Forest Service Chief Considering Giving States Control of National Forests
Tom Schultz told a room of governors he’s “thinking about” it. The governors had already said yes in writing. And the state first in line is suing to take 18.5 million acres of your land outright.
There’s a moment at every heist where the inside man stops pretending.
For the Forest Service, that moment came on June 30, in a conference room at the Stein Eriksen Lodge above Park City, where the Western Governors’ Association held its annual meeting. Tom Schultz, chief of the U.S. Forest Service, stood in front of the governors of the American West and told them he’s “thinking about” giving states more control over managing the national forests inside their borders.
The man entrusted with 193 million acres that belong to all 330 million of us stood in Utah, the state suing the federal government to seize 18.5 million acres of your land, and floated handing states the keys.
He wasn’t taking a risk. He already knew the answer. Twelve days earlier, on June 18, the Western Governors’ Association had sent Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins a letter formally endorsing the agency’s new state-based model. It carried two signatures. Th…
