Tom Schultz

Tom Schultz’s appointment was already unusual when Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins plucked him from the timber industry to lead the Forest Service in February 2025, bypassing the agency’s career foresters. Now Schultz, in what’s historically a nonpolitical position, is in another atypical situation: He’s sandwiched between a presidentially appointed undersecretary he reports to and new political hires who work for him as “senior advisers.” All of these officials are now leading a big reorganization of the agency, which is relocating the headquarters to Salt Lake City, replacing regional offices with state-based leadership and consolidating dozens of research facilities. …Former Forest Service officials said it’s unusual if not unheard of for the agency’s chief to both manage and be managed by political appointees. The arrangement is a reflection, they said, of the Trump administration’s desire to exert more control over the forest agency, steer it toward greater timber production.