# Tom Schultz The 21st Chief of the [[United States Forest Service]], named by Secretary of Agriculture [[Brooke Rollins]] on **2025-02-27**. The Chief is a **departmental appointment, not a Senate-confirmed office**, so he took the post without a confirmation vote — a structural fact that distinguishes his seat from the directorships of the three Interior land agencies. A forester by training, he came to the job from the timber industry and from state land management, a background that has framed most of the coverage of his tenure. Two things define that tenure so far, both mapped at [[Federal Land Management Crosswalk]]: - **The reorganization.** Reported as the largest restructuring of the agency in roughly 120 years: regional offices — a structure dating to Gifford Pinchot — dissolved in favor of 15 state director positions, the Washington headquarters relocating to Salt Lake City, and nearly five dozen research and development stations under review for closure, with state offices expected operational in late October or early November 2026. It is being done as an internal reorganization rather than under any statute, the route described at [[Reorganization Authority]]. - **The Roadless Rule rescission.** On 2026-08-20 the agency proposed rescinding the [[Roadless Rule]] in its entirety across 58.5 million acres. ## See also - [[Federal Land Management Crosswalk]] - [[United States Forest Service]] - [[Roadless Rule]] - [[Brooke Rollins]] - [[Reorganization Authority]]