Washington, DC — As part of a wide-ranging reorganization and headquarters move from DC to Utah, the U.S. Forest Service is shuttering more than 57 research stations and eliminating a significant but unknown number of forestry scientists. Rather than streamlining the agency, these moves may render it less capable of addressing growing threats to forest health from wildfires, diseases, and the effects of climate change, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it is moving the U.S. Forest Service headquarters from Washington, DC, to Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, the Forest Service would undergo an agency-wide reorganization by closing its nine regional offices and establishing 15 state offices in their place. USDA also announced that “Research operations will also be consolidated…[with] facilities now located in multiple regions will fall under a central research organization based in Fort Collins…”

Altogether, this consolidation will result in the closure of 57 Forest Service Research Stations spread from Alaska to Florida. It is unknown how many of the approximately 1,500 scientists the Forest Service now employs will be jettisoned. The move will dismantle a large part of the Forest Service program established back in 1915.

“Scientific research is vital to the successful management of our nation’s forests,” stated PEER Western Lands and Rocky Mountain Advocate Chandra Rosenthal, noting that USDA’s stated purpose of the reorganization is to “give field leaders greater ability to respond to conditions on the ground” without offering any examples of what this would mean. “Forest supervisors need scientific information to understand whether their management actions are working or whether they are counterproductive.”

Notably, the Trump administration did not inventory the scientific research needs of the National Forest System before collapsing research capacity, a step many observers have long advocated for. As a result, PEER points to concerns about –

• Abandonment of research on the impacts of climate change in forest ecosystems;
• Reduced peer-reviewed research into effective forest management techniques; and
• A one-size-fits-all approach to forest management across vastly different forest systems, from the rainy hardwood forests of the East to the arid brush forests of the Southwest.

“Not all forests are the same; but the Forest Service is weakening its ability to understand forest diversity by eliminating almost 60 specialized research stations looking at local forest conditions,” Rosenthal added, pointing out that the move comes as the Trump administration seeks to substantially increase the size of timber cuts without sacrificing forest health and increasing wildfire risk. “Given the increased demands paced on our national forests, this seems to be an especially imprudent time to cripple the agency’s research capacity.”

Characteristically, the Department of Agriculture did not ask for any Congressional review or input before mounting this extensive reorganization.

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Read the USDA announcement

See the list of Forest Service Research Centers to be closed

Read PEER’s comments on the planned reorganization

Look at call to research forest research capacity

Examine history of Forest Service research

PEER protects public employees who protect our environment, natural resources, and public health. We support current and former environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers, and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values across federal, state, local, and tribal governments.