The U.S. Forest Service will close 23 research locations across more than a dozen states and relocate 95 employees as part of a Trump administration reorganization that officials say will reduce facility costs while preserving ongoing scientific work.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The U.S. Forest Service will close 23 research sites across more than a dozen states as part of a broader restructuring intended to reduce costs and shift more agency resources toward Western states, officials announced Thursday.
The 95 employees currently assigned to the affected research locations will be transferred to other Forest Service facilities rather than terminated, Forest Service Communications Director Chad Douglas said.
Agency officials said the research conducted at the closing sites will also be moved elsewhere and that the restructuring will not eliminate active scientific programs.
“Our primary goal was to get our facilities costs under control,” Forest Service Associate Chief Chris French told The Associated Press. “We’re not closing any ongoing science activities. We’re not closing any of the experimental forests that are important to our researchers.”
The research-site closures, combined with previously announced plans to close regional offices in Atlanta, Milwaukee and Portland, Oregon, are expected to save approximately $16 million, according to Forest Service officials.
The final list represents a substantial reduction from the number of facilities that had initially faced possible closure.
When the Forest Service announced its reorganization in March, 41 additional research sites were under consideration for shutdown.
Those locations will now remain open after elected officials and local leaders raised objections and concerns about the potential effects of the restructuring.
The changes are part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to reorganize federal agencies, reduce operating costs and place more federal personnel and resources closer to the Western lands managed by natural-resource agencies.
Conservation organizations have opposed portions of the Forest Service restructuring, warning that reduced staffing and consolidation could make forests less accessible to the public and weaken federal efforts to protect wildlife habitat, clean water and air quality.
The latest closures also come after a significant reduction in the Forest Service workforce during Trump’s second term.
Federal data show that the agency has lost approximately 6,000 employees, equal to roughly 15% of its workforce, as part of administration-wide reductions affecting federal agencies responsible for managing natural resources.
The Forest Service says the latest research consolidation is intended to reduce real-estate and facility expenses without ending ongoing scientific work.
French emphasized that experimental forests used by researchers will remain in operation and that scientific programs currently based at the 23 closing locations will continue elsewhere.
The strategy of moving federal operations closer to the lands they oversee also has precedent from Trump’s first administration.
During his first term, the administration relocated the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters from Washington to Colorado, arguing that senior officials should be based closer to the vast majority of federally managed public lands in the West.
The Biden administration later reversed that decision and returned the bureau’s headquarters to Washington after approximately two years.
The Forest Service’s current restructuring follows a similar philosophy, but officials say its immediate objective is reducing facility costs and consolidating operations rather than eliminating research.
With 23 locations now scheduled to close and 41 initially threatened sites spared, the final reorganization reflects both the Trump administration’s cost-cutting priorities and the resistance from lawmakers and local officials who sought to preserve Forest Service research operations in their communities.
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