Welcome back to Forest Service and other employed folks! We’ve missed you!
Don Amador sent me a list of his “predictions” for the New Year. This sounds like fun so I thought I’d highlight a few, add my own, and give you all a chance to add yours. I have a few more, which I’ll put in separate posts, and you can submit a guest post as well.
Here are three of my favorites of his predictions/wishes..
DOGE effort helps refocus Forest Service leadership to redirect fiscal and other resources out to local units to empower District Rangers and Forest Supervisors to increase the pace and scale of on-the-ground projects that benefit natural, cultural, and recreation programs.
I think this is happening anyway, although it’s more about leadership intent than DOGE. Also we all know this is not easy to do. This next one is more novel.
Forest Service Chief, Tom Shultz, creates a new “Trail Czar” position in the agency to promote the designation of roads, trails, and areas for OHV and other outdoor recreation activities. That new Czar will spend a lot of time in the field meeting with National Forests that already have a high quality trail recreation program and, most importantly, those Forests that do not to encourage them to get on the trail recreation train.
While Don says “OHV and other recreation activities”, I might say all recreation activities, including OHV.
National and regional motorized and non-motorized outdoor recreation groups will continue to collaborate and find common ground on a growing number of access challenges realizing there is strength in numbers. Those collaborative efforts take on even more importance as they address new problems and find solutions.
This is a real dream.. how can they (motorized and non) work together better? What’s preventing them from doing that now? Any guest posts on this topic or other predictions/wishes would be appreciated.
Have you seen the news about new terms and conditions recently? The Dept has finally created requirements for partnerships. https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/12/31/usda-strengthens-national-security-and-protects-taxpayers-standardizing-grant-and-cooperative
From this, it seems like a lot of change is possible re transparency and accountability.
Maybe we could start by talking about what we mean by “access.” There’s a new bipartisan congressional group that is “committed to protecting access to public lands, expanding recreation opportunities, and ensuring these spaces are preserved for future generations.” https://vasquez.house.gov/about/committees-and-caucuses/bipartisan-public-lands-caucus
To some, I think “access” means opposition to selling public lands and/or getting literal access through private lands to reach public lands, on which there is a broad range of agreement. The Amador quote suggests there are different kinds of access desired by motorized and non-motorized users. This sounds more like a win-lose situation – but what does he really mean by “access?”