Forest management and U.S. Forest Service operational expenditures drop under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the Oct. 1 fiscal year.

“There are some significant cuts to Forest Service resources in the president’s proposed budget that would affect management activities in Idaho if enacted,” said John Robison, Idaho Conservation League public lands and wildlife director.

Compared to the current year’s budget, National Forest System management spending would decrease by $392 million across the U.S., according to a May 2 letter from Russell Vought, director of the president’s Office of Management and Budget, to Senate Appropriations Committee chair Susan Collins, R-Maine.

The proposed NFS management budget reduces salaries and expenses by $342 million and saves an additional $50 million by eliminating funding for the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration program and reducing funding for recreation, vegetation and watershed management as well as land management regulation.

The proposal “fully supports” Executive Order 14225 — which calls for immediate expansion of timber production and improved forest management — “and the administration’s goal of restoring federalism by empowering states to assume a greater role in managing forest lands,” according to a summary included with the OMB letter.

The requested funding level “supports the highest priorities in forest management including timber sales, hazardous fuels removal, mineral extraction, grazing, and wildlife habitat management.”

A reduction of $391 million is proposed for Forest Service operations. The budget reduces funding for expenses including salaries and facility leases “to streamline the agency’s management structure and rightsize their real property footprint,” in line with the goal to increase state authority over land management, according to OMB.

“The ability to increase active management on public land, and do so responsibly, is going to take additional staff and funding, not less,” Robison said.

The National Association of Forest Service Retirees supports more active management, said chairman Steve Ellis, a former Wallowa-Whitman National Forest supervisor.

“To do that, it takes people,” he said. The administration has been terminating or otherwise pushing out employees, “and these are the very people who are needed to do more active management on Forest Service lands,” such as employees who conduct environmental reviews required by federal law and staff who set up timber sales.

Of the just over 26,000 employees the Forest Service had in late January, about 5,200 had been displaced as of the end of April, Ellis said. Additional staff cuts are on the horizon, especially with the proposed budget reductions.

For forest and rangeland research, except for forest inventory and analysis, the proposed reduction is $300 million.

“The president has pledged to manage national forests for their intended purpose of producing timber” and the proposal reduces funding for the forest and rangeland research program “because it is out of step with the practical needs of forest management for timber production,” according to OMB.

Funding is maintained for inventory and analysis, a longstanding census of forest resources and conditions.

“These budget cuts may look good on a spreadsheet, but will lead to a real disservice to Idahoans who rely on this research for their businesses and to steward public lands,” Robison said.

The budget for state, local, tribal and non-government organization conservation programs would be cut by $303 million.

The budget reduces grant programs that subsidize management of state and privately owned forests.

The program “has been plagued by oversight issues, including allegations of impropriety by both the agency and state governments,” according to OMB. “While the budget provides robust support for federal wildland fire management activities alongside states and local partners, these partners should be encouraged to fund their own community preparedness and risk mitigation activities.”

Proposed spending on wildfire suppression is $2.9 billion compared to this year’s $2.8 billion.

Trump’s budget would consolidate the five combined USDA Forest Service and U.S. Department of the Interior wildland fire programs under a unified Federal Wildland Fire Service within Interior.

The Forest Service retiree group, which includes all living past chiefs, opposes this proposal, said Ellis, who lives in Clackamas County, Ore.

“Wildland fire management involves much more than just suppression,”  he said. “The critical linkage with forest management, including fuels reduction and prescribed fire, could be compromised under the proposal.”

Creating a single agency for suppression will not solve the problem of catastrophic wildfires, Ellis said.

“The urgent need is to address the root causes of catastrophic fire … You are not going to organize your way to success,” he said.