Agriculture secretary says agency is “full-bore ahead” on Forest Service reorganization
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Thursday that the Trump administration remains “full-bore ahead” with a sweeping reorganization of the Forest Service and other agencies after a judge blocked the changes last week.
The administration wants to move Forest Service headquarters from Washington to Salt Lake City, shutter 23 research stations, and close many regional offices and replace them with state offices. It's part of a broader realignment at the Agriculture Department that also would change programs for food and nutrition, rural development and other services.
For now the plan is stalled under court order. But that's already under appeal, and Rollins made clear Thursday that the administration hasn't given up.
“We are full-bore ahead in the reorganization,” Rollins said during a conference call with reporters following an announcement on fertilizer production. “We believe in it more today than we ever have — taking the USDA to our constituents, which is rural America, the Forest Service out West.”
Administration officials say the reorganization will trim costs and further concentrate resources in Western states that are home to nearly 90% of national forest lands.
Federal employee unions, environmental groups and local officials, including in California, Maryland and Washington state, are trying to quash the plan. They say the shuffling of employees is a ploy to achieve the administration's goal of deep cuts in the workforce.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in California sided with those arguments in an Oct. 13 order halting the reorganization while a lawsuit from opponents works its way through the courts.
“If implemented, the planned reorganization activities will likely put thousands of USDA employees to the choice of relocating far from their current home — often to a different state — or losing their job,” Chhabria wrote. He said the administration “almost certainly” violated congressional restrictions on using money on the reorganization that was intended for other purposes.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been eliminating layers of management as part of President Donald Trump’s push to slim the federal workforce and make it more efficient.
Trump also wants to take away one of the Forest Service's most prominent roles — fighting wildfires — and transfer responsibility to the new federal Wildland Fire Service. Congress so far has blocked that move.
With wildfires getting worse in recent decades due to climate change, battling them has consumed a greater share of the Forest Service budget. That's forced officials to look for cost savings elsewhere.
It's not clear how much the reorganization will actually save, said Chris Iverson, who spent almost three decades at the Forest Service before retiring from a leadership position during Trump's first term. Yet Iverson said the changes could result in the loss of personnel with extensive experience, including battling wildfires.
He added that the elimination of regional offices and creation of state offices could open the door to more influence by governors pushing the interests of the timber, oil and gas and grazing industries.
“It's just going to be a closer alignment of Forest Service leadership with state government priorities,” Iverson said.
Gov. Spencer Cox in Utah has described the Forest Service reorganization, including a new headquarters in Salt Lake City, as “a big win for Utah and the West.” GOP lawmakers said it would ensure agency officials get more local input.
The administration last month scaled back part of its plan and said 41 research facilities across the country that faced possible closure would remain open. Almost two dozen research stations still are slated to close.
The Forest Service workforce has been cut about 16% under Trump, from more than 39,000 employees to 33,000, according to government data.
During his first term, Trump moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado, citing many of the same reasons — including a desire to put top officials closer to the public lands they oversee. The Biden administration reversed course, moving BLM headquarters back to Washington, D.C., after two years.
The National Federation of Federal Employees union said a survey of Forest Service workers showed a large majority opposed the pending reorganization plan and most were unwilling to relocate.
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