U.S. Forest Service announces details of major reorganization
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Zeke Lee
Andrew Nober
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Key Takeaways
On March 31, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced details of a major reorganization of the agency’s offices and management structure. The agency’s new structure comes amid a larger reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which houses the Forest Service.
As part of the plan, USFS headquarters will move from the nation’s capital to Salt Lake County, Utah. The Forest Service will also transition from a regional structure to state-by-state management under state forestry directors.
Reorganization Details
In July 2025, USDA announced a structural reorganization, including dispersing departmental operations to five regional hubs around the country. The USFS restructuring comes as part of that larger process. Major changes in the USFS restructuring plan include:
- Headquarters relocation: The agency will move its headquarters, the Forest Service Chief and much of its leadership staff to Salt Lake County, Utah. USFS will retain a reduced presence in Washington, D.C.
- Transition to state-based management: Under the new structure, 15 State directors will oversee forest operations from individual state offices, and some offices will have multiple states in their areas of responsibility. USFS previously organized offices into 10 regions, each overseen by a regional forester. All former Regional Offices will close unless they are repurposed.
- Creation of Operations Service Centers: USFS will shift many technical responsibilities and capacity to 6 Operations Service Centers. The agency indicated that staff in these offices will assist state forestry directors with duties such as infrastructure engineering, forest management plan revisions and land adjustments which were previously handled by Regional Offices.
- Consolidation of research centers: USFS will consolidate its research and development stations into a single management structure headquartered in Larimer County, Colo. The agency indicated that it would initially preserve 20 R&D facilities across the country.
The plan will not change the current organizational or incident command structure of USFS wildland fire response, and the agency will maintain its Geographic Area Coordination Center structure anchored at the National Interagency Fire Center in Ada County, Idaho.
Impact on Counties
As co-stewards of the nation’s forests, counties work closely with USFS on forest planning, recreation management and emergency response. Counties additionally support forest management decisions being made at the most local level in consultation with local authorities who are key partners in understanding the impacts of planning decisions on communities.
The transition to a state-based management structure will change how counties coordinate with USFS and who counties can work with at the agency. During the planned reorganization, NACo urges the agency to ensure that it can maintain its current levels of service for local communities and that there is no interruption to critical functions such as forest treatments, wildfire response and timber sales.
As new organizational and management structures are implemented, USFS should proactively forge strong relationships with forest county leaders to uphold the essential partnership between federal land managers and counties. NACo will continue to monitor USFS and USDA reorganization plans and will provide updates on any changes in policy or structure that impact counties and communities.
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