1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

I’m writing to urge you to oppose the administration’s reported plan to dismantle the U.S. Forest Service by moving its headquarters out of Washington, closing regional offices, and gutting its research capacity. This is not a routine reorganization. It appears designed to drive out experienced career staff, weaken independent scientific oversight, and shift control of our national forests toward political appointees and state-level interests. We have already seen a similar outcome with the Bureau of Land Management relocation, where the agency lost much of its experienced workforce instead of becoming more effective. If this proceeds on a larger scale, it could permanently damage the Forest Service’s ability to manage 193 million acres of public forestland in the public interest. I’m especially alarmed by reports that this move would place the agency’s headquarters in Utah, a state actively pushing for greater control over federal public lands, and that more than 50 research facilities could be consolidated or eliminated. The loss of place-based forest science and institutional expertise would undermine wildfire management, watershed protection, habitat conservation, and long-term public accountability. Please fight this move by demanding full congressional oversight, blocking funding for any relocation or restructuring until Congress has reviewed it, and insisting that any major changes to the Forest Service be debated transparently and authorized by law. Our national forests are a public trust, and they should not be weakened through executive action without public scrutiny or congressional approval.