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President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 eliminates a key program for collaborative forest management.
Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz told senators on the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the budget proposal was not yet final, but confirmed that states should prepare to receive zero dollars in discretionary spending for the State, Private, and Tribal Forestry program in fiscal year 2026.
The State, Private, and Tribal Forestry program reaches across the boundaries of national forests to states, Tribes, and private landowners, providing technical and financial assistance to help sustain the nation’s forests and grasslands, protect communities from wildfire, and restore fire-adapted ecosystems.
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California blasted the administration for cutting state forestry spending. “Every state that I’m aware of is having a tougher budget picture to face,” he told Schultz. “The threat of fires is real. The threat of fires is growing. How does it make sense for the federal government to zero out these programs?”
How Congress and Trump are working together to drill, log, and mine virtually all public lands
In a new Westwise blog post, CWP Communications Manager Kate Groetzinger explains why the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” is anything but beautiful for public lands. Lawmakers in Congress hid incredibly destructive and unpopular favors to the coal, oil and gas, and timber industries in the budget bill, which — combined with executive actions by President Donald Trump — will put hundreds of millions of acres of publicly-owned deserts, mountains, and forests up for grabs for extraction and threaten public access. The bill also stripped hundreds of millions in funding from the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management for staffing as well as conservation and climate adaptation projects.
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Nobody in my home state… has told me, in effect, ‘Ron we gotta have the Forest Service less involved in fighting fires... But that is the net effect of your organizational plan.’”
