Shaheen, Hassan, Colleagues Raise Concerns About Forest Service Reorganization
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies (Ag-FDA), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) joined a letter with over 30 of their Senate colleagues to the U.S. Department of Agriculture raising strong concerns about the reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service. The Senators argue that the reckless reorganization will shutter research facilities across the country and at New Hampshire’s Bartlett Experimental Forest, which has hosted nearly 100 years of critical research, and risk the future of other facilities, including at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest.
The Senators wrote, in part: “We write with strong concerns regarding the announced reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). While we have expressed support for improving the operations of the USFS, we believe the reorganization announced on March 31, 2026, may lead to additional capacity and workforce reductions throughout the agency, harming its ability to deliver on its mission.”
They continued: “The USFS is charged with managing the 193 million-acre National Forest System (NFS), performing world-class forestry research, and delivering forestry assistance to improve the management of the more than 800 million acres of public and private forestlands across the country, including over 141 million acres of urban forests in our cities and towns.”
Shaheen and the lawmakers concluded: “The USFS serves a key role in supporting local economies, stewarding natural resources, and performing world-class research. The workforce reductions over the last year have already diminished the USFS’s ability to deliver its mission and the recently announced USFS reorganization could further exacerbate those losses.”
The full text of the letter can be found HERE.
Senator Shaheen is a champion for New England’s experimental forests and pushed back against USFS reorganization earlier this month. Recently, Senator Shaheen joined Senator Hassan in Bretton Woods to lead a roundtable with local conservation advocates and forest leaders to discuss this harmful effort. Just last week, Senator Shaheen questioned Secretary Rollins about the Forest Service’s plans to close Bartlett Experimental Forest. In the Fiscal Year 2026 government funding bills that were signed into law, Shaheen helped boost funding for state and private forestry, as well as forest research. Shaheen helped secure $308.5 million for the Forest Service’s Forest and Rangeland Research account, including language directing the U.S. Forest Service to use a portion of that funding to prioritize staffing at longstanding experimental forests like Bartlett and Hubbard Brook in New Hampshire.
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