friends of the forest service

Bringing people together to find common ground

Our Approach

This is a pivotal moment, one where coordination, trust-building, and shared leadership can have an outsized impact. We're not here to follow trends, we're here to build solutions that last. The U.S. Forest Service and its partners are the front lines of stewardship for the nation’s forests, waters, and grasslands – lands that shape our environment, economies, and ways of life. Forests and the people and communities who rely on them face urgent challenges that demand coordinated, forward-looking action. With a broad, bipartisan network of partners,  Friends of the Forest Service is translating common ground across our community into ACTIONABLE SOLUTIONS defined by collaboration, trust, and lasting stewardship.We are not going back to what came before: we are building a shared vision for the future of the Forest Service and its partners. 

how we work

Friends of the Forest Service functions as a bipartisan, cross-sector network that convenes leaders from government, conservation, industry, Tribal communities, and rural America. This network generates key information about what is needed to empower a high functioning agency.

These themes inform actionable recommendations that we will provide to agency leadership and policymakers. These are durable and broadly supported recommendations that can improve how the agency delivers on its mission.

Our change begins with honest conversations that surface real problems and build trust across differences; it gains traction when leaders identify practical, mutually beneficial solutions; and it becomes durable when those ideas are tested, refined, and carried forward by a network that stays engaged long after a single meeting or report.

what we heard

Across conversations with leaders from conservation, industry, Tribal communities, rural America, recreation, philanthropy, and government, several themes have consistently emerged.

The alignment and energy around these themes create a rare window of opportunity. There is meaningful common ground.The work now is to convert that shared momentum into practical, durable actions that can shape near-term decisions and guide long-term institutional change.

Key themes

  • Broad desire for a high-functioning Forest Service with the tools, capacity, funding and support needed to meet today’s challenges and steward forests for future generations.

  • The central importance of relationships rooted in community.

  • A need for greater transparency, relevance, and trust within and for the agency.

  • Strong interest in expanding shared stewardship and Tribal co-stewardship, and improving partnership models across jurisdictions to address issues like wildfire resilience.

  • Creating a culture that supports innovation, implementation and learning, using science to inform decision-making, get work done on the ground, and adapt.  

  • Enthusiasm for a renovation mindset—carrying forward what works, transforming what does not, and creating new opportunities.