Forest Service Chief Randy Moore will retire March 3, he told employees in a letter that described his frustration over the turmoil of the first weeks of the Trump administration.
“The past several weeks has been incredibly difficult,” Moore, a 45-year veteran of the agency, said in his letter Wednesday, referring to the new administration’s mass termination of employees who were “valued members of our Forest Service team.”
A new chief could be named later this week, according to people familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because they work in or with the Forest Service and weren’t authorized to share the information.
Moore, a longtime regional forester in California, took the job in 2021 as the Biden administration was shifting the agency’s focus toward balancing the growing threat of climate change with timber operations, wildfire prevention and other priorities.
