# United States Forest Service The agency that manages the **National Forest System — 193.1 million acres** as of September 30, 2024, roughly a third of all federal land. It is the only one of the four major federal land managers that sits **outside the [[Department of the Interior]]**; it is a component of the [[Department of Agriculture]], a placement dating to the 1905 transfer engineered by Gifford Pinchot. Its mandate is multiple use, assembled from three statutes rather than one: the Organic Administration Act of 1897 (16 U.S.C. § 475), the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 (16 U.S.C. §§ 528-531), and the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. § 1600 et seq.), which supplies the forest-planning architecture. Two structural facts distinguish it: - **The Chief is not a Senate-confirmed office.** The Chief is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture. [[Tom Schultz]] was named on 2025-02-27 with no confirmation vote. - **There is no general authority to sell National Forest System land.** Land leaves by exchange under the General Exchange Act of 1922, by the Small Tracts Act, by administrative-site disposal, or by an act of Congress. As of this page's creation the agency is executing the largest restructuring in its history — regional offices dissolved in favor of 15 state directors, headquarters moving to Salt Lake City — and has proposed rescinding the [[Roadless Rule]] across 58.5 million acres. ## See also - [[Federal Land Management Crosswalk]] - [[Department of Agriculture]] - [[Tom Schultz]] - [[Roadless Rule]] - [[Bureau of Land Management]]