Forest Service retirees are urging key lawmakers to resist moving the Forest Service into the Interior Department, a long-simmering idea that’s found new life in the Trump era.
In a Thursday letter to Republican and Democratic leaders of six congressional committees, the National Association of Forest Service retirees warned that taking the Forest Service out of the Agriculture Department could sacrifice its longstanding mission of managing forests for multiple uses.
Among other concerns, the organization said, losing the connection to the USDA could weaken the agency’s commitment to helping communities and private landowners in forest management, as well as its focus on research and development.
“Proposals to transfer the Forest Service to DOI are as old as the agency itself and have been rejected in each instance for reasons that are still compelling today,” states the letter signed by Steve Ellis, who chairs the retirees’ group. Alternative measures that increase coordination among agencies and save costs would achieve the same goals without as much disruption, the letter added.
