As a result of their historical development, four distinct land management agencies, each operating under unique authorities, today oversee more than 630 million acres of federal land. Established in 1849, Interior was given authority for managing public lands, including those acquired by the federal government during the nation’s westward expansion. While the government disposed of many of its lands to new states, the railroads, homesteaders, and miners, in the late nineteenth century it also began setting aside some lands under Interior’s jurisdiction for parks and forest reserves. Then in 1905 Congress transferred control of the forest reserves from Interior to USDA, consolidating USDA’s forestry research program and the forest reserves into one agency, which became known as the Forest Service. In creating the Forest Service in USDA, where it remains today, Congress was responding in part to scientists and policymakers who believed the nation’s forests and timber supply would be better managed under USDA’s agriculture and conservation mission. Between 1916 and 1956, Congress created the three other land management agencies within Interior, in part to manage its parks, wildlife refuges, and rangelands. Over the past several decades, both the Forest Service and Interior’s bureaus—particularly BLM—have experienced increased economic, ecological, and legal transformations, such as shrinking supplies of natural resources, passage of key environmental legislation in the 1960s and 1970s, and shifting public expectations for land management. Changes like these have made managing federal lands more complex, with managers needing to reconcile differences among growing demands for often conflicting land uses. Most recently, all the land management agencies, but particularly the Forest Service, have faced unprecedented challenges in the form of large- scale problems that cross agency and ownership boundaries such as wildland fire, invasive species, and development of private lands along their borders. A move of the Forest Service into Interior could improve federal land management by aligning the federal land management mission under one department and increasing program effectiveness. It may also yield long- term, but few short-term, efficiencies. One result of moving the Forest Service into Interior would be an alignment of the federal land management mission in one department by bringing the Forest Service together with the other three federal agencies having major land management missions. The Forest Service and BLM both manage their lands for multiple uses, including timber, grazing, oil and gas, recreation, wilderness, and fish and wildlife, although they emphasize different uses depending on their specific authorities and public demands. As shown in figure 1, Forest Service and Interior lands often abut each other and are sometimes intermingled. As a result, particularly in the western states, land managers often cross each other’s lands to work on their own lands and work with members of the same communities. Several experts and officials pointed to the amount and proximity of Forest Service’s and Interior’s lands as a reason for moving the Forest Service into Interior. According to many of the experts and officials we interviewed, however, a move of the Forest Service into Interior could diminish the role that the agency plays in managing state and private forestlands—a mission focus the Forest Service shares with USDA but does not have in common with Interior. The Forest Service’s state and private forestry arm provides technical and financial assistance to state and private landowners to sustain and conserve forests and protect them from wildland fires. Such outreach, or extension service, is not a function of Interior agencies. According to many officials and others we interviewed, moving the Forest Service into Interior could diminish this role by directing the agency’s attention to its federal lands and away from the nation’s nearly 750 million acres of forested lands (shown in fig. 2), including almost 430 million acres of private forested lands across the nation. According to some officials and state foresters, USDA has developed a closer relationship with state and private entities and has a better perspective on what private landowners need to conserve their resources. Other officials said, however, that Interior could work more with state and local entities if the authorities to do so were transferred with the Forest Service to Interior and extended to Interior’s other agencies. Improvements in the effectiveness of federal land management programs could result from a move of the Forest Service into Interior, according to several officials, if the four agencies took the opportunity to coordinate programs they have in common. For example, a possible outcome of having the land management agencies together in one department could be the improvement of land management across jurisdictional boundaries. Program areas that offer opportunities for improved coordination include law enforcement, recreation, and wilderness management. The optimal approach for improving the effectiveness of federal land management programs, according to many officials and experts, could be to align the Forest Service’s and BLM’s statutes, regulations, policies, and programs in such areas as timber, grazing, oil and gas, appeals, and mapping. Many of these officials and experts, however, said an alignment would not automatically occur if the Forest Service were moved into Interior, and further action—legislative or executive—would need to be taken to improve effectiveness. While many of the officials and experts we interviewed believed a move would improve effectiveness, many did not believe that many efficiencies would be achieved in the short term if the Forest Service were moved into Interior as a separate bureau, with its own authorities and programs. Still, a number of them believed that efficiencies might be gained in the long term if the department took certain actions to convert the Forest Service to Interior’s information technology and other business systems. According to several officials and experts, existing efforts to integrate programs demonstrate improved program effectiveness and public service but few efficiencies in the short term. For example, parts of the Forest Service, BLM, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs have been colocated at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, since 1965 and, through the center, coordinate their mobilization of supplies, equipment, and personnel to suppress wildland fires quickly and more effectively. Despite this coordination, the agencies still have key differences that hinder management effectiveness and efficiency; such differences include incompatible information technology and other business operations and systems. Service First offices have also integrated a number of programs that have helped improve the effectiveness, and perhaps efficiency, of land management and public service. Under the Service First program begun in 1996, the Forest Service, BLM, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service can use one another’s authorities, duties, and responsibilities to conduct joint or integrated programs or business operations to improve the agencies’ customer service, operational efficiency, and land management. For example, a Service First office in Durango, Colorado, has both Forest Service and BLM staff working jointly to manage recreation activities, grazing allotments, oil and gas exploration and production, and other resources to increase the effectiveness of land management. The Service First efforts also demonstrate some of the difficulties that the Forest Service and BLM have working together because of different systems and the resulting inefficiencies. For example, although the Colorado Service First offices have integrated aspects of their programs, the offices have to maintain two separate computer systems, one for the Forest Service and the second for BLM. Many agency officials and experts we interviewed suggested that if the objective of a move is to improve federal land management or increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the agencies’ diverse programs, other organizational options may achieve better results than moving the Forest Service into Interior. These officials and experts raised a range of other options, such as increasing collaboration and coordination, moving BLM to USDA, and creating a new department of natural resources. In addition to these options, a number of officials and experts believed the Forest Service should remain separate from Interior and its agencies because it provides an alternative model of land management. A few officials said that the Forest Service and BLM serve to check and balance each other, in that no one Secretary manages all public lands, thereby diminishing the influence one person can have on these lands. Other officials and experts pointed out that the two agencies manage different lands and therefore have different management purposes: the Forest Service manages higher, wetter, mountainous lands, while BLM manages lower-elevation rangelands. Moving the Forest Service into Interior would raise a number of cultural, organizational, and legal factors and related transition costs for Interior and USDA to consider. Nevertheless, Interior and USDA could implement some key merger and transformation practices to help manage any resulting disruptions and other transition costs. Differences between the Forest Service’s culture and those of Interior’s land management agencies may produce clashes resulting in decreased morale and productivity if the Forest Service is moved into Interior. The agencies’ cultures stem in large part from their histories and have also developed as a result of each agency’s level of autonomy within USDA or Interior. A number of officials said that the Forest Service has a fair degree of independence within USDA. For example, some agency officials said that the Forest Service budget does not receive as much attention or scrutiny as other USDA agency budgets. Because of cultural differences, many officials and experts believed that moving the Forest Service into Interior could lead to decreased morale and productivity. Some experts and officials indicated that Forest Service employees may feel a loss of identity and independence in leaving USDA and would fear and resist a move, while a move may leave Interior employees feeling threatened, worrying that because of its size, the Forest Service would dominate Interior; they too may resist a move. According to many officials and experts, the agencies may also see an increase in the number of retirements and resignations after a move, which may facilitate cultural change but also decrease productivity because of the loss of experienced staff. The consolidation of Interior’s National Biological Service into the United States Geological Survey (USGS) offers one illustration of possible cultural implications of moving the Forest Service into Interior. The National Biological Service was created in 1993 to gather, analyze, and disseminate biological information necessary for the sound stewardship of the nation’s natural resources. In 1996, the agency was merged into USGS.