s not the case everywhere,” Fitzwilliams said. “There is no one to step up and fill the gaps. That’s worrisome.”
The health of the White River National Forest in the upcoming summer season will depend deeply on the partnerships that Fitzwilliams and his colleagues have built over the past decade.
“This summer, we’re going to need the public to care more than ever about their public lands,” Tennenbaum said. “People need to have an ethic this summer that is very respectful of the land. You come across a campsite, don’t just walk by it. Make sure the campfire is out. Think about how you deal when you have to go to the bathroom. There’s going to be some impacts; we have to recognize that and not make it worse.”
The White River National Forest is not alone in facing a summer season with large numbers of crowds and little ability to manage those crowds to prevent ecological damage. Fitzwilliams notes that public lands are deeply valuable to many Americans, and he retains hope in the public’s ability to speak up for a national treasure.
“I think the American public, not excluding anyone, they’re going to stand up for their public lands,” Fitzwilliams said. “Unfortunately we’re going to see some hurt in the meantime.”
