The Forest Service will gather dozens of forest supervisors from around the country next week in Washington, in part to explain how the nation’s capital is becoming less relevant to their work.
The meeting, initially scheduled for November but delayed by the government shutdown, runs from Monday to Thursday, according to a forest supervisor and others familiar with the agency’s plans.
A Forest Service spokesperson said the meeting isn’t related to the agency’s pending reorganization. Instead, the agency said, it’s a training session to promote the Trump administration’s goals on active forest management and expanding timber production, which the reshuffling is intended to make more achievable.
Such gatherings are infrequent but not unprecedented, and this one comes as the administration looks to put more authority in the hands of local managers and potentially move Forest Service leadership out of Washington, D.C., altogether.
