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Knoxville Research and Development Facility Will Not Be Among More than 50 Closing After 'Reorganization' in US Forest Service
The plan would close more than 50 research facilities and replace regional offices with 15 state-based directors, officials said.
- On Tuesday, President Donald Trump's administration announced it will relocate the U.S. Forest Service headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah, while shuttering all 10 regional offices and closing more than 50 research facilities nationwide.
- Officials claim the restructuring to a "state-based organizational model" improves "mission delivery" by moving leadership closer to the 193 million acres of national forest lands the agency manages.
- Research stations across 31 states face closure, with critics warning the plan dismantles decades of scientific expertise and threatens irreplaceable long-term data, including 30-year watershed studies that cannot be moved.
- Replacing regional leadership with 15 political appointees called "state directors" sparks independence concerns, particularly as Utah simultaneously pursues legal action to seize 18.5 million acres of public land.
- Observers view this reorganization as a broader strategy to facilitate transfer of federal lands to state or private control, potentially ending the agency's 121-year history as a public trust steward.
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White House rips article that suggested Forest Service will be dismantled
The White House shot down the idea that President Donald Trump issued an order to dismantle the Forest Service, which is being relocated from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City. Hatch Magazine, a publication primarily covering fly fishing, published an article last Thursday that said the Agriculture Department headquarters was being effectively dismantled and that scientific research was being quashed by the Trump administration. Former Vice Pr…
·Washington, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources21
Leaning Left4Leaning Right6Center7Last UpdatedBias Distribution41% Center
Bias Distribution
- 41% of the sources are Center
41% Center
L 24%
C 41%
R 35%
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