WASHINGTON, DC—Robert “Hutch” Brown knows everything. At least, he does if you ask some of our employees. That’s because he’s spent over 20 years writing for the Forest Service as an employee, and longer than that as a contractor. He’s written on topics ranging from old-growth policy to our current wildfire crisis strategy.

Learning a bit about everything might come from his childhood of travel. With a father who worked for the CIA, Hutch grew up in Virginia, Germany and Colombia. Germany stayed with him, so much so that after spending his junior year in Marburg and falling in love with the country all over again, he switched his studies from psychology and philosophy to German literature and never looked back. After graduating from Davidson College in North Carolina, he attended graduate school at UC-Berkeley, where he eventually received his doctorate.

Hutch intended to be a professor, but it turns out that jobs in German literature aren’t thick on the ground. He loved living in the Bay Area, so he found other work to keep him there, including working with a local political group in Berkeley that produced a newsletter about Central America. This was during the days of the Contra war in Nicaragua under President Reagan and, having partly grown up in South America, Hutch had opinions about the administration’s Latin American policies. Hutch might have stayed in Berkeley, but he reconnected with an ex-girlfriend who had moved to Washington, DC, to work for the World Bank and moved to the area to be with her. Reader, he married her; they have two children, one in graduate school and one in college.

Coming to DC meant Hutch needed a new job. He was familiar with the Forest Service, having learned about the agency as a Boy Scout and, later, an Explorer Scout. Hutch’s Explorer Scouts sponsor was Vernon Hamre, then in the Washington Office, and he gave the teenagers exposure to the agency. In fact, while the Scouts were on a trip in West Virginia, Hamre was contacted via radio to provide support on a nearby fire. The teenagers were loaded into the back of pickups and driven at night over bumpy forest roads. Arriving at the fire, these inexperienced teens were promptly put to work—digging a fireline, then watching the district ranger set a backfire to stop the wildfire. It was a memorable introduction to the agency’s work.

Arriving in DC, Hutch began applying for writer-editor jobs based on his newsletter experience. It was 1994: Ace of Base and Boyz II Men topped the pop charts, and Hutch replied to a bid for temporary work from the Forest Service’s Washington Office. The Office of Communication’s lead editor was retiring, and while they had already tapped a new permanent editor, they needed someone to fill the gap. Hutch got the job and, shortly thereafter, he wrote his first speech for a Chief. In the wake of the South Canyon Fire disaster that claimed the lives of 14 firefighters, Chief Jack Ward Thomas was so shaken that he felt unable to write his own speech, so Hutch stepped in.

He began working as a contractor with the Forest Service Office of Communication, continuing to write speeches as a contractor and beginning to edit Fire Management Today, which he did again in recent years. Hutch worked on content for Chief Mike Dombeck’s four focus areas as a contractor with the Chief’s Office and, in 2000, came to the agency as full-time speechwriter.

He has worked in the Office of Communication, Chief’s Office and Policy Analysis staff until the latter was disbanded in 2017. He then came full circle, retiring from the Office of Communication this month. He has written speeches, policy papers and communication aids. He began participating in Chief’s reviews in the early 2000s and continued to do so until the pandemic.

Hutch wrote speeches for seven Chiefs: six as an employee and one as a contractor. He says that while he’s had good experiences throughout the agency, he most enjoyed working in Policy Analysis, where Presidential Management Fellows and other recent college graduates came to the agency and worked with more experienced employees. Of the Chiefs he’s worked for, he says Chief Dale Bosworth and Associate Chief Sally Collins kept him busiest, writing at least one speech per week and often two.

In fact, one of his standout memories as speechwriter comes from Chief Bosworth. About 2005-2006, Chief Bosworth wanted a speech that talked about “the elephant in the room,” climate change. He made a deliberate decision to pivot from his Four Threats (fire and fuels, invasive species, loss of open space, and unmanaged outdoor recreation), which remained focus areas for the Forest Service, to stressing what we could do as an agency to confront climate change. The Bush White House heard about the shift and wanted to review the climate change speeches. Chief Bosworth’s executive assistant said it was an anxious few weeks, but the message came back from the administration that this was exactly what the federal government should be saying on the topic.

Most people look forward to stopping work in retirement. But Hutch isn’t most people: His career is also his hobby. In retirement, he’s going to continue caring for public lands and editing. As a tree steward and regional master naturalist, he’ll continue to conduct stream monitoring and tree work, as well as pulling invasive species from area parks. As a member of a local mineral club, he’ll continue to write and edit its newsletter, as well as editing his local neighborhood newsletter—the only neighborhood newsletter in his area.

To new and future employees, he says: Read. Read up on our history and culture with works by authors like Gifford Pinchot, Aldo Leopold and Stephen Pyne. He also advises everyone to take opportunities to learn by working on Chief’s Reviews or taking details to learn as much as much as possible about what the Forest Service does.

Hutch leaves a legacy of speeches, communication aids and briefing papers, a veritable treasure trove of agency information and context. In the only part of his retirement that sounds like “retirement,” he says he and his wife will spend part of their time in their Maui condo. It’s a tough gig, but someone has to do it.