Sierra Club Statement on Proposed Relocation of U.S. Forest Service Headquarters

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Trump Administration is proposing relocating the headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service thousands of miles away from Washington, D.C.

In a press release Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced her intention to move the agency's headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. The release also teased a "sweeping restructuring" of the agency, including a transition to a "state-based organizational model," while research facilities would be consolidated.

Last year, Rollins proposed a major reorganization of the Department of Agriculture, along with the relocation of hundreds of staff to regional offices scattered around the country. It also comes after the administration's sustained attack on federal workers, including sweeping and chaotic layoffs and massive proposed budget cuts.

Hastily relocating federal agencies has become a mainstay of Donald Trump's presidencies. In 2019, Trump sought to relocate the Bureau of Land Management from Washington to Grand Junction, Colorado. The proposal drove many federal workers with specialized expertise to retire from federal service.

In response, Alex Craven, Sierra Club's Forest Campaign Manager, released the following statement:

"The Forest Service should be structured in a way that allows them to steward our public lands effectively and with robust public engagement. This administration has routinely pursued the exact opposite by gutting protections and the public lands management workforce. Despite continued appeals of 'common sense' management, it's far from clear this latest reorganization will get us any closer to that."