Forest Service warns staffing shortfalls after 2025 losses; Pitkin County-funded position to support Maroon Bells operations

Pitkin County commissioners heard on Jan. 6 from U.S. Forest Service leaders that acute staffing losses in 2025 have narrowed the agency’s capacity to manage frontline operations, including visitor services at Maroon Bells.

“ We lost exactly 50 positions in calendar year 2025,” White River National Forest Supervisor Brian Glassbone said, summarizing agency-wide attrition that he characterized as “a little more than a third of what we started with.” Glassbone said temporary promotion authority (up to 120 days) and stepwise internal hiring are immediate tools while the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Agriculture negotiate broader hiring flexibility.

Acting Aspen-Sopris District Ranger Jennifer Schuler told the board the district lost roughly 45% of its staff in 2025 and had to change operations at Maroon Bells, including foregoing seasonal hires and relying on partner crews. “We typically brought around 10 seasonal employees, but due to the budget scenario that the Forest Service is in, we were not able to hire seasonals last year,” Schuler said, adding that the district leaned on Rocky Mountain Youth Corps crews and local partners to sustain basic operations.

County staff and the Forest Service described a new 2026 partnership in which Pitkin County is funding a position to provide continuity at Maroon Bells. Schuler said that county-funded staff will help restore visitor experience elements the district could not staff in 2025 and will support hopes to reopen the Maroon Bells information center and the site’s water and restroom infrastructure if the county and municipal partners can provide resources.

Commissioners pressed the Forest Service on wildfire preparedness, fuels treatments and the role of NEPA planning. Glassbone said the fire organization has been able to hire and move personnel with fewer constraints, but that long-lead NEPA planning for fuels projects remains a bottleneck. Schuler noted the district has been working off a 2011 NEPA decision (the Aspen-Sopris Wildlife Habitat Improvement Project) and advocated for district-wide NEPA planning to enable more timely fuels treatments.

Board members and agency staff discussed housing as a primary constraint to filling field positions. Glassbone described the math problem of building units that are both affordable to lower-paid employees and acceptable to others and pointed to enhanced-use leasing (now incorporated into the Explore Act) as a tool used elsewhere, including a pilot project in the Dillon Ranger District. “We have many very stark examples of housing being the number-one limiting factor,” he said.

Why it matters: staffing shortfalls constrain trail and visitor maintenance, the timing of prescribed burns and the Forest Service’s ability to staff front-country operations. Pitkin County’s 2026 funding for a dedicated position at Maroon Bells aims to shore up day-to-day service and allow partners to pursue longer-term housing and staffing solutions.

What’s next: County and agency staff said they will continue work on partnership details, volunteer programs for visitor centers and potential housing collaborations with Roaring Fork Fire, the City of Aspen, the Forest Conservancy and regional coalitions.

(Reporting based on the Forest Service update to the Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners, Jan. 6, 2026.)