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The Chief of the Forest Services oversees the entire agency. The Chief is a career Federal employee who reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Chief's staff provides broad policy and direction for the agency, works with the Administration to develop a budget to submit to Congress, provides information to Congress on accomplishments, and monitors activities of the agency. There are six deputy chiefs for the following areas: National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Research and Development, Business Operations, Office of Finance, and Programs and Legislation.

The Forest Service organization includes: Ranger Districts, National Forests, Regions, Research Stations and Research Work Units, and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions.

Ranger District: There are more than 600 ranger districts. Each district has a staff of 10 to 100 people under the direction of a district ranger, a line officer who reports to a forest supervisor. The districts vary in size from 50,000 acres to more than 1 million acres. Most on-the-ground activities occur on ranger districts, including trail construction and maintenance, operation of campgrounds, and management of vegetation and wildlife habitat.

National Forest: There are 155 national forests and 20 grasslands. Each administrative unit is typically comprised of several ranger districts, under the overall direction of a forest supervisor. Within the supervisor's office, the staff coordinates activities among districts, allocates the budget, and provides technical support to each district. Forest supervisors are line officers and report to regional foresters.

Region: There are nine regions, each encompassing a broad geographic area, usually several States. The regional forester has broad responsibility for coordinating activities among the various forests within the region, for providing overall leadership for regional natural resource and social programs, and for coordinated regional land use planning.

Research Stations and Research Work Units: There are six research stations, the Forest Products Laboratory, and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief. Research stations include: North Central; Northeastern; Pacific Northwest; Pacific Southwest; Rocky Mountain; and Southern. There are 133 research work units located at 65 sites throughout the United States.

The map below provides the locations of the national forests and grasslands. For more information about the Forest Service, visit our web site at http://www.fs.fed.us