Kelly, Colleagues Raise Concerns about Forest Service Reorganization

Today, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joined Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and 31 of their colleagues in raising concerns about the reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, warning it could reduce staffing and undermine forest management and wildfire preparedness, including efforts like the Four Forests Restoration Initiative (4FRI) that help make Arizona's public lands more resilient.

The senators highlighted the Forest Service's critical role and warned that recent cuts and proposed changes could further weaken the agency: "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. After the deep cuts over the previous year, a 2025 survey by the Partnership for Public Service found that the USFS was significantly worse at fulfilling stakeholder needs and providing quality service than a year earlier. In addition, the sweeping changes being proposed-potentially impacting more than 6,500 employees-combined with the thousands of employees already lost through deferred resignation programs threatens to further erode the agency's ability to complete its mission."

The senators warned the timing of the reorganization could hinder wildfire preparedness and long-term forest management: "Given changes to the USFS in the last year and its ongoing, critical work, it is unclear how the announced reorganization will improve the USFS's ability to deliver on its statutory responsibilities, including mitigating wildfire risk, executing forest and watershed restoration projects, and increasing trail maintenance. In addition, given the potential for an active and extreme wildfire season the USFS should prioritize preparing for such a wildfire season rather than hastily executing a reorganization that will impact large swaths of its agency. It is likely that this sort of disruption will have lasting impacts on forest management as a whole, and wildfire preparedness and response, specifically."

Along with Kelly, Klobuchar, Heinrich, and Merkley, the letter was signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VI), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Angus King (I-ME), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Peter Welch (D-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The full letter is available here.