Trump Aims Wrecking Ball at the Forest Service and Public Lands Management

Dear USDA,

I strongly oppose the Trump administration’s plan to eliminate the U.S. Forest Service’s nine regional offices and shutter research facilities. This announcement comes at the same time the administration has demanded a 25% increase in logging volume output while proposing a budget that will gut the federal forest workforce. These proposals represent a clear and systematic attack on a critical public lands management agency and our public lands.

Forest Service employees and contractors are seeing their jobs cut or are being forced to move to new states and regions far from the forests they manage and the communities they support and call home. The actions of this administration are creating chaos, confusion, and a culture of fear within the agency and are placing public lands, wildlife, drinking water sources, and communities at risk.

With thousands of layoffs, severe budget cuts, and the proposed dismantling of the Forest Service’s entire structure, it could not be more clear that the Trump administration is creating a crisis in order to open the door to public lands privatization. This is not just a half-baked attempt at government efficiency, it is a very intentional effort to undermine our federal workforce and take the ‘public’ out of public lands.

These actions will also result in severe “brain drain,” as world-renowned research institutions are shuttered and our best and brightest scientists are forced to look for job opportunities elsewhere. Taking a wrecking ball to the 120-year-old Forest Service that employs over 35,000 people and manages nearly 200 million acres places communities, wildlife, and public lands in danger.

The Forest Service manages wildland firefighting efforts, the country’s largest sources of drinking water, important fish and wildlife habitat, and unparalleled recreation opportunities. I consider all of these to be essential services and not a waste of my tax dollars. I want to see public lands managed for the public good and for the benefit of this and future generations. I do not want management ceded to for-profit entities in response to a manufactured crisis that was entirely avoidable.

I oppose this harmful attempt to systematically dismantle the Forest Service. I ask that you cancel this “reorganization” plan and instead invest in the public lands agencies and employees that we need to address the dual climate and extinction crises our country is facing.

Thank you,