We’ve seen firsthand what happens when trails wash out, fires scar a beloved route, or permit delays threaten local races. And we’ve also seen how quickly the Forest Service can step in to restore, repair, and reopen the landscapes we cherish. That’s why USDA’s new reorganization plan matters to us as runners—because it risks breaking the systems that keep our public lands safe, accessible, and resilient.
On August 1, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a sweeping Department Reorganization Plan that would phase out all nine United States Forest Service (USFS) regional offices, consolidate research stations to Fort Collins, CO, and relocate 2,600 Washington-based positions to five national hubs. While USDA frames this as efficiency, the plan would significantly weaken the Department’s ability to protect lands, respond to wildfires, and serve rural communities.
At a time of increasing recreation, worsening wildfire seasons, and already existing staffing shortages, the Department should be expanding capacity in the field, not dismantling it. The USFS’ motto is “Caring for the Land and Serving People” and it needs the proper resources to provide everyone with healthy, safe, and runnable landscapes. That’s why Runners for Public Lands (RPL) submitted formal comments urging USDA to pause this reorganization and reconsider its impacts.
Here’s what’s at stake:
1. Risk to On-the-Ground Capacity and Local Expertise
Many Forest Service trails require seasonal management, erosion control, and coordination with ski resorts and county trail crews. Without regional recreation specialists, approvals for maintenance and reroutes could be delayed. Additionally, seasonal flooding often wipes out trail sections that require engineering and environmental review—roles that regional staff currently fill.
These specialists are experts in their regions, and we risk losing their institutional knowledge by closing their office doors. Not only that, but we risk prolonged trail closures, taking away public access to our public lands.
RPL Recommendation: The Forest Service should maintain and expand regional technical assistance teams for recreation, wilderness, and fire management. These teams—modeled on existing specialized units like the Forest Service’s Remote Sensing Applications Center in Salt Lake City, UT, and the Southern Research Station in Asheville, NC—would provide direct, hands-on support to forest and district offices and preserve access to subject-matter experts.
2. Negative Impacts on Recreation Access and Stewardship
Trail races and volunteer stewardship days depend on timely, predictable permitting. Shifting permits to distant hubs without increasing field staff will likely delay projects, defer trail work, and reduce the number of events approved.
Events like the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run (Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest) rely on multi-district permits and careful environmental review. Local district staff often lean on regional Special Uses experts with decades of experience to complete approvals in a timely manner. Without them, permits could stall, forcing cancellations. That means not only fewer races for runners, but also lost income and community vitality in small rural towns that depend on trail tourism.
RPL Recommendation: Expand recreation e-permitting systems as soon as possible and set clear national processing timelines. Require annual public reporting on permit backlogs and maintenance metrics.
3. Weakened Wildfire and Climate Response
Centralizing staff and reducing regional coordination capacity will slow wildfire response at a time when fires are growing longer and more severe, threatening trail corridors and rural communities.
The 2022 Mosquito Fire offers a clear example. The fire destroyed 16 miles of the Western States Trail. In response, and in partnership with local organizations and the running community, the USFS Pacific Southwest Regional Office (Region 5) reacted quickly, unlocking emergency funding, coordinating and approving on-the-ground work, and providing technical assistance to ensure closures were lifted in time for the 2023 race season. Without regional staff, that recovery could have taken years.
RPL Recommendation: Prioritize maintaining or increasing regional fire and restoration planning capacity and publicly commit to and invest in wildfire readiness.
4. Unrealistic Timeline and Lessons from Past Federal Relocations
USDA’s plan sets an aggressive one-year timeline for closing regional offices and relocating staff. This is simply not feasible without disrupting essential services. Past federal relocations show why: when USDA relocated the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in 2019, nearly 75% of staff resigned rather than move. The Government Accountability Office later concluded that these relocations severely reduced capacity, delayed research, and weakened stakeholder relationships.
Attempting a reorganization of this scale now—while the Forest Service is already under strain to meet wildfire, recreation demand, and climate resilience goals —risks repeating these mistakes.
RPL’s Recommendation: USDA should pause implementation and extend the public comment period to ensure runners, recreationists, and public land users of all kinds can weigh in before the plan moves forward.
The Bottom Line
This reorganization risks weakening the Forest Service’s ability to tackle the most pressing challenges facing our national forests—including climate-driven wildfires, recreation infrastructure maintenance, and equitable public access.
The trails we love are not guaranteed. They rely on a Forest Service rooted in local knowledge and connected to communities.
That’s why Runners for Public Lands submitted an official public comment opposing USDA’s reorganization plan. We made clear that runners, communities, and ecosystems need a Forest Service that strengthens field capacity, not dismantles it.
By standing up in this process, we are making sure that the voices of runners are heard at the national level. Our commitment is simple: to defend the runnable landscapes that shape our lives, and to keep public lands open, safe, and resilient for everyone.