This Week: 5 - HARVEST ROARING FORK 7 - SCHOOL BUS ETIQUETTE 9 -SPORTS 14-15 - GOVERNMENT 16-17 - OPINION Your nonprofit
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Volume 17, Number 49 | January 15-21, 2026
For lands’ sake
The first Naturalist Nights Speaker Series event of the season, featuring former White River National Forest Service supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams speaking with Elizabeth Stewart-Severy of Aspen Journalism on the topic of public lands, took place at the Third Street Center on Jan. 7. Photo by James Steindler
Former Forest supervisor warns of “deliberate dismantling of the public lands system” ANNALISE GRUETER Sopris Sun Correspondent
ast 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 Basin, Loveland, Keystone, Brecken2026 Naturalist Nights series, hosted by ridge, Copper, Vail, Beaver Creek, the Wilderness Workshop and Aspen Center four Aspen Snowmass mountains and for Environmental Studies (ACES) in Sunlight Mountain Resort. It surrounds Carbondale and Aspen, respecthe Roaring Fork Valley and Colotively. Stewart-Severy was born rado River corridor, stretching and raised in the Roaring as far west as De Beque Fork Valley. She is a former and some 40 miles north Aspen High School of Glenwood Springs teacher and contributes to the border of Medito Aspen Journalism and cine Bow-Routt National Aspen Public Radio. Forest near Yampa. The conversations, On Jan. 8, the ACES - Scott Fitzwilliams titled “A Crisis of the conversation was hosted Commons: Uncovering the at the newly renovated Impacts of Federal Neglect of Hallam Lake teaching space. Public Lands,” covered the threats to Stewart-Severy opened by asking the nation’s public lands in the face of Fitzwilliams for a quick recap of his story reduced budgets and staffing, pending and how he got started in the Forest changes to the Environmental Policy Act Service. and local impacts due to policy changes. “I came to Colorado from the The White River National Forest is the Midwest,” said Fitzwilliams, before listing most visited in the United States, with off the many other western states where an eastern border along Front Range he worked for the Forest Service. 14,000-feet Grays and Torreys peaks. Ski Last January, Fitzwilliams said, the areas within the forest include Arapahoe changes from the new administration
Our public land system is part of the strength of our country.
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. continued on page 6