Note to readers • This story is made possible through a partnership between The Salt Lake Tribune and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

A California district court has blocked the Trump administration’s planned relocation of the U.S. Forest Service’s headquarters to Salt Lake City.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox had praised the move in March as “common sense” and a “big win,” since Western states like Utah contain vastly more federally managed public lands than states east of the Mississippi River. The agency has long been headquartered in Washington, D.C.

But a coalition of labor unions, nonprofits and local governments across the country sued over the plan. They argued the Trump administration did not obtain required congressional approval for reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service.

On Tuesday, a federal court judge in California issued a stay for any relocation, closures or “reprogramming” of USDA and the agencies under its umbrella, including the Food and Nutrition Service and the Agricultural Research Service.

“Congress did not contemplate USDA using its appropriated funds to shut down offices or relocate employees,” Judge Vince Chhabria wrote in the order. “To the contrary, Congress was actively working to restrict the agency’s ability to do so” when it issued the department’s funds during its annual budget process.

The federal government must now pause relocation of its USDA employees from areas beyond their current work commutes. That means Washington-based employees can be reshuffled to other Washington-based offices, but they can’t be forced to move to places like Utah.

The USDA also cannot close any of its agencies under the court’s stay, which the judge noted could only briefly be in force.

“The relevant appropriations statutes are set to expire in less than two months,” Chhabria wrote in his Tuesday decision. “If the agency wishes to move forward with its plans to close offices and relocate employees, it will soon have the opportunity to convince Congress of the merits of those plans.”

In a response filed with the court on Sept. 22, the USDA argued its reorganization plan would improve, not degrade, the services it offers the public. The agency said that only 2.1% of its workforce would need to move under those plans. That would apply to about 250 of the Forest Service’s 33,500 employees, the department noted.

In an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune this summer, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz affirmed the relocations would affect “probably less than 300 people” amid fears of worsening wildfire conditions on forested lands in Utah.

But the plaintiffs argued the reorganization would have implications beyond the workforce. It would shut down 23 of the Forest Service’s research locations in 15 states, they said. It would eliminate the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, which their complaint calls a “premier agricultural research facility.” Closures would also impact benefits provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, they allege.

The coalition that filed the lawsuit includes the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union. It also includes the American Geophysical Union, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Natural Resources Defense Council and Western Watersheds Project, along with municipalities in California and Maryland.

The court order only appears to apply to agencies housed within the USDA, and not other agencies that manage public lands under the Department of the Interior, like the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service. The federal government previously relocated the BLM headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado, under President Trump’s first term starting in 2019. President Joe Biden moved the agency back to its Washington office in 2021.

Unions representing federal employees have filed separate lawsuits to block a broader 2025 executive order designed to stamp out “waste, bloat, and insularity,” the judge’s order notes, including cuts to the government’s overall workforce. That litigation remains pending.

Note to readers • This is a developing story that will be updated.