The U.S. Forest Service is planning to move its headquarters to Salt Lake City, but some conservation groups say that could spell disaster for forests and other public lands in Utah and across the country.

The Trump administration calls it a "common sense" move to put the agency closer to the forests and communities it serves. However, Diane Pataki, chief scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, said she believes the changes could weaken the agency's ability to protect the country's woodlands.

"My biggest concern is the closure of research facilities, two-thirds of the Forest Service's research facilities all around the country," she said. "That is very, very difficult to deal with in terms of, how is the Forest Service going to complete its mission without the science?"

Under the new model, 15 state directors will be distributed throughout the country to oversee Forest Service operations within one or more states, including New Mexico, Colorado, Montana and California.

In 2019, Pataki said, the first Trump administration relocated the Bureau of Land Management headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colorado. She said the agency lost most of its staff in the move in what she called a "major brain drain." She said Forest Service cuts are also planned for regional offices in Utah.

"There is a research station in Cedar City that studies sagebrush shrublands, very important ecosystem, and that research would go away," she said. "There's a forest sciences laboratory at Utah State that would close. So it's not all about moving folks to Utah – there's also losses."

Randi Spivak, public lands director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Congress must still approve the president's plan to move the headquarters and reorganize staff. She said she believes the move could bring more ecological damage to the nation's already climate-stressed forests.

"He basically believes he can do anything and is not held to account by laws and Congress," she said. "We'll see how this plays out, but the law says he would need approval for closing and opening offices, and moving, and getting rid of the regional directors from Congress – and the appropriators."

Source: Public News Service