It’s unusually hard for the general public lately to learn what’s going on in federal land management agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service. It appears even harder for the workers inside those offices to know who’s in charge.
On the other hand, job opportunities abound in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming for everything from ground-pounding firefighter to deputy division chief of fire aviation. A search of USAjobs.gov’s employment offerings shows 32 open positions with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in the three Greater Yellowstone states. That includes elite smokejumper and helitack firefighters starting at $25.12 an hour, to the state fire management officer paying $128,266 a year.
But who those workers might report to is vague. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz told Congress in June his agency had lost more than 4,200 employees through firings, resignations and retirements. In July, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced plans to shrink her department, including elimination of the Forest Service’s nine regional offices. That would involve relocating about 2,600 capitol-region staff to five regional hubs, many of whom Rollins acknowledged might decline the move.
Since then, according to several Forest Service employees who spoke to Mountain Journal anonymously for fear of retribution, regional office staff have been scrambling to either retire or seek reassignment. Requests to Forest Service Region 1 for comment and clarification about the vacancies received no response.
The Forest Service oversees 193 million acres of public land. It does so through nine regional offices, which in turn supervise 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. Greater Yellowstone spreads across three of those areas.
Internal documents such as staff directories reviewed by Mountain Journal appear to confirm the exodus. For example, Northern Region 1’s headquarters directory shows numerous position vacancies. They include the budget director, budget and financial accountability manager, field procurement chief, regional aviation safety officer, civil rights office director, wildfire crisis strategy communications lead, and National Environmental Policy Act team leaders for western Montana and Idaho.
Numerous senior Forest Service leaders hold more than one post. Former Flathead National Forest Supervisor Kurt Steele is listed as Region 1’s acting director of Ecosystem Assessment and Planning and director of Recreation, Minerals, Lands, Heritage and Wilderness. His deputy director position in both offices is vacant.
State, Private and Tribal Forestry is serving a combined territory of Region 1 and Region 4. Jen Hensiek is listed as the deputy director of that effort. She’s also the acting director of Region 1’s Public and Governmental Relations and Partnerships.
Those departments oversee Good Neighbor Authority projects with states, such as the agreement signed by Montana Governor Greg Gianforte and Region 1 acting Forester Kristin Ball. The agreement gives Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation the lead on developing a 200,000-acre timber project on federal land to start in fiscal 2026.
At right: A screenshot of the Forest Service Region 1 leadership page shows no listings for regional forester or other office executives as of August 12, 2025. The webpage is also no longer visibly present on the Northern Region homepage. Similar pages for other Forest Service regional offices ranged from complete leadership listings to “access denied” flags.
Asked by Mountain Journal who would handle the agreement if the Forest Service regional office is eliminated, DNRC spokeswoman Moira Davin said “DNRC is committed to the Shared Stewardship Agreement with our partners and works with all levels of leadership within the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service would be the best contact to answer your questions around their organization.”
Questions from Mountain Journal to the Forest Service did not get a response.
The agreement does include a clause requiring the Forest Service to provide a “prioritized list of critical staffing shortages that may impact the pace and scale of forest management work.” Davin said that list has not yet been delivered, adding “the deadline is not until the end of the month.”
The Forest Service oversees 193 million acres of public land. It does so through nine regional offices, which in turn supervise 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. Greater Yellowstone spreads across three of those areas. The Missoula-based Northern Region 1 has 12 national forests and four grasslands across 25 million acres. Rocky Mountain Region 2, based in Lakewood, Colorado, has 17 national forests and 7 grasslands across 40 million acres. And the Intermountain Region 4 covers 12 national forests and one grassland on 34 million acres from Ogden, Utah.
Finding out who’s in charge of those regions has grown unreliable. Before President Donald Trump’s second administration began in January, each Forest Service Region had a public webpage listing contact information of its leadership and staffing.
Now many websites have a notice that they are under redesign. And the staff listings are either eliminated or disconnected from main pages.
The Region 1 page is simply blank. Region 2 still has a complete page with forester and deputy foresters listed, starting with Troy Heithecker in the forester post. However, that’s an unsupported page; its redesigned website as of April doesn’t have a leadership tab. Region 4 notes that Ben Newburn is the acting regional forester for the Intermountain Region.
Region 3’s leadership page comes back “access denied.” So does Region 8’s page. Regions 9 and 10 are blank, like Region 1.
Forest Service trivia masters recall that Region 7 was absorbed by neighboring regions “some years ago,” according to the Forest Service’s main webpage, but the rest were never renumbered. It’s led to some news organizations reporting that the Forest Service “operates 10 regional offices across the country [and] nine of those will close.”
After drawing widespread criticism on the consolidation plan, Rollins announced a 30-day public comment period on August 1, saying, “We value your perspective as we work to ensure that USDA is best positioned to serve America’s farmers, ranchers, producers, and rural communities.”Those reliant on Forest Service activity can at least take comfort that just a few dozen jobs are publicly seeking new hires. The Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general annual report released on August 12 found severe staffing shortages throughout its 139 medical center campuses. In the Greater Yellowstone, USAjobs lists 161 open positions.
