Uber-Rich Trump Appointee Boren Hid Galena Mines LLC, The Company Behind His Still-Standing Illegal Public Lands Cabin Ordered Removed Two Years Ago
HELENA, MT – A new investigation, published today by Public Domain and High Country News, reveals that an illegal cabin built on public lands, which the U.S. Forest Service ordered USDA Under Secretary Michael Boren's company to tear down, still standing inside Idaho's Sawtooth National Forest. The agency sent Galena Mines LLC, a company Boren was the sole manager of, a cease-and-desist letter in November 2024, demanding the unauthorized cabin be removed by July 1, 2025. Since Boren took charge of the Forest Service, the agency appears to have abandoned enforcement entirely.
Save Our Parks research shows Boren then kept Galena Mines LLC off the ethics agreement and financial disclosure he filed as a nominee, even though federal ethics rules required him to report every company he managed in the prior two years. Boren now oversees roughly 193 million acres of public national forests and grasslands as head of the agency that cited his company and ordered it to tear down the illegal cabin that still stands.
“Michael Boren was told to tear down his illegal cabin. Instead he took over the agency that was holding him accountable. Boren then left his company off ethics paperwork in an apparent attempt to keep the controversy hidden from Congress and the public,” said Jayson O'Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks. “Every hunter, angler, hiker, and family that uses public lands deserves to know whether the same laws and rules apply to the ultra-wealthy Trump appointee in charge of them. USDA Secretary Rollins and Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz must hold Boren accountable and take immediate action to have his illegal cabin removed and the public land restored.”
After the Forest Service found the illegal cabin, along with cleared and disturbed areas on public land, a November 13, 2024 letter was sent by the then-Sawtooth area ranger, telling Galena Mines the agency had no permit, contract, or operating plan allowing the work. The Forest Service ordered the cabin removed, a restoration plan filed within 45 days, and the site restored by August 1, 2025. The Forest Service warned of possible referral to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho if the company failed to comply with the order.
The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management records place the Galena Mines LLC patent mine claim land nearly a mile north of the cabin Boren’s company, Galena Mines, had built, citing a 2004 agency survey. Boren relied instead on an independent and unofficial 2020 survey he hired a private surveyor to conduct, according to Public Domain.
On January 8, 2025, a Forest Service law enforcement officer was finalizing a case report “in case we need to move forward with any charges.” Nine days later, Trump nominated Boren to oversee the agency. Today, Trump’s Forest Service says no action can be taken until an official federal survey is done, ignoring and dismissing its own surveyor's findings and existing BLM records. A Forest Service spokesperson then went on to claim the illegal cabin was a backcountry ‘warming hut’ for public use in response to reporter questions, despite video documentation posted by American Hunters and Anglers showing the illegal cabin’s door is boarded over and its inaccessibility to the public.
Galena Mines LLC appears nowhere on the ethics agreement or financial disclosure Boren signed on April 1, 2025. Yet Galena Mines' 2024 annual report to the Idaho Secretary of State lists Boren as its sole manager. He did not remove himself until February 24, 2025, five weeks after his nomination, handing the role to his daughter.
Boren’s Galena Mines LLC omission stands out against the rest of the form. Boren listed some two dozen outside positions in total, including 16 other LLCs he stepped down from, corporations, nonprofits, and a trust. Suspiciously, one of the companies in an active enforcement dispute with the agency he was nominated to oversee was left off.
OGE's Nominee Ethics Guide requires nominees to report “all positions as an officer, director, trustee, general partner, proprietor, representative, employee, or consultant,” paid or unpaid, for the preceding two calendar years. USDA’s Forest Service erroneously claims Boren’s disclosure is accurate because the Boren family has held no ownership stake in Galena Mines since May 2024, contrary to Idaho’s records. But disclosure requirements cover positions, not just ownership, and it is still within the two year disclosure requirement window. Forest Service emails show agency officials had negotiated the illegal cabin dispute directly with Boren in November 2024, six months after USDA says his family's stake ended.
Save Our Parks is calling on the USDA Office of Inspector General and the Office of Government Ethics to immediately launch an investigation and review Boren's omission of Galena Mines LLC. Congressional Officials should also demand the Forest Service's full case file on Galena Mines and Boren’s illegal cabin. Save Our Parks is also calling on Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz to immediately issue an order for the illegal cabin’s removal and all impacted public land to be restored, consistent with the Forest Service’s cease-and-desist order.
Additional Resources:
A Top Trump Appointee Was Ordered To Remove An Unauthorized Cabin From Public Land
Trump USDA nominee tussles with Forest Service over land use
Top Trump official asked for more aircraft to fight a small fire near his Idaho ranch
Federal Firefighting Resources Diverted to Small Fire near Idaho Ranch of Trump Official
Michael Boren Built an Airstrip on Protected Land. Now He Might Lead the Forest Service
Ranch manager tied to top Trump appointee started 5,600-acre Idaho wildfire
Michael Boren’s OGE 278 Forms and ethics agreement
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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