Forest Service to Eliminate 10 Regional Offices

The Department of Agriculture, including the Forest Service, will go through a reorganization plan that was announced July 24 by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

The most dramatic change for the forestry world will be the closing of the Forest Service’s 10 regional offices. The Lake States national forests are part of the Eastern Region, which has its headquarters in Milwaukee. It stretches across the Northern United States from Western Minnesota to Maine.

National Forest supervisors typically report to a regional forester. Another major change that will affect a broad range of agricultural interests is the relocation of the department’s activity out of Washington, DC.

Much of the staff will move to five new regional Department of Agriculture offices. They are slated to be opened in Salt Lake City, Utah; Fort Collins, Colorado; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The Forest Products Laboratory in Madison and the Fire Sciences Lab in Missoula, Montana, will remain open.

The reorganization plan is intended to refocus on the department’s core mission of “supporting farming, ranching and forestry”, Rollins wrote in announcing the reorganization.

Several of the changes are expected to take place over several years, including vacating four office buildings in Washington, DC, as staff are relocated. The forest service’s regional offices are expected to be phased out over the next year.