The current administration has embraced the tech-bro mantra: “Move fast and break things.” Here’s a quick overview:
- The Forest Service is currently working on new rules to reduce public engagement in environmental reviews and rescind protection for 45 million acres of inventoried roadless areas.
- Sweeping emergency declarations assert an alleged need for dramatic active management in the name of forest health, wildfire mitigation, and timber production.
- The agency is proposing multi-decade projects that will road, log, and degrade our forests without specifying where the roads and logging will occur — and consequently finding no negative impacts.
- The agency has fired aspiring new employees and released capable, experienced staff.
On March 31, the Forest Service released its long-awaited reorganization plan affecting approximately 6,500 employees across the Washington, D.C., headquarters; nine regional offices; and seven research stations. The agency headquarters will move from Washington to Salt Lake City. Fifteen state offices will replace the nine regional offices. Six new agency-wide operational service centers be established, as will a national training center. The dysfunctional Albuquerque Service Center will remain as a business support center.
Diving into the reorganization plan affirms that multiple things can be true at once. The reorganization makes the agency less top-heavy, rectifies some overspending, and retains dedicated staff at the forest and district levels. It also sidelines science, diminishes federal capacity, erodes the civil service, and pushes public lands closer to state and, potentially, private control. There are no forced employee reductions, but hundreds will be reassigned to new locations.
Two-thirds of the agency’s staff in Washington will be moved to Salt Lake City or operational service centers. A number of regional office employees and agency researchers will also be relocated. It remains to be seen how many will actually move versus leave the agency. For comparison, when the first Trump administration moved the BLM headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado, only 41 of 328 employees moved — the rest left the agency, suggesting that another mass exodus of dedicated employees could further erode agency talent and institutional knowledge.
In explaining the intent behind the reorganization, Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins asserted, “Moving the Forest Service closer to the forests we manage is an essential action that will improve our core mission of managing our forests.” This rationale does not apply to research functions.
While the nine regional offices are shifting to 15 state offices, the agency’s seven research stations will compress into a single station. Seventy-five percent of agency research facilities — at least 57 — will be closed. Only 19 labs will be left to provide the best available science for 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands. Forest Service researchers bridge the gap between theoretical ecology and effective land management. They produce world-class science.
But scientific facts and findings are problematic when the official narrative is counterfactual — economic extraction masquerading as ecological emergency, utter denial serving as official climate-change policy, and so on. It gets even more awkward when the law requires the agencies to use the “best available science.” Gutting world-class research makes the best science unavailable.
Similarly, the agency’s civil service professionals stand in the way of efforts to install spoils-and-patronage cronyism. While far from perfect, the Washington headquarters, regional offices, and research stations established norms of following laws and regulations, adhering to congressional budgets, applying science, upholding multiple-use values, and conducting environmental reviews with public engagement.
These norms provided the stabilizing backbone that enabled the agency to manage our national forests in a steady fashion despite changing administrations. With just a couple of exceptions, leaders were career employees hired on a merit basis. In short, the reorganization is changing more than offices. Breaking up the headquarters, regional offices, and research stations, and then spreading thinned agency leadership into a state-based model is the equivalent of a spinal removal that will make the Forest Service pliable.
Current leadership suggests that state directors, Operational Service Center directors, the National Research director, and additional positions in the relocated headquarters will be filled with career employees — but they are being newly classified to allow future appointment of partisans. State directors will coordinate directly with state governors and state foresters to provide policy-responsive leadership. One vision behind the reorganization is for the Forest Service to pledge allegiance to the unitary executive and the states it serves.
So, is the sky falling? Again, multiple things can be true at once. The administration is determined to move fast and break things per its Project 2025 to-do list, but will the authority, funding, and support to carry out the reorganization manifest? There are rules for restructuring the government. Negotiations, revisions, and lawsuits are inevitable.
While frequently jumping on the bandwagon, Congress has reined in some administration machinations by either funding agencies as before or not funding proposed changes (like the Wildand Fire Service). A subsequent administration may change things back (e.g., the Biden administration moved BLM headquarters back to Washington).
It’s important to note the difference between what is proposed and what is accomplished and to weigh in appropriately. Everyday citizens rallying against profiteering, exploitation, and degradation helped create the first laws protecting our public lands. More recently, citizens rallying against transferring public lands to state and private control helped preserve our national forests. Citizens rallying for good governance and genuine stewardship will prevail again.
FSEEE is honored to play our part speaking for the trees and encouraging others to do the same. Our members and supporters inspire us and empower our work. We are incredibly grateful for your steadfast support in these trying times.
Photo: The Forest Service reorganization is a lot like the proposed White House State Ballroom. Damage is being done, and the outcome is yet to be determined.
