Injunction Filed To Stop USFS Reorganization Plans

A coalition of unions, environmental organizations, civic groups, and local governments is asking a federal court to block the Trump administration's plan to reorganize the Forest Service. The groups filed for a preliminary injunction, arguing the plan would eliminate hundreds of jobs, close regional offices, relocate the agency's headquarters from Washington D.C. to Salt Lake City, and shut down research facilities.

“These new attacks on the Forest Service from its political bosses are designed to sabotage the agency, further subtracting science and accountability from the management from our National Forests,” said Erik Molvar, Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project. “The injection of political minders, the elimination of key research and oversight staff, and the wholesale reshuffling of office locations is combining into a perfect storm designed to destroy the Forest Service as we know it and remake it into a political plaything ever more subservient to the timber, mining, and livestock industries.”

The legal challenge also targets broader restructuring across USDA, with supporters warning it could affect food safety, agricultural research, and the WIC nutrition program.

“The deregulation agenda and mass-firings now facing the Forest Service are a direct outgrowth of putting industrial interests in charge of public land management,” said Molvar. “Closing research facilities will deprive the agency of new science tailored to current land management questions. Shifting agency management from Regional Offices to State Offices will put our National Forests under the thumb of state politicians who trend anti-environmental and pro-industry in many parts of the American West.”