Gov. Mark Gordon praised the Trump administration’s decision unveiled Tuesday to move the U.S. Forest Service headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City to place agency leaders closer to the federal public lands they oversee and neighboring communities. 

“I am optimistic about the opportunities this new organizational approach will bring Wyoming and the cooperative management of our state’s natural resources,” Gordon said in a Tuesday statement. “Vital areas such as timber, energy development, wildlife and habitat, recreation, and livestock grazing all stand to benefit from management closer to the forests they serve.”

In addition to moving the national headquarters west, the agency will replace nine regional offices with 15 new state-based offices. A combined Northern Plains State Office, overseeing North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming, would be located in Cheyenne. The decision also consolidates multiple research stations into a single, unified national research and development organization, headquartered in Fort Collins, Colorado, that will be led by one research director.

The announcement does not include changes for forest or district offices or their staff, according to the USDA. When WyoFile reached out to the Bridger-Teton National Forest for details on what this could mean for national forests in Wyoming, the USDA responded with a prepared statement. 

“The Bridger-Teton is committed to ensuring that all operations, including wildfire readiness and response, continue without interruption,” the statement read. “The Forest Service’s fire readiness in response remain unchanged, and our operational firefighters and aviation resources continue to support wildfire response.” 

The statement directed any further press inquiries to the agency’s national press desk, which touted the restructuring as a recognition that the forests, agency partners and operational challenges are concentrated in the West.

“President Trump has made it a priority to return common sense to the way our government works,” Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a press release. “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.”

Gordon, meanwhile, said the move could “provide more localized support, better and quicker management opportunities, and a deeper federal understanding of Western States’ specific needs.” 

Gordon noted that Wyoming and the Forest Service signed a “Shared Stewardship Agreement” in January to formalize cooperation across eight national forests and one national grassland in Wyoming. Gordon signed an executive order, “Increase of Active Forest Management in Wyoming,” emphasizing cooperation between the federal government and the Wyoming State Forestry Division, which oversees timber harvests and forest watershed restoration work.

During his first term, Trump moved the Bureau of Land Management headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado, a decision that didn’t stick.

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