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Trump Admin Aims to "Break the Forest Service," Nearly 200 Million Acres at Stake

Democracy Now!

54,758 views Apr 20, 2026 Latest Shows

Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-de...The Trump administration in late March announced an extensive reorganization of the Forest Service, the federal agency responsible for managing 193 million acres of public lands across 43 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. As part of the changes, 57 of 77 research stations across the country will be shuttered, with the headquarters relocating from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City.

While the overhaul is billed as an effort to improve efficiency, conservationist Jim Pattiz says it will effectively destroy the agency. “This is a critically important agency,” says Pattiz, co-author of the newsletter More Than Just Parks that tracks threats to public lands across the country. “The intent here is obvious. It’s to hollow out this agency and hand it to the resource extraction industry and prepare it for, potentially, the eventual transfer of our public lands to states.”

Trump Admin Aims to "Break the Forest Service," Nearly 200 Million Acres at Stake - YouTube

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then the regional offices, that's another big one. They're shuttering all

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nine Forest Service regional offices. Um the this is really where the institutional knowledge of the Forest

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Service is housed. And when you get rid of those offices, you know, the goal here is to make the agency um

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subservient to the resource extraction industry that the Trump administration is aligned with.

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Um can you talk about who you think the Forest Service is

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being given over to? I mean, first of all, obviously sending from Washington DC the Forest Service to Salt Lake City,

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you're going to lose a massive amount of experience for people who cannot move.

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Um, but then talk about who it's in the hands of, who's in charge now.

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Yeah. I think something um people need to understand is the Trump administration has done this before on a

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much smaller scale. Um in Trump's first term, they moved the Bureau of Land Management another very large um public

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land management agency um from Washington DC, the headquarters from DC to uh Grand Junction, Colorado. Um that resulted in 87%

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of the affected staff walking out the door. Um only three people showed up to the new office at Grand Junction. Um,

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and you know, you can talk to uh people who work at the Bureau of Land Management now and did under the Biden administration. President Biden moved it

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back to DC, but the agency has never recovered. I mean, you're talking about so much institutional knowledge um and

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key people leaving out the door because they simply can't uproot their lives and their families um to move to this far-flung, you know, new headquarters.

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Same thing's playing out here with the Forest Service, but on a much larger scale. Um, this decision will impact up to 5,000 employees. And this is an

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agency that is already lost over a fourth of its entire staff since Trump Trump took office last January. And then

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you ask me about, you know, what who this hands it to. I mean, I think, you know, look no further than the state of Utah and the anti-public lands movement.

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Um you can look throughout the Trump administration up and down in positions of leadership um in land management

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agencies. Um these are people who are avowed um proponents of transferring our

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federal public lands to states and private interests. The sitting chief of the United States Forest Service, his

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previous job was as the executive of a logging company. That's unprecedented in the history of the Forest Service to have the chief as a logging executive.

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And so, you know, the current nominee for the Bureau of Land Management is uh former Congressman Steve Pierce from New Mexico. And this is a man who said

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Theodore Roosevelt was wrong to create national parks and national forests. So,

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the intent here is obvious. It's to hand hollow out this agency and hand it to the resource extraction industry and

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prepare it for potentially um the eventual transfer of our public lands to states.

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You've called it asset stripping and you say it's illegal. Explain, Jim.

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Well, you know, asset stripping is a

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Natural Resources Conservation Service

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov › sites › default › files › 2024-01 › CA Employee Directory-Jan 2024.pdf

California Employee Directory NRCS & Conservation Partners

Arko, Adria Allen, Grace Butler, Kasey Cowman, David Federal, Timothy Fisher, Jarrad Hall, Andrew Harris, Erica Hensman, Maaya Hodges, Lau Issel, Joe Kaeser, Amy Katz, Noah Kelleher, Christina Kipreos, Barb MDonald, Stephanie Milio, Eliza Millar, Doug Nelson, Kellyx Polgar, Sara Sanchez, Eddie Viehweg, Caileen RCD Director of Advancement ...

Wildfire Today

https://wildfiretoday.com › representative-steve-pearce-blasts-us-forest-service

Representative Steve Pearce blasts the Forest Service and the ...

In a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives Thursday night, Representative Steve Pearce, a Republican from New Mexico, heavily criticized the U.S. Forest Service, mentioning the name ...

westernwatersheds.substack.com

https://westernwatersheds.substack.com › p › steve-pearces-record-on-public-lands

Steve Pearce's Record on Public Lands

Nov 11, 2025Steve Pearce, an Congressman at the time, cutting down a tree on federal lands following a rally in the Lincoln National Forest. Screenshot from YouTube, NM Tea Party. Pearce routinely sided with ranchers in public lands grazing disputes, echoing anti-federal rhetoric and opposing enforcement efforts when livestock trespassed in protected areas.

Santa Fe New Mexican

https://www.santafenewmexican.com › opinion › my_view › senate-should-say-no-to-steve-pearce-at-blm › article_3fcf251a-c9f5-43d8-b6f2-68a8946598fe.html

Senate should say no to Steve Pearce at BLM | My View ...

Feb 21, 2026While in Congress, Pearce sponsored legislation that directed the U.S. Forest Service and BLM to sell public lands to either state governments or private buyers.

Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

https://suwa.org › suwa-statement-on-steve-pearces-nomination-to-lead-the-bureau-of-land-management-blm-11-5-25

SUWA Statement on Steve Pearce's Nomination to Lead the Bureau of Land ...

Nov 5, 2025"A longtime player in unsuccessful efforts to prioritize resource extraction and privatize or sell off public lands, Steve Pearce is uniquely unqualified to hold the position of Director of the Bureau of Land Management," said Scott Braden, Executive Director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA).

NRDC

https://www.nrdc.org › reaction › senate-committee-advances-pearce-nomination-lead-blm-despite-record-supporting-public-land

Senate Committee Advances Pearce Nomination to Lead BLM Despite ... - NRDC

Mar 4, 2026The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted to advance Steve Pearce's nomination to be the next director of the Bureau of Land Management, moving a nominee with a documented record of ...

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org › 2025 › 11 › 26 › blm-nominee-trump-pearce-environmentalists

Trump BLM pick's calls to sell off public land, expand drilling and ...

Nov 26, 2025WASHINGTON - Environmental groups in Arizona are raising alarms over President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management, former New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce. Pearce's long record of supporting the sale of public land, opposing protection of national monuments and pushing to expand oil and gas extraction, they say, makes him unfit to lead the agency responsible for one ...

Forest History Society

https://foresthistory.org › research-explore › us-forest-service-history › collection-database › biographical-index-m-q

Biographical Index, M-Q - Forest History Society

This is an index to files containing biographical information on approximately 5,000 Forest Service employees and officials, forestry industry leaders, and other individuals. Information in the collection is arranged alphabetically in individual files. Materials in these individual files consist of anywhere from a few pages per file up to 100 pages or more. For more...

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

https://www.backcountryhunters.org › media › details › understanding-steve-pearces-record-as-hes-nominated-to-lead-the-blm

Understanding Steve Pearce's Record as He's Nominated to Lead the BLM

Nov 21, 2025Understanding Steve Pearce's Record as He's Nominated to Lead the BLM On November 5, President Trump nominated Steve Pearce of New Mexico to serve as the 20th Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM Director oversees the agency's management of 245 million acres of federal public lands. The BLM sets policy direction, guides land-use planning, and balances uses such as ...

The Denver Post

https://www.denverpost.com › 2025 › 12 › 01 › steve-pearce-trump-blm-public-lands

Western senators cannot support this Trump nominee who wants to ...

Dec 1, 2025Do Western senators really care about keeping public lands in public hands? Steve Pearce, President Donald Trump's nominee to run the Bureau of Land Management, is a litmus test of their commitment.

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