U.S. Forest Service district ranger gives stark insight into future of Aspen area

Significantly reduced staff means significantly reduced capacity by the U.S. Forest Service, which will have noticeable impacts in the Roaring Fork Valley this summer.

Kevin Warner, district ranger for the Aspen Sopris Ranger District of the White River National Forest, delivered a lengthy discussion of the bleak future of local U.S. Forest Service operations.

“We have 300,000-plus acres of National Forest, we see somewhere in the range of 3,400 day users and a couple thousand overnight users in those wilderness areas every year,” said Warner to the Board. “This year, we will have about one-third of the field going staff that we’ve had over the past couple of years.”

That means that there will be fewer crewmembers to work on trail maintenance, fewer crewmembers working to put out abandoned fires at campsites, fewer crewmembers working to clean out and maintain bathroom sites, and more. 

President Donald Trump has cut about 10% of Forest Service workers and directed Congress to approve further cuts to their budgets, according to Politico. Those cuts are likely to have an outsized effect in the Roaring Fork Valley because so much of the land in the region is federally operated. 

“I think it’s important for the public to understand how bad things are, especially where we live, where 84% of our lands are public,” said Commissioner Francie Jacober. 

For some responsibilities, the Forest Service can count on partnerships and volunteers to pick up some of the slack. Warner noted, however, that even the Forest Service’s ability to coordinate volunteer hours will be negatively affected, meaning low-cost services done by volunteers will be cut back as well.

“We’re still going to see a lot of money going to volunteers,” Warner said. “But with 50% less field staff comes 50% less time with those volunteers. I think there’s two different groups we had to say no to this year that have been coming back year after year. We just don’t have the staff to be able to do that. I think there was about 400ish volunteer hours that we had to say no to this year.”

The Forest Service has committed to focusing labor and man-hours they retain on the most used services and trails. According to Warner, this could result in trails trafficked primarily by Roaring Fork Valley residents may fall to the wayside in favor of maintaining highly trafficked trails that bring in tourists and visitors.

Additionally, in-person services may be slimmed in favor of a focus on manning call-centers which received significantly more traffic last year when compared to physical office visits. 

Commissioners and Warner emphasized that this level of decreased service will mean the community will have to step up to pick up some slack. 

“I really think we need to appeal to the public to look after their course and be thoughtful,” said Commissioner Greg Poschman. “If you see something, say something. If you see a fire pit that might be warm, put it out yourself. We can’t wait for other people to come along and fix it.”

One to three abandoned campfires were put out in the Lincoln Creek area every time Forest Service rangers visited last year, Warner noted. 

Gary Tennenbaum, director of Pitkin County Open Spaces and Trails added communities seeking to fill that gap should be careful not to accept this as the new status quo. 

“We support the Forest Service,” Tennenbaum told commissioners. “We put a lot of funds into this, and we’ll be back with more information on how to help the Forest Service in the future, but you as elected officials have to make that huge choice of how far you want to go with it, because we want the federal government to handle the federal lands.”

With the increased load on a smaller headcount at the Forest Service, Warner noted that the work has not been easy on those who remain. 

“We appreciate the support that we have gotten from Pitkin County, the city of Aspen, and from others that reached out,” he said. “If you are out there and you’re recreating and you see anybody with a forest service uniform on, just tell them thanks, because it’s been tough.”