USDA Prioritizing Common Sense Forest Management, Moves Forest Service HQ to Salt Lake City

On March 31, 2026, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the Forest Service would move its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah, and begin a sweeping restructuring of the agency — implementing the department-wide reorganization plan's July 2025 directive to phase out the agency's regional offices. Under the restructuring, described in the Forest Service's announcement, all nine regional offices will close as the agency transitions to a state-based model in which 15 state directors oversee forest supervisors, operational priorities, and relationships with states, Tribes, and partners. Functions currently housed in regional offices will shift to operational service centers in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Athens, Georgia; Fort Collins, Colorado; Madison, Wisconsin; Missoula, Montana; and Placerville, California, and the agency's geographically dispersed research stations will be consolidated under a single research organization in Fort Collins, with reporting indicating that more than 50 research facilities would close; the agency posted lists of retained and closing facilities on its reorganization webpage. USDA said the headquarters relocation would be complete by summer 2027, with the formal elimination of regional and station office structures implemented over the following year.