September 12, 2025 (IF13101)

The Forest Service (FS) is responsible for managing 193 million acres of land in the National Forest System (NFS), conducting forestry research, and providing assistance to nonfederal forest owners. The FS is an agency within the Department of Agriculture, but it receives discretionary appropriations through the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Debates concerning FS appropriations frequently concern how funding is allocated across federal and nonfederal lands and between NFS uses and resources.

FY2025 Appropriations

The Biden Administration requested $8.9 billion in total FY2025 discretionary appropriations for the FS (see Table 1). This amount would have been an increase of $546.0 million (7%) from FY2024 regular enacted appropriations.

FY2025 Enacted Appropriations

For FY2025, Congress enacted appropriations for the FS as part of a full-year continuing resolution (CR), the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (P.L. 119-4). Regular FY2025 appropriations were not enacted by the start of the fiscal year, but CRs provided regular funding at the FY2024 levels until enactment of full-year appropriations on March 13, 2025. One such CR included supplemental appropriations (see below).

P.L. 119-4 provided appropriations to the FS at the levels enacted for FY2024 regular discretionary appropriations, except for the FS's State, Private, and Tribal Forestry (SPTF), Capital Improvement and Maintenance (CIM), and Wildland Fire Management (WFM) accounts and for the wildfire adjustment (see below).

P.L. 119-4 provided the FS $8.6 billion, or $178.5 million (2%) more than the FY2024 regular discretionary appropriation. This total reflects regular enacted funding of $6.2 billion and $2.4 billion provided pursuant to the wildfire adjustment. Additional FS appropriations available for FY2025 include $945.1 million in supplemental appropriations provided in the budget reconciliation measure known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA; P.L. 117-58, Division J), for a total of $9.5 billion for FY2025. Other appropriations are available for FY2025, as well (see "Mandatory Appropriations").

Forest Service Appropriations Accounts

Wildland Fire: Wildland Fire Management and the Wildfire Adjustment

The largest share of FS appropriations goes to the WFM account. The WFM appropriation funds preparedness, or fire prevention, detection, equipment and training; wildfire suppression; and salaries and expenses. Starting in FY2020, additional funds for suppression operations are available to the FS (and the Department of the Interior) pursuant to the wildfire adjustment (2 U.S.C. §901(b)(2)(F)). This mechanism allows Congress to provide additional funding above a specified baseline ($1.011 billion for the FS) for wildfire suppression through an adjustment to the limit on total discretionary spending. The maximum amount available pursuant to the adjustment is $2.4 billion for the FS in FY2025, which is to increase annually as specified in law. The wildfire adjustment is available annually through FY2027. Overall, in FY2025, 51% of the agency's discretionary appropriations, including supplemental appropriations, were provided for these two accounts (26% WFM, 25% wildfire adjustment).

National Forest System

The NFS account funds activities related to the management of national forests and grasslands. These activities include planning, recreation, grazing, timber production, watershed protection, wildlife management, and law enforcement, among others. The NFS account also funds management of hazardous fuels. In FY2025, 22% of FS discretionary appropriations went to this account.

Forest Service Operations

The Forest Service Operations (FSO) account funds certain fixed costs and administrative expenses related to facilities maintenance and leasing, information technology, and other agency-wide organizational services. In FY2025, 13% of FS discretionary appropriations went to this account.

State, Private, and Tribal Forestry

The SPTF account funds programs that provide assistance to nonfederal forest owners. Many of these programs are implemented through state forestry agencies. In FY2025, 3% of FS discretionary appropriations went to this account.

Forest and Rangeland Research

The Forest and Rangeland Research (FRR) account funds research and development efforts to provide scientific information and new technologies to support sustainable forest and rangeland management. FRR also funds the Forest Inventory and Analysis program, which is a continuous census of U.S. forest resources. In FY2025, 3% of FS discretionary appropriations went to this account.

Capital Improvement and Maintenance

The Capital Improvement and Maintenance (CIM) account funds FS efforts to provide and maintain facilities, roads, trails, and other infrastructure needs across the NFS. It includes funding to address a backlog of deferred maintenance (DM). In FY2025, 2% of FS discretionary appropriations went to this account.

Other Funding

CRS uses the "Other" category to group several smaller annual discretionary appropriations accounts, including national forest lands for subsistence uses and funding to complete land acquisitions and exchanges as authorized by specified laws, referred to as special acts. In FY2025, less than 1% of FS appropriations went to these accounts.

Mandatory Appropriations

The FS also receives mandatory appropriations. Some sources of mandatory appropriations may be greater than annual discretionary appropriations to the FS in some years or for some purposes. Overall, the FS estimates that $7.3 billion in total supplemental funding is available for FY2025, although the specific sources for this funding are unclear. Some of the funding likely will be obligated in future fiscal years; however, these appropriations may still significantly affect the resources available to the FS for certain activities in FY2025.

Numerous statutes provide for mandatory appropriations to the FS on an ongoing basis through retained receipts, transfers, or other mechanisms. These include land acquisition funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (54 U.S.C. §§200301 et seq.); certain timber-related receipts; certain recreation revenues authorized under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (16 U.S.C. §§6801-6814); and other sources. CRS, using FS estimates, calculates these appropriations to be approximately $1.3 billion for FY2025 (including transfers).

In addition, Congress has provided mandatory appropriations to the FS through supplemental appropriations bills, past CRs, and other means, which may be available to the agency for FY2025. For example, Congress provided emergency supplemental appropriations to the FS through several bills, including $3.3 billion through the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2025 (P.L. 118-158, Division B, Title VII), and $2.1 billion through the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023 (P.L. 117-328, Division N), to remain available until expended. It is unclear how much of the $7.3 billion in total supplemental funding derives from these bills (or other past supplemental appropriations bills).

Congress also appropriated $5.0 billion to the FS, to remain available until 2030, through the bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA; P.L. 117-169). The FS estimated that $93.5 million of IRA funding was available for FY2025. P.L. 119-21, the FY2025 reconciliation act, rescinded unobligated balances made available under eight provisions of the IRA, including funding for nonfederal forest assistance, NFS management and administration, and administrative costs. Not all IRA funding was affected, and FS estimates of IRA funding availability did not specify funding availability by provision. Therefore, it is unclear how much total funding was rescinded.