Michael Boren Built an Airstrip on Protected Land. Now He Might Lead the Forest Service.

Michael Boren, founder of a billion-dollar tech company, Idaho ranch owner and Trump donor, has clashed with the U.S. Forest Service for years.

He was accused of flying a helicopter dangerously close to a crew building a Forest Service trail, prompting officials to seek a restraining order. He got a caution from the Forest Service, and criticism from his neighbors, when he built a private airstrip on his Hell Roaring Ranch in a national recreation area. And in the fall, the Forest Service sent a cease-and-desist letter accusing a company that Mr. Boren controlled of building an unauthorized cabin on National Forest land.

Now, Mr. Boren is Mr. Trump’s nominee to oversee the very agency he has tussled with repeatedly.

On Tuesday, the Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on Mr. Boren’s nomination to be the under secretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment, a role that would put him in charge of the Forest Service.

If confirmed, he would manage an agency that oversees almost 200 million acres of public lands across the United States, including maintaining trails, coordinating wildfire response and overseeing the sale of timber and other resources. He would also oversee the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which helps farmers and ranchers conserve natural resources on their own land.

Mr. Boren would be leading the Forest Service at a tumultuous time.

In April, the secretary of agriculture, Brooke Rollins, issued an order removing environmental protections from almost 60 percent of national forests, or more than 112 million acres, mostly in the West. That came after Mr. Trump issued an executive order to increase logging on those lands by 25 percent.

The Forest Service has also fired thousands of workers as part of Mr. Trump’s drive to shrink the federal government.