Budget calls for downsizing at Forest Service headquarters

The Bush administration wants to cut 500 jobs at the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Forest Service and 250 jobs at the agency's nine regional headquarters, according to the Agriculture Department's fiscal 2003 budget plan. Mark Rey, the agency's undersecretary for natural resources and the environment, told Government Executive after a budget briefing Monday that no employees would be fired. Rather, the plan calls for the elimination of the positions when employees retire or leave. An agency source said the number of Forest Service jobs in Washington and at regional headquarters is between 3,000 and 4,000. By 2005, operations at the Washington office would be limited to 7 percent of the total budget, according to the budget document. To meet the goals of the workforce restructuring plan, only half of the 2,500 positions expected to become available through attrition would be filled. The positions that are filled would be at field locations. The budget also calls for the Forest Service to finish consolidating 22 Forest Service offices with the Bureau of Land Management by 2005. The Forest Service is the largest employer within the Agriculture Department, with approximately 34,000 employees.