About

Jason Robertson is the Principal of Swiftwater Consulting LLC, where he advises companies, investors, and mission-driven organizations on navigating federal policy, budgets, and permitting to advance complex projects on public lands and in regulated environments. He brings more than 20 years of senior leadership experience across the U.S. federal government, with deep expertise at the intersection of public policy, finance, natural resources, and private investment.

Jason has served in executive and senior advisory roles at the USDA Forest Service, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and NOAA, including as Regional Budget Director and Chief Financial Officer for the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Region. In these roles, he directed dozens of professionals, managed multi-billion-dollar programs, and oversaw the formulation and execution of annual budgets exceeding $750 million. He is widely recognized for translating complex policy and budget authorities into practical strategies that deliver measurable outcomes.

As Regional Director for Recreation, Lands, and Minerals, Jason was the senior executive responsible for programs spanning outdoor recreation, special use permitting, lands and realty, energy and minerals, wilderness, and heritage resources across five states and 40 million acres of public land. His work directly supported a $27 billion recreation economy, enabled major land acquisitions and access projects, reduced litigation risk while expanding development opportunities, and strengthened collaboration between federal agencies, states, tribes, local governments, and industry.

Earlier in his career, Jason worked at the national level as a policy and budget strategist, negotiating directly with the Office of Management and Budget and Congressional Appropriations Committees, preparing executive testimony, and shaping national legislation and funding for programs related to drought resilience, conservation, recreation, and climate science. He has also led nonprofit organizations, guided national coalitions, and founded partnerships that continue to influence public land policy today.

Through Swiftwater Consulting, Jason advises clients on:

• Federal permitting and regulatory strategy

• Public–private partnerships on federal lands

• Budget risk, opportunity analysis, and funding alignment

• Acquisition and transfer of federal permits

• Recreation, energy, and infrastructure investments

• Post-disaster recovery and resilience initiatives

Recent clients include equity investors acquiring ski resorts, partners developing innovative impact-finance models for recreation on public lands, national conservation foundations responding to Executive Orders, and outdoor coalitions seeking to strengthen operations and service delivery.

Jason holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Golden, Colorado, where he remains actively engaged in outdoor recreation and public lands stewardship.

Jason founded Swiftwater Consulting to help clients succeed where policy, capital, and land intersect.