The media is having a meltdown over the U.S. Forest Service being “executed” by the Trump administration — ignoring the fact that it is just being consolidated and moved from Washington, D.C. to out west, where there are more forests.
The New York Times put out a piece claiming that the move, led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is “threatening science” that aims to reduce climate change and the environmental damage caused by wildfires.
Hatch Magazine reported that the Trump administration “announced the most devastating attack on the U.S. Forest Service in the agency’s 121-year history.”
“Not a budget cut. Not a policy shift. Not a ‘reorganization.’ An execution,” the outdoors outlet claimed.
Forest Service headquarters will be moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and begin a “sweeping restructuring of the agency to move leadership closer to the forests and communities it serves,” the USDA said in a March 31 press release.
With the bulk of the agency’s 93 million acres of forest and grassland being concentrated in the western U.S., agency officials wrote that the shift in location and reorganization “represents a structural reset and a common-sense approach to improve mission delivery.”
As part of the consolidation, the USDA announced that all Forest Service regional offices will close; “however, several facilities will be retained to support ongoing mission needs.”
“Additional phases of the reorganization, including the formal elimination of regional and station office structures and the full transition to a state-based model, will be implemented over the coming year,” the press release explained.
“Establishing a western headquarters in Salt Lake City and streamlining how the Forest Service is organized will position the Chief and operation leaders closer to the landscapes we manage and the people who depend on them,” said USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.
As the agency transitions to a state-based model, it will shift many functions currently housed in regional offices to new service centers that will be established in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Athens, Georgia; Fort Collins, Colorado; Madison, Wisconsin; Missoula, Montana; and Placerville, California. Additional locations may be announced as the transition progresses.
The agency, which currently operates multiple research stations across the country that all have their own leadership structure, will also “bring those stations together under a single Forest Service research organization” located in Fort Collins.
“The consolidation of research stations does not mean a retreat from the agency’s research mission,” Fire Service Chief Thomas Schultz said in an email to employees. “Forest Service [Research and Development] has produced world-class science for over a century, and that will continue. The consolidation is about organizing the research enterprise more efficiently, not diminishing it.”
The move from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City would impact about 260 employees, the New York Times reported.
Despite the reassurance from officials, the outlet claimed that employees “said they feared the move would lead many scientists to leave.”
A senior USDA official told Breitbart News that that could not be further from the truth, arguing that it is “kind of insane to headquarter the Forest Service in D.C. when the forests are out west,” adding that people who want to work for the service “don’t want to live” in the Beltway.
The official also shot back at claims that the consolidation would negatively impact the environment, calling the reports “patently false.”
“We’re decreasing the number of research stations, but we’re not changing the mission,” they said.
The official also highlighted the Forest Service’s success in bringing down wildfires under the Trump administration, following the Biden administration’s “gross mismanagement” of the Palisades fire.
As part of the restructuring, 15 regional director positions will be added to the Forest Service. The agency previously did not have regional directors.
The media has “misconstrued that these are political appointments, but these are career positions,” the official noted.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) praised the move, calling it “a big win for Utah and the West.”
“Nearly 90 percent of Forest Service lands are west of the Mississippi, so putting leadership closer to the lands they manage just makes sense,” he continued. “This isn’t symbolic. It means better, faster decisions on the ground. Everyone who depends on our public lands, from hikers and campers to ranchers and timber producers, will benefit from this change. Moving away from a regional model to a more state-focused approach strengthens federalism and helps the Forest Service do its job more effectively.”
The governor added, “I appreciate President Trump, Secretary Rollins, and Deputy Secretary Vaden for taking this step. We look forward to welcoming Chief Schultz and the dedicated men and women of the Forest Service to Utah.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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