A U.S. Forest Service research station in McArthur is one of 57 “under evaluation” for possible closure as part of a national reorganization announced at the end of March.
In April, the Trump administration released a Forest Service budget proposal asking to terminate forest and range land research entirely with plans to offload research onto universities and the private sector.
The closures are part of a plan that moves the USFS headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah, in an effort to “streamline” the agency.
Critics of the plan have said it’s an effort to cut the agency’s staff and funding.
Glenn Matlack, a forest ecologist at Ohio University, said he believes the closure of research stations is a political maneuver to limit forestry research.
“Information is the enemy of laissez-faire economics,” he said. “It’s hard to argue against somebody who has hard data — hard data on climate or hard data on the behavior of forests. It’s easy to argue against somebody who has no data and is just expressing their personal opinion.”
Local impacts of the reorganization
The federal government’s reorganization plan identifies 20 research stations that will remain in place. Those stations were previously housed under research divisions that will be consolidated to a centralized office in Fort Collins, Colorado.
It will also shutter nine regional offices in favor of what a press release describes as a “state-focused approach.” The Forest Service will appoint 15 state directors to replace its regional structure.
In a press release, Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said the changes will bring Forest Service staff closer to the communities they serve.
“Effective stewardship and active management are achieved on the ground, where forests and communities are found — not just behind a desk in the capital,” he said.
The McArthur research station is just outside the Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest. While the forest is state-owned, Forest Service scientists have studied and maintained the area for decades.
In the past, the Forest Service has made the area available to academics for research and educational purposes. In some cases, USFS scientists have also collaborated with local professors on research projects.
Matlack, the forest ecologist, is one of several researchers at Ohio University who has conducted research in Vinton Furnace, often with the assistance of OU students.
He said experimental forests are important because they offer a breadth of long-term data about sustainable land management.
“One of the purposes of acquiring this land in the 1930s was to conserve the soil, to stop erosion,” he said. “That activity depends on what’s been learned through work in this experimental forest.”
While many ecological studies take place in the short term, historical studies of forest ecology require extensive datasets like those collected by Forest Service scientists.
“You have to look at the landscape on the scale of decades and centuries, not years,” he said. “And also soil formation, that’s the really slow part. Soils develop structure … on a scale of centuries and millennia.”
Matlack said that because Vinton Furnace is managed by the state, he is optimistic it will remain protected even if the research station closes. But he’s concerned the national reorganization could disrupt ongoing Forest Service research and data collection.
“That’s the real danger, is there will be a gap … a two- or three-year period where we don’t know what happened,” he said.
He said research could recover from this kind of gap, but that five- or 10-year lapses would pose larger problems.
It’s not clear whether closure of the research station would have an effect on OU research.
A source familiar with Vinton Furnace research efforts said that while ownership of the physical station building may change, they believe research in the experimental forest will continue.
They did not clarify whether this meant selling the station building or if USFS scientists would be relocated.
How will research be affected?
Conservation advocates worry the reorganization will result in staffing losses as employees are ordered to relocate to new offices.
They have compared the situation to attempts to restructure the Bureau of Land management under President Donald Trump’s first term. The move resulted in the loss of 87% of its main office employees.
Thousands of Forest Service employees already left last year under early retirements, resignations and layoffs.
The reduction in staff was made as part of efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to cut federal spending.
A fact sheet regarding the reorganization emphasizes it “does not eliminate scientific positions, cancel research programs, or reduce our national research footprint.”
At the same time, the federal government’s 2027 budget proposal for the agency makes no appropriation for forest and range land research, effectively cutting over $3 million for that purpose.
“The FY 2027 Budget terminates the Forest and Rangeland Research program to ensure fiscal responsibility with taxpayer dollars and appropriate alignment of resources with the Forest Service’s responsibility to appropriately steward National Forest System (NFS) lands,” states a document justifying the budget.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) said in a House Appropriations Committee meeting earlier this month that federal law requires committee approval for the reorganization plan.
However, Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said the agency will be moving forward regardless of congressional approval.
WOUB contacted several spokespeople for both the U.S. Forest Service and Ohio Department of Natural Resources for this story. None were able to clarify what the potential closure of the McArthur research station would mean for scientists there, and whether this could affect USFS research at the Vinton Furnace Experimental Forest. Those contacted could only refer to a federal government webpage linked in this story.