United States Forest Service

The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 National Forests. They also manage 20 National Grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres (780,000 km²). Major divisions of the agency include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations, and the Research and Development branch. Managing approximately 25% of federal lands, it is the only major national land agency that is outside the U.S. Department of Interior.

United States Forest Service

Logo of the U.S. Forest Service
Flag of the U.S. Forest Service
Agency overview
Formed	February 1, 1905
Preceding agency	Bureau of Forestry
Jurisdiction	Federal government of the United States
Headquarters	Sidney R. Yates Building 1400 Independence Ave SW Washington, D.C.
Employees	c. 35,000 (FY16) 28,330 Permanent 4,488 Seasonal FY08
Annual budget	$5.806 billion (FY08)
Minister responsible	Robert Bonnie, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment
Agency executives	Thomas Tidwell, Chief of the United States Forest Service Mary Wagner, Associate Chief
Parent agency	U.S. Department of Agriculture
Website	www.fs.fed.us
Footnotes

History

In 1876, Congress created the office of Special agent in the Department of Agriculture to find out the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Franklin B. Hough was appointed the head of the office. In 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the public domain as "forest reserves," managed by the Department of the Interior. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry. The Transfer Act of 1905 transferred the management of forest reserves from the General Land Office of the Interior Department to the Bureau of Forestry. It was from that time on known as the United States Forest Service. Gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

Significant federal legislation affecting the Forest Service includes the Weeks Act of 1911, the Multiple Use – Sustained Yield Act of 1960, P.L. 86-517; the Wilderness Act, P.L. 88-577; the National Forest Management Act, P.L. 94-588; the National Environmental Policy Act, P.L. 91-190; the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act, P.L. 95-313; and the Forest and Rangelands Renewable Resources Planning Act, P.L. 95-307.

In February 2009, the Government Accountability Office decided whether the Forest Service should be moved from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior, which already includes the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, managing some 438,000,000 acres (1,770,000 km²) of public land.