Block Funding for Forest Service Reorganization

Block all funding for the Forest Service headquarters relocation and reorganization until Congress can fully study and vote on its implications. This restructuring is dismantling the agency that protects 193 million acres of public land. The administration is eliminating nine regional foresters with deep ecosystem expertise and replacing them with fifteen state directors focused on political liaison work. Scientists are being told to relocate or leave. When BLM headquarters moved to Grand Junction during the first Trump administration, 87% of staff walked out and only three people showed up. The Vermont George D. Aiken Forestry Sciences Laboratory is closing, losing five full-time researchers. Research ecologist Aly Urza warns that pulling scientists from place-based facilities will sever local partnerships and long-term monitoring programs built over decades. The timing reveals the intent. Headquarters is moving to Salt Lake City while Utah sues to seize 18.5 million acres of BLM land. Governor Cox just signed a deal embedding Utah in Forest Service decisions on 8 million acres. The reconciliation bill mandates a 75% logging increase with twenty-year timber contracts through 2045. The Roadless Rule protecting 58 million acres of wilderness has been rescinded. These forests belong to all Americans, not one state's extractive industries. Stop this reorganization now.