Trump plans to move Forest Service headquarters to Utah and shutter research sites

Salt Lake City (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration will move the U.S. Forest Service headquarters out of the nation’s capital to Salt Lake City as part of an organizational overhaul that involves shuttering research facilities in 31 states and concentrating resources in the West, the agency announced on Tuesday.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the move, which is expected to be completed by summer 2027, will bring leaders closer to the landscapes they manage and the people who depend on them.

“Effective stewardship and active management are achieved on the ground, where forests and communities are found – not just behind a desk in the capital,” Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said.

Nearly 90% of National Forest System land is in the West, though Utah is only the 11th-ranked state for national forest coverage, with about 14,300 square miles.

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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. But it wasn’t long before the Biden administration reversed course, moving BLM headquarters back to Washington, D.C., after two years.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been moving thousands of employees out of Washington over the past year.

With the move to Utah, about 260 Forest Service positions currently located in Washington are expected to relocate, and 130 workers will stay put, the agency said.

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden said Salt Lake City stuck out for its reasonable cost of living, proximity to an international airport and the state’s “family-focused way of life.” It’s a Democratic-led capital city in a red state with values rooted in the locally headquartered Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, celebrated the move Tuesday as “a big win for Utah and the West,” while environmental groups viewed it as a precursor to the agency’s dismantling.

Taylor McKinnon at the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity described the move as “a costly bureaucratic reshuffle” that will put more power in the hands of corporations and states to log, mine and drill public lands.

“National forests belong to all Americans,” said McKinnon, the environmental group’s Southwest director. “Our nation’s capital is where federal policy is made and where the Forest Service headquarters belongs.”

Josh Hicks, conservation campaigns director at The Wilderness Society, predicted that the move will lead to less access to public forests and threats to wildlife habitat, clean water and air.

“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,” he said.

The Wilderness Society also pointed to Trump’s prior attempt with the BLM, saying that resulted in many staffers leaving who had valuable years of management experience. The group said this could end up hollowing out the Forest Service.

Many regional offices will close in the reorganization, and their services will shift to hubs in New Mexico, Georgia, Colorado, Wisconsin, Montana and California. Instead of maintaining multiple dispersed research stations with their own leadership, the agency will anchor its research at a single location in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The Forest Service said it did not yet know how many workers in regional offices will need to relocate. A spokesperson did not answer whether the transition would involve layoffs.

U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a New Mexico Democrat who sits on the House’s Natural Resources Committee, echoed the idea that it’s the wrong time for upheaval as the Mountain West is facing historically low snowpack, extreme heat and the prospect of a dangerous fire season.

But she expressed cautious optimism that the Forest Service reorganization could be positive if leadership and jobs are ultimately brought closer to New Mexico and other states.

A Republican on the committee, U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy of Utah, welcomed the move to her state, saying it could improve responsiveness to wildfires and ensure decisions are informed by on-the-ground realities.

The Forest Service’s deputy chief of fire and aviation management, Sarah Fisher, said on a podcast Tuesday that there will be no changes to the agency’s operational firefighting workforce.

Story by Hannah Schoenbaum and Susan Montoya Bryan / Associated Press