In a sweeping reorganization, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the U.S. Forest Service will phase out its nine regional offices over the next year.
Under the reorganization plan, the Forest Service’s nine standalone regional offices will be phased out. Many functions will be consolidated into five new USDA “hubs.” The new offices will be located in:
• Raleigh, North Carolina
• Kansas City, Missouri
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Fort Collins, Colorado
• Salt Lake City, Utah
Reduced state offices will remain in Juneau, Alaska, and Athens, Georgia, to maintain local fire and resource coordination. Meanwhile, research stations will be consolidated into a single facility in Fort Collins, aiming to streamline research on wildfire risk, forest restoration, and watershed health.
Offices affected
Here’s a list of the nine regional offices being phased out:
• Region 1 – Northern Region: Missoula, Montana
• Region 2 – Rocky Mountain Region: Lakewood (Denver), Colorado
• Region 3 – Southwestern Region: Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Region 4 – Intermountain Region: Ogden, Utah
• Region 5 – Pacific Southwest Region: Vallejo (San Francisco), California
• Region 6 – Pacific Northwest Region: Portland, Oregon
• (Region 7 was eliminated in 1965)
• Region 8 – Southern Region: Atlanta, Georgia
• Region 9 – Eastern Region: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Region 10 – Alaska Region: Juneau, Alaska
With those offices gone, local field offices and ranger districts will report up through one of the five new hubs rather than a regional headquarters.
Tips for smooth adventures
Check the forest’s website early. Always review your destination forest’s official site for the latest campground status and trail conditions.
Call your ranger district. For detailed questions, like whether a pull-through site is accessible or if a certain trailhead is open, calling the local ranger district office can cut through any lag in web updates.
Plan flexible itineraries. Build extra travel days into your schedule.
Sign up for alerts. Many forests offer email or text alerts for fire closures, severe weather, or facility changes. Enroll ahead of your trip to stay informed.
Support local forest organizations. Volunteer your time. Pitching in for a day not only helps keep trails clear but also connects you with local experts.
RELATED
- Forest Service budget cuts harm visitor services
- Budget cuts hit Forest Service – Who’s left to clean outhouses?
- Forest Service shuts gates on three California campgrounds
RVT1220b
Thank you for the news, Gail! I wonder how many employees this affects and what their options are between now and closing? Have a great week and safe travels!
Talking to my niece yesterday who works for the Federal Government gave me an interesting perspective to the whole situation. She said their layoffs were all the low level tier employees, and the next tier now were having to work 4x harder. She said nothing happened to the mid ($100k+) and upper tier employees ($200k+) and neither did any of their job duties change, which consist of mainly going to meetings or directing a sample group of lower tier employees.
Two things came to mind. First, if she can do the job of 4 people in one day, then they were overstaffed. Second, the cuts should have been at all levels and all employees need to up their effort and job duties.
During my Corporate career I lived through many reorganizations and had to absorb many other people’s jobs over my 38 years there. What I found is that people may have been “busy” but not doing real value-added work.
Everytime I got a new assignment I thoroughly reviewed everything being done. Most of the time I could, within months, reduce that job to 75% or even 50% of what it was by either completely eliminating tasks or using technology to save work. That allowed me to consume more workload, but not work that much harder (though 60 hr weeks as a professional were common).
Unfortunately the ($100k+) & ($200k+) are the one’s that should have went. Not the employees in the lower grades who did the work.
Better take your own toilet paper.
My “new” neighbor (moved in about a year ago) works for the U.S. Forest Service from home. He already reported to an office he never has to go to. He does timber management and sales contracts across 5 or 6 states. He hasn’t seen any real shakeups from the reorganizations that have happened so far. I see him mowing his grass and working on other outdoor home projects during working hours. 🤔
I had over 30 employees working for me. Some you can trust and some you can’t. Every business has them.
Do we Californians report to Utah or Colorado?