Last year, Scott Fitzwilliams retired from his position as supervisor of the White River National Forest. He had been in the role for 15 years, nearly half of his 35-year career with the U.S. Forest Service. His previous locations with the agency included northern Wyoming, Alaska and parts of the Pacific Northwest. The newly inaugurated Trump administration announced its Deferred Resignation Program on Jan. 28, 2025, offering federal employees full pay and benefits through Sept. 30 in exchange for going on administrative leave and then retiring from their positions.
Fitzwilliams was among those who accepted the offer. He officially left his position as supervisor on March 21. Since then, he has spoken often on behalf of the 2.3-million-acre White River National Forest and the rest of the country’s public lands. Last week, on Jan. 7 and 8, he spoke with journalist Elizabeth Stewart-Severy in the first round of the 2026 Naturalist Nights series, hosted by Wilderness Workshop and Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES) in Carbondale and Aspen, respectively. Stewart-Severy was born and raised in the Roaring Fork Valley. She is a former Aspen High School teacher and contributes to Aspen Journalism and Aspen Public Radio.
The conversations, titled “A Crisis of the Commons: Uncovering the Impacts of Federal Neglect of Public Lands,” covered the threats to the nation’s public lands in the face of reduced budgets and staffing, pending changes to the National Environmental Policy Act and local impacts due to policy changes.
The White River National Forest is the most visited in the United States, with an eastern border along Front Range 14,000-feet Grays and Torreys peaks. Ski areas within the forest include Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, Keystone, Breckenridge, Copper, Vail, Beaver Creek, the four Aspen Snowmass mountains and Sunlight Mountain Resort. It surrounds the Roaring Fork Valley and Colorado River corridor, stretching as far west as De Beque and some 40 miles north of Glenwood Springs to the border of Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest near Yampa.
On Jan. 8, the ACES conversation was hosted at the newly renovated Hallam Lake teaching space. Stewart-Severy opened by asking Fitzwilliams for a quick recap of his story and how he got started in the Forest Service.
“I came to Colorado from the Midwest,” said Fitzwilliams, before listing off the many other western states where he worked for the Forest Service.
Last January, Fitzwilliams said, the changes from the new administration started quickly — “sweeping changes, firings, eliminations.” He described himself as naive at the time, thinking White River would face budget cuts, but little else.
“It really hit me on what we called the ‘Valentine’s Day Massacre,’” when he and colleagues were required to fire staff. “I had to issue letters … The letters, which I didn’t write and I never would have signed … said they were being fired based on performance, which was a complete lie.”
That round of dismissals, Fitzwilliams said, made him realize he couldn’t continue to work in that environment. The incident, he said, made it clear “that this was going to be based on a lot of falsehoods, [and] zero empathy toward employees.” He said that by taking up the Deferred Resignation Program, he essentially was paid to go fishing for six months. When he left, the White River National Forest staff had decreased by at least 27 people, between Jan. 1 and late March of 2025.
“Our public land system is part of the strength of our country,” Fitzwilliams said, emphasizing that it is a unique facet of the United States. “We need these lands,” he emphasized, and expressed that he finds it odd that the administration has been targeting public lands when the spaces “have never been more popular.” Stewart-Severy noted that budget and staffing challenges have existed for the Forest Service for many years, and asked Fitzwilliams what he believes makes these changes different.
“This is a deliberate dismantling of the public lands system,” he responded. He added that his impression is that the administration and Congress will continue to pursue selling public lands, as Utah Senator Mike Lee tried repeatedly to include in last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Fitzwilliams shared that his Forest Service contacts are not able to hire to fill any vacancies, and that they’ve been asked to reduce staff further. Stewart-Severy inquired why that is. “That’s the curious thing,” he answered, saying that there wasn’t a clearly stated goal.
“Our public lands and these mountains and refuges are going to be essential in the future,” he said. Fitzwilliams has been advocating for the importance of forests and public lands since his resignation. Just last week, he spoke with Aspen Public Radio on the topic.
The free Naturalist Nights series occurs every two weeks through March 4 and 5, from 6-7 pm on Wednesdays at the Third Street Center in Carbondale and Thursdays at Hallam Lake in Aspen. The next topic, “Ecology and Resilience of Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands under Global Change” with Dr. Miranda Redmond, will be covered on Jan. 21 and 22.