By Leia Larsen | The Salt Lake Tribune 

In “prioritizing common sense forest management,” Salt Lake City will become the future headquarters of the Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday.

The move is part of the “sweeping restructuring” of how federal officials in Washington manage the nation’s forests, the USDA said in a news release, which will “move leadership closer to the forests and communities it serves.”

“This is a big win for Utah and the West,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in a statement included in Tuesday’s news release. “Nearly 90% of Forest Service lands are west of the Mississippi, so putting leadership closer to the lands they manage just makes sense.”

Cox emphasized that moving the Forest Service headquarters from Washington to Utah’s capital city “isn’t symbolic” and will mean “better, faster decisions on the ground.”

“Everyone who depends on our public lands, from hikers and campers to ranchers and timber producers, will benefit from this change,” the governor said of the federal government’s decision to localize their leadership structure.

In a separate post to social media, the governor said the headquarters relocation “also means hundreds of jobs coming to Utah.”

Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins said moving the Forest Service — which falls under USDA — is part of President Donald Trump’s “priority to return to common sense” in the way the federal government is managed.

“Moving the Forest Service closer to the forests we manage is an essential action that will improve our core mission of managing our forests while saving taxpayer dollars and boosting employee recruitment,” Rollins added.

Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz said on social media Tuesday that he was “excited” about the Forest Service’s move west, and he’s grateful for the Trump administration’s decision.

“This move strengthens our ability to protect our lands, support local economies, and make smarter, practical decisions right here at home,” Schultz posted.

U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy, of Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, said she welcomes “the Forest Service’s move to bring leadership closer to the lands and communities it serves because proximity matters.”

“I support efforts to reduce bureaucracy and better align the U.S. Forest Service with the people it serves,” she added in a post to social media.

Utah Farm Bureau President ValJay Rigby said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune that the bureau looks forward to the improvements made by having federal land managers “closer to the land and our farmers and ranchers who use it.”

“Bringing the Forest Service to Utah will strengthen local decision making, ensure services are more responsive to western ranchers, and foster collaboration that reflects the unique conditions and federal land ownership in our state and the region,” Rigby added.

Utah, however, does not produce the valuable timber found in other parts of the West, including California and the Pacific Northwest. The local dry climate means trees grow slowly. The state also lacks infrastructure to support a robust timber harvesting industry. Two of its few remaining sawmills, in Kamas and Panguitch, burned down in recent years.

Environmental groups said they oppose the Trump administration’s state-based management model.

“Ecosystems don’t stop at state lines,” a spokesperson for Save Our Canyons wrote in an emailed statement, “and the holistic management of our forested landscapes shouldn’t either.”

The group added that it remains “deeply concerned” about the administration’s slashing of budgets and resources for federal agencies, including the Forest Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management.

“This administration is bent on making things harder for the [Forest Service],” said Sierra Club Utah chapter director Franque Bains.

The move of a land-management agency from Washington, D.C. to a more remote office out West isn’t unprecedented. Trump relocated the Bureau of Land Management to Grand Junction, Colorado, during his first term in 2019. President Joe Biden moved it back in 2021.

Bradley Washa, an assistant professor of Wildland Fire Science for Utah State University Extension, worked for BLM during the 2019 transition. He said the move brought a lot of turnover for the agency, particularly BLM staffers who had spouses and other family members who also had careers based in the nation’s capital. Those workers opted not to make the transfer west.

“If a few key people that leave, you lose that institutional knowledge,” Washa told The Tribune. “Someone that could easily answer a question no longer is there.”

Under the Trump administration earlier this year, the Department of the Interior consolidated fire management operations from agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service, housing them under a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service.

The U.S. Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture, not Interior. But Washa said the shift in January could signify a larger trend. “If fire (management) moves into its own office, you’re not going to have a person down the hall to talk to,” he said. “That’s a concern.”

Utah’s own wildland fire and resource managers, however, called the relocation a win for the state.

“Headquartering in Salt Lake City is a strategic move that puts leadership where the action is,” said Jamie Barnes, state forester and director of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, in an email. “We appreciate our federal partners and look forward to continued collaboration as we improve joint decision-making, align priorities and ensure we’re delivering the right results on the ground when they matter most.”

The Utah Public Lands Coordinating Office, which is partly charged with helping the state develop ways to assert more local control over federal lands, said it welcomes the Forest Service to the Beehive State.

“We are excited to have them at the crossroads of the West,” said office director Redge Johnson, “to better implement solutions to address uncharacteristic wildfire, promote forest health and ensure healthy watersheds.”

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.