In the constant news flow about changes in federal agencies, a substantial proposal has not gotten much attention: one announced in late July to fundamentally reorganize the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the Northern Forest Center, we’re concerned about what this reorganization could mean for critical USDA programs – and the federal employees behind them – that serve rural regions like the Northern Forest.

USDA Secretary Rollins’ memo of July 24, 2025, outlines four areas of substantial change as part of a USDA Reorganization Plan:

1. Workforce reductions;
2. Relocation of D.C.-based USDA employees to “hub locations” in NC, MO, IN, CO, and UT;
3. Reducing or eliminating stand-alone regional offices like U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) regional offices and USFS research stations;
4. Consolidation of support functions, including “transfer of grant making and administration functions from USDA offices and agencies to other agencies.”

USDA programs span every county of the U.S., addressing not just agricultural production but forest health and management, rural development, food security, protection from pests and pathogens, agricultural and forest research, and more. The agency’s structure – and we believe its effectiveness – is built on having people on the ground in even the most rural places to ensure local relevance for and access to the services it provides.

The Center has utilized multiple USDA programs in support of our work and to bring benefit to the Northern Forest region, especially from Rural Development, the Forest Service, and NRCS. We and the communities we serve have benefitted tremendously from positive, effective relationships with local staff who know how to make the programs they administer fit local needs, whether it is supporting new markets for forest products, supporting private landowners in stewarding their forests and farms, managing National Forests in relationship with adjoining communities, investing in rural community facilities and infrastructure like broadband, or deepening our scientific understanding of forests.

Is it all perfect and efficient? Of course not. As a large institution, and one tinkered with and added to by the executive and legislative branches since it was founded under Abraham Lincoln, there are absolutely opportunities for positive change at USDA. We have advocated in the past for changes at USDA to better align programs with current realities.

The proposal on the table, however, is headed in the opposite direction. Instead of bringing USDA programs closer and more accessible to the people and places they serve, the proposed reorganization would have the opposite impact here. Examples:

• The overarching consolidation of many USDA functions into five regional hubs – the closest one in Indiana – leaves Northeast interests without representation in an agency critical to the region.
• Eliminating the nine Regional Offices of the Forest Service eliminates the agency’s regional perspective in favor of a “one size fits all” approach to our nation’s diverse forest landscapes.
• Consolidation of the Forest Service Research Stations to a singular entity in Colorado suggests removal of on-the-ground research from the region, and with it local knowledge, partnerships, and understanding of the ecology and specific challenges, opportunities, and resources unique to the Northern Forest.
• Moving rural business development programs to other agencies less present and grounded in rural places could weaken the access of rural people to programs created specifically to serve them.

We recently submitted comments to the USDA asking that these dynamics be considered in their plans. USDA agencies are crucial partners in active and locally relevant stewardship of public and private forests to maintain the many benefits nature provides, and in supporting thriving rural economies and resilient lands. Maintaining these essential benefits depends on a well-resourced, experienced, and locally rooted USDA. Any reorganization should strengthen – not weaken – these capacities.