Friends Of The Allegheny Wilderness: US Forest Service New Regional Headquarters To Be In Warren

On April 3, the Friends Of The Allegheny Wilderness issued this statement on the reorganization of the US Forest Service announced on April 1--

The U.S. Forest Service is currently undertaking a major reorganization, including moving its national headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Also, they are dissolving their long-standing nine-region national arrangement and instead establishing fifteen new, generally smaller, regions around the country.

For us here in the Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania will no longer be included in the Eastern Region headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Rather, we will be part of a new “Mid‑Atlantic/New England State” region -- evidently to be headquartered right here in Warren, Pennsylvania!

One would have to think that this regional headquarters assignment will put us a bit more “on the map” and give us a higher profile. 

Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is yet to be seen.

It looks like the Mid-Atlantic/New England State region, with headquarters in Warren, will actually be relatively large, and include: Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts. 

Not all of these states have national forest land though.

We shall see what all of this will mean for the stewardship of, and importantly more wilderness preservation within, our beloved Allegheny National Forest as time goes on.

Visit the Friends Of The Allegheny Wilderness website to learn more about the Allegheny National Forest.

ABC27 reports four Pennsylvania offices will be closed-- existing research and development facilities in Irvine, Long Pond, Williamsport and York.

Pennsylvania has long been intertwined with the Forest Service. Gifford Pinchot, the state’s 28th governor, was instrumental in President Theodore Roosevelt establishing the service. 

Resource Link:

-- US Forest Service Reorganization

NewsClips:

-- ABC27: US Forest Service Closing 4 Pennsylvania Facilities As Part Of Restructuring

-- Inside Climate News: US Forest Service  Shake-Up Comes As Risky Wildfire Season Looms

-- US Forest Service Reorganization Sheds Research Capacity, Closing 57 Research Stations

[Posted: April 3, 2026]  PA Environment Digest