U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray have formally requested a detailed response from Tom Schultz, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), regarding serious issues highlighted in a December 2025 report on the National Trail Program. The senators emphasized their concerns about the report’s findings, which indicate significant challenges in maintaining trail operations and recreation access across national forests.
The internal report warns of a potential decline in public access and overall satisfaction with recreational facilities, a situation the senators find alarming. “The public land recreation economy contributes over $350 million every day to our national economy, totaling $128 billion annually,” they noted in the letter. The National Forest System (NFS) plays a crucial role in this economic contribution, featuring over 164,000 miles of trails and attracting approximately 84 million visitors each year, thereby supporting around 143,000 jobs linked to recreation and tourism.
In their correspondence, Cantwell and Murray stated the importance of prioritizing investments in the National Scenic and Historic Trails, which Congress has tasked the Forest Service with managing. They expressed concern that without such direction, the quality and accessibility of these trails will continue to deteriorate. “The report findings that public access and overall recreation satisfaction ‘will continue to decline in 2026 and beyond without direction to prioritize investments into these programs’ is troubling,” the senators asserted.
The urgency of their inquiry comes in the wake of widespread layoffs within the USFS and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which have disproportionately affected frontline staff responsible for maintaining safe and accessible trails for visitors. In March, Cantwell and Murray had previously reached out to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and Chief Schultz to request the immediate reinstatement of personnel, particularly those certified for wildland firefighting in Washington state.
The letter, co-signed by 22 Senate Democrats including Amy Klobuchar, Martin Heinrich, and Jeff Merkley, underscores a collective call for accountability from the Forest Service. The full letter can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/wad34zx.
As the conversation around public land management intensifies, the senators’ advocacy highlights the critical balance between preserving natural resources and ensuring that the public can enjoy them safely and sustainably.
