(WHTM) — The U.S. Forest Service will close four facilities in Pennsylvania as part of its restructuring plan.
The Trump administration announced Tuesday it will move the service’s headquarters from D.C. to Salt Lake City and transition to a state-based organizational model. Pennsylvania will house a state office in Warren, but existing research and development facilities in Irvine, Long Pond, Williamsport and York will close.
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A department spokesperson told Nexstar’s The Hill that 260 positions will move out of the D.C. region and 130 will remain in Washington, but the number of additional relocations is “unknown,” and the spokesperson did not directly address whether the restructure would involve layoffs.
Pennsylvania has long been intertwined with the Forest Service. Gifford Pinchot, the state’s 28th governor, was instrumental in President Theodore Roosevelt establishing the service. Today, Gifford Pinchot State Park in York County honors his legacy of conservation.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said most of the land the service manages is concentrated in the West. Under the new model, 15 state directors will oversee operations within one or more states as part of an effort to eliminate layers of management.
“Moving the Forest Service closer to the forests we manage is an essential action that will improve our core mission of managing our forests while saving taxpayer dollars and boosting employee recruitment,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a statement announcing the change.
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Additional phases of the reorganization will be implemented over the coming year.
During President Donald Trump’s first term, he moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado, also citing a desire to put top officials near the public lands they oversee. The Biden administration moved its headquarters back to D.C.
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