On February 27, 2025, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins named Tom Schultz the 21st chief of the US Forest Service. He is the first person to hold the job who never worked for the agency, which was established in 1905.
USDA's own announcement describes where he came from. Schultz “previously served as vice president of resources and government affairs at Idaho Forest Group, where he led timber procurement operations and managed relationships with government officials at all levels.” Idaho Forest Group is a family-owned company headquartered in Coeur d'Alene and one of the largest lumber producers in the country. Before that he directed the Idaho Department of Lands and held roles at Montana's Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. He is a former Air Force officer with a master's degree in forestry from the University of Montana.
He also led the industry's lobby. Schultz served as president of the Federal Forest Resource Coalition, a timber trade association. Public Citizen reported that in July 2022, testifying before House lawmakers as coalition president, he proposed letting states manage more Forest Service timber sales while bypassing detailed environmental reviews. The coalition welcomed his appointment, saying, “They could not have picked a better person to lead the agency.”
What he has done in office tracks what he argued for outside it. At an August 19, 2025 conference in Whitefish, Montana, Schultz said, “America should mine, mill and manufacture more,” and said more national forest land would become available for logging under Trump's executive orders. He framed the case in terms of industry certainty, saying that without it, companies will not build mills costing roughly $250 million.
In December 2025, Schultz and Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a renewed Shared Stewardship agreement whose stated goals include roughly doubling timber sales from Idaho's national forests, to about 100 million board feet a year within five years, using the Good Neighbor Authority model. The Forest Service is providing about $4 million upfront, with the increased timber sales expected to cover ongoing costs. The agreement aligns with Trump's March 2025 executive order on the immediate expansion of American timber production.
The conflict here is structural, and it should be described precisely. The agreement is between a federal agency and a state government. It does not name Idaho Forest Group, and no ethics finding or conflict-of-interest determination has been reported against Schultz. What is documented is that nine months after leaving a senior role at one of Idaho's largest lumber producers, he signed an agreement to double the volume of federal timber offered for sale in that state. Public Citizen, which reported that Idaho Forest Group has spent $955,000 on federal lobbying since 2020 according to OpenSecrets, characterizes the agreement as directly benefiting his former employer. That characterization goes beyond what the agreement itself establishes.
Schultz went on to lead the March 2026 reorganization that closes 57 research stations and moves the agency's headquarters to Salt Lake City (see The Forest Service Will Close 57 Research Stations and Move Its Headquarters From Washington to Salt Lake City).