For Immediate Release
July 7, 2026
Contact:
Erik Molvar, Western Watersheds Project, (307) 399-7910, emolvar@westernwatersheds.org
Trump shakeup of U.S. Forest Service garners legal challenge
SAN FRANCISCO – A coalition of unions, environmental groups, civic groups, and local governments challenged the Trump administration’s reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service last week by filing a motion for leave to supplement their complaint challenging government-wide mass-firings through Reductions in Force and seeking a Preliminary Injunction that, if granted, would bar any further move by the administration to further implement its Reorganization Plan. Under the plan, the Forest Service’s Regional Offices would be shuttered, resulting in hundreds of job losses, its headquarters would be moved from Washington D.C. to Salt Lake City, and the agency would axe many of its research facilities.
“These new attacks on the Forest Service from its political bosses are designed to sabotage the agency, further subtracting science and accountability from the management from our National Forests,” said Erik Molvar, Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project. “The injection of political minders, the elimination of key research and oversight staff, and the wholesale reshuffling of office locations is combining into a perfect storm designed to destroy the Forest Service as we know it and remake it into a political plaything ever more subservient to the timber, mining, and livestock industries.”
The Forest Service has come under increasing political pressure since President Trump took office. Michael Boren, who famously feuded with the Forest Service and local residents over building a home and airstrip inside the Sawtooth National Recreation Area without proper permits, was appointed to the position of Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment, a position overseeing the Forest Service. Tom Schultz, a former timber industry lobbyist, was appointed Chief of the Forest Service, the first time the position has ever been given to someone outside the agency’s roster of career professionals.
“The deregulation agenda and mass-firings now facing the Forest Service are a direct outgrowth of putting industrial interests in charge of public land management,” said Molvar. “Closing research facilities will deprive the agency of new science tailored to current land management questions. Shifting agency management from Regional Offices to State Offices will put our National Forests under the thumb of state politicians who trend anti-environmental and pro-industry in many parts of the American West.”
This new legal challenge extends not just to the Forest Service, but to all federal agencies within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with additional quotes on other topics incorporated in this fining found here. Impacts of the Reorganization Plan extend to such varied issues as food safety, research on improving livestock sustainability, and the Women Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program.
The coalition fighting against unlawful government reorganization plans includes American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and four AFGE locals; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and SEIU Local 1000; Alliance for Retired Americans; Alliance of Crop, Soil and Environmental Science Societies; American Geophysical Union; American Public Health Association; Center for Taxpayer Rights; Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks; Common Defense; Main Street Alliance; National WIC Association (NWA); Natural Resources Defense Council; Northeast Organic Farming Association Inc.; VoteVets; Western Watersheds Project; City and County of San Francisco, California; County of Santa Clara, California; City of Chicago, Illinois; City of Baltimore, Maryland; Harris County, Texas; King County, Washington; and Prince George’s County, Maryland. The coalition is represented in the case by lead co-counsel Democracy Forward and Altshuler Berzon LLP, along with Protect Democracy, Public Rights Project, and Democracy Defenders Fund, and counsel for local governments.
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