The article considers the problem of rational management of forestry as the most important budget-forming and capital-intensive asset of the national wealth of Russia. The author defines methodological issues of forestry management, methods of environmental management and tools for implementing the management mechanism of the industry, allowing to take into account the specific nature of the current state of the Russian economy and its regional subsystems. The focus is on the problems of the development of the forest industry in the country and regions, the disproportion of the territorial socio-economic development of raw material regions, which leads to unjustified migration of the population, the formation of depressed territories, and their unstable development. To solve this problem, it is proposed to use integrated systemic environmental management through the creation of a single body that will unite all departments and enterprises involved in the use of certain types of natural resources in the territory; carrying out a radical transformation of the existing mechanisms of financial relations "center – regions - municipalities": to stop the practice of paying taxes at the place of registration of the parent company, and not at the place production activities; to enhance the role and powers of regions, municipalities, professional associations and public organizations in this process.