The Trump administration announced this week it will shut down six of eight U.S. Forest Service research facilities in California as part of a major national reorganization that could leave the state underequipped to manage escalating wildfire and drought threats.<\/p>\n
The closures in Fresno, Chico, Fort Bragg, Mount Shasta, Anderson and Hat Creek in Shasta County are part of a broader plan<\/a> announced this week<\/a> to shutter 57 of the agency’s 77 research facilities across 31 states and move its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. In California, just two research facilities will remain, in Placerville and Riverside.<\/p>\n The closures come amid record warm winter temperatures<\/a> in California that have rapidly eroded <\/a>the state\u2019s snowpack and heightened concerns that wildfire season could come early. Scientists at the research facilities study how forests change over time, including how they recover following fires.\u00a0<\/p>\n Employees have said they are concerned the reorganization will cause many of the agency\u2019s leading scientists to quit, as many did during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term after he moved the Bureau of Land Management headquarters to Colorado, only to have the decision reversed<\/a> by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n The agency has also seen major staff reductions. An inspector general report found that in the first half of 2025, the Forest Service lost 5,860 of its 35,550 employees to cuts from Elon Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency.<\/p>\n