New Forest Service Senior Executive Org Chart and Comparison With 2020 and 1989

For those of you less interested in reorganization, I hope to get back to other topics after Memorial Day weekend.

A side note on all the reorganization discussions.  Sometimes I will argue the Administration’s (apparent) side (or try to understand it).  The purpose is to try to understand what they, or the FS employees who worked on the reorganization, were thinking (I do have a FOIA in for some reorganization documents).   It’s not that I necessarily agree, but I want us to hear their side (even if I have to intuit it, or rely on the FS Retiree Gossip Network). We are currently missing the description of why they are using this model, but hopefully that will become clearer over time.

Anyway, below is the draft organization chart.  This has been shared with employees and Congressfolk so I’m assuming it’s OK to post:

Some people have been wondering how the FS can cut down on SES positions and also have 15 SES state directors. It turns out that there used to be 55, and there are now 45 under this model.

First, clearly we would need to see the next layer down to get a picture of what positions are where, doing what.   Also clearly, the idea of using service units instead of a layered Regional/WO approach will affect who is left working directly for these SESers, doing what kind of WO work.   I’m sure that all this has been thought out, but not easily accessible to us at present.

Below is the 2020 organizational chart, although it doesn’t show (as far as I can tell) who among them  is SES. The FS has also added an SES Deputy for Wildfire (at the behest of Congress?) since then, that you can see in the new chart as Chief Fire and Safety Officer.  It seems to me that whoever wanted it, it makes some sense.   Otherwise fire would tend to suck up all the oxygen, so to speak, from coop forestry, forest health and urban and community forestry. We might wonder whether Coop Forestry now includes Conservation Education, Tribal Relations, and Forest Health, and where Partnerships is located in the new org chart.

I can’t weigh in on the wisdom of combining the CFO and Biz Ops, but if we go back to 1989 (see the org chart below), they were together.  Perhaps having a CFO was a requirement imposed on agencies since then. Those who see the Chief Strategy and Performance Officer might have a vague memory of the old Programs and Legislation Deputy Area, except Legislative Affairs is now in the Chief’s Office. Plus I don’t know what happened to Policy Analysis (it moved to R&D) as did RPA (the Program was discontinued, but the Assessment lives on in R&D).

You might wonder, “how do agencies decide which positions are SES and which are 15s?” Here’s Grok’s answer.

Key distinction: SES emphasizes executive leadership and being part of the management team. GS-15 positions (even senior ones) are more likely technical experts, independent advisors, or supervisors without broad executive accountability.

I’m sure that there’s a definition of what is “managerial” and what is “executive” probably somewhere at OPM.

Here’s the org chart from the old  Forest Service Organizational Directory from  1989.

Thoughts?