A laboratory in Bozeman, Mont., studying invasive plants and pollinators, and another in Reno, Nev., focused on sagebrush conservation and post-wildfire recovery, are among dozens of research facilities the U.S. Forest Service plans to close in a sweeping reorganization.
The most prominent change is moving the agency’s headquarters – along with roughly 260 jobs – from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, Utah. But the restructuring also includes major shakeups to the agency’s Research and Development arm.
The Forest Service plans to consolidate five regional research stations into a single hub in Fort Collins, Colo., saying the move will streamline decision-making and better connect science to land management.
The plan also calls for closing 57 of its 77 research facilities nationwide, including two sites in Montana, three in Utah and one in Nevada. Labs in Missoula, Fort Collins and Flagstaff are slated to remain. Others, including facilities in Albuquerque and Boise, are still “under review.”
The agency insists its scientific work isn’t shrinking.
“The reorganization does not eliminate scientific positions, cancel research programs, or reduce our national research footprint,” the agency said in a clarification posted online.
“In many locations, ‘closure’ refers only to individual buildings currently housing small teams. Staff and programs will continue their work, relocated into fewer facilities while maintaining research presence across the country.”
Scientists at affected labs have been told their positions will be relocated, though where and how far remains unclear. The agency has not said how many employees outside Washington will be affected.
“It's more or less move, or retire or leave,” said Carl Houtman, a union representative for Forest Service researchers at the National Federation of Federal Employees and a 30-year agency employee. “When we ask them for details, they say, ‘Well, those are still being worked out.’”
Dave Calkin spent two decades studying wildfire risk at the Missoula Fire Science Lab before taking early retirement last year and worries the changes will drive scientists out. The Missoula lab is not slated to close.
“They're creating trauma in the federal workforce,” he said. “People are leaving, and with that we're losing massive amounts of institutional knowledge and science capacity that will never come back.”
Calkin said the proposed centralized approach could make sense for some areas, like fire research, but that much of the work is place-based.
“It's not a strategic plan,” he said. “It's not saying, ‘These areas are where we need to invest, and these areas have diminished in importance over time, and therefore we're going to move away from them.’”
Aly Urza worked as a research ecologist at the Reno lab for eight years. The facility, on the University of Nevada, Reno campus, is the only Forest Service lab in the state. She regularly drove within a four-hour radius, working alongside land managers to study burned landscapes and track their recovery.
Pulling scientists out of such places, she warned, risks severing local partnerships and long-term monitoring.
“It's really heartbreaking to see that list and the number of potential research facilities that we could be losing,” she said. “They're incredible resources and really important for public land management.”
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This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between KUNR, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
