Message from Chief Tom Schultz, March 4, 2025
I’m grateful to serve as your next Chief of the Forest Service. First, thank you to Chief Moore for his leadership. He spent his life in service, dedicating a 45-year career to the benefit of the American people. I recognize that I am the first Chief who did not come from or previously work within the agency, but I hope you will see that as I do—as a strength.
I want to refocus our efforts on safety, active forest management, fire management and recreation. As a field-based organization, safety must always be at the forefront of our minds. Years of fire suppression and declining timber harvest have left us with significant fuel buildup. I want us to do more to create resilient forests through active forest management, including timber sales, fuels reduction through mechanical thinning and prescribed fires, as well as fighting fires safely and protecting resource values.
Our public lands offer some of the best recreational opportunities in the world, and many are on Forest Service lands. I want to increase those opportunities to benefit urban and rural communities, yet we must balance public access with the potential for impacts on adjacent landowners.
There was a time when preservation versus management was the source of significant debate. I believe that time has passed. Land managers, sportsmen and conservationists are allied now. Our largest partners are conservation and sportsmen organizations. Communities across the country depend on national forests and grasslands, and I will work tirelessly to support and protect those communities by partnering to actively manage public lands for multiple uses.