USDA adds more chaos to dismantle Forest Service

Washington D.C. (March 31, 2026) -- Today, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced her plans to move two-thirds of the Forest Service headquarters from Washington D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah, shut down all regional offices and consolidate all research facilities to Fort Collins, Colorado.  

In response to the news, The Wilderness Society issued the following statement: 

“This administration’s plan to dismantle a 120-year-old agency will mean less access to the public forests people rely on, less capacity to reduce intensifying wildfire risk and more threats to clean air, clean water and wildlife habitat. Simply put, this reorganization will wreak havoc on the Forest Service management and organization, adding fuel to the unpopular narrative by officials like Senator Mike Lee that public lands should be sold off to private industry” said Josh Hicks, Conservation Campaigns Director at The Wilderness Society. “At a time when wildfires are getting worse, and access to public lands is already under strain, the last thing we need is an unnecessary reorganization that creates chaos and confusion for the land managers, researchers and wildland firefighters who help keep our forests healthy now and for future generations.” 

The administration is framing the destructive move as an attempt at a “State-based organizational model”, yet there are already coordination mechanisms in place for offices to communicate and coordinate. This move is a “solution in search of a problem” that has already led to agencies being hollowed out and robbed of valuable staff expertise.  

When President Trump attempted to move the BLM’s headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado during his first term, 87% of the staff chose to leave the agency instead of relocating, which was a loss in land management expertise that the agency never recovered from. 

To connect with The Wilderness Society’s forest policy experts and forest ecologists, contact edenny@tws.org