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The Trump administration is moving to give states more control over national forests, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said at a forest policy conference on Wednesday. He pointed to a new 20-year agreement with Montana that allows the state to manage 200,000 acres of national forest for logging, wildfire response, and other priorities. Schultz said the administration plans to sign up to 40 similar agreements with states and private partners.
While Forest Service partnerships with states and nonprofits are not new, they are rarely so long-term or expansive. As the agency moves to increase these partnerships, it is also shifting more of the cost burden to local governments and nonprofits. The proposed 2026 budget would eliminate grant programs that provide essential funding to support forest management at the state level.
The Forest Service is already eliminating support for critical services like wildfire mitigation. Last week, Schultz told a Senate committee that he does not know whether the agency will deliver wildfire preparedness grants that have already been approved by Congress for at-risk communities this year.
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It’s not a solution, it’s just a band-aid. All of us would have been working for the Forest Service had it not been for the cuts. So there’s really no new numbers being added.”
