\nhttps:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media.alleghenyfront.org\/AF051526_JG_Forest.mp3<\/a>
\nResearch at the Allegheny National Forest<\/p>\n
As forest ecologist Richard Bowden walks through an old growth section of the Allegheny National Forest, he points toward the ground. It\u2019s barren of young trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing,\u201d said Bowden, a professor of environmental science and sustainability at nearby Allegheny College. \u201cAnd that\u2019s because of deer.\u201d Deer overpopulated this area, called Heart\u2019s Content, and much of the Allegheny Plateau, for decades; they eat whatever vegetation they can reach.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_9315.jpeg\")
There is little low-lying vegetation in parts of the Allegheny National Forest because of deer overpopulation. Photo: Julie Grant\/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n
He stops walking at a small fenced area. \u201cThis is a deer exclosure,\u201d he explains that the fence keeps deer out. On the ground inside, there are plants growing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see all those young hemlocks coming up, and a number of other hardwoods coming up in there. In a couple weeks when everything fully leaves out, we\u2019ll see a lot more low lying vegetation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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In a small demonstration area of Heart\u2019s Content, in the Allegheny National Forest, young hemlock trees can grow because deer have been fenced out. Photo: Julie Grant\/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n
Bowden said a vibrant forest understory is important for growing new generations of trees, which supports birds and other wildlife, and the timber industry.<\/p>\n
Funding cuts, and the closure of research labs<\/p>\n
While the ideas behind this deer management demonstration might seem simple, it\u2019s taken decades of research to understand the problem, and do the work to actually keep the deer population in balance with the forest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Much of the research, and the coordination of solutions on the ground, was done by the Forest Service Northern Research Station in Irvine, Pennsylvania. It\u2019s a small building in the woods outside the boundary of the Allegheny National Forest in Warren County.<\/p>\n
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The US Forest Service Northern Research Station in Irvine, Pennsylvania. Photo: Julie Grant\/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n
But the Irvine lab is slated for closure in the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s reorganization plan<\/a> announced in March.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m heartbroken,\u201d said Susan Stout, who retired in 2018 after nearly 40 years as a research forester and team leader at the Irvine lab.\u00a0<\/p>\n The plan calls for the closure of 57 of the 77 US Forest Service research sites nationwide, including four in Pennsylvania: Irvine, in the northwest, Williamsport, York, and Long Pond, in the Poconos.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stout said it would be a huge loss. For nearly a hundred years,<\/a> the Forest Service lab in Irvine has researched everything from deer, to black cherry and sugar maple trees, hemlock wooly adelgid<\/a>, and other forest pests, according to Stout.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said that research takes time. The Irvine lab started studying deer in the Allegheny National Forest in the 1970s.<\/p>\n \u201cWere deer the cause of regeneration failures in the forest? Which we learned very quickly the answer was \u2018yes\u2019,\u201d Stout said. \u201cThen of course deer are also part of the forest. So how many deer are too many? And that\u2019s probably the most famous study that we did, and that ran from the early 1980s through about 1990.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Their findings on deer management are used within the 515,000 acres of the Allegheny, throughout the nearly 17 million acres of public and private forestland<\/a> in Pennsylvania, around the US, and in other countries, she said.<\/p>\n Researchers at the Irvine lab also created a popular software tool to help foresters figure out when a tree stand could be sustainably harvested. For many years, they\u2019ve been bringing foresters together for training.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are thousands of foresters who\u2019ve worked with us and over time that became a working relationship,\u201d Stout said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s that continuity over time and through intellectual heritage from one generation of foresters to another acting in a continuous way that is what\u2019s really at risk of being lost,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Congress reacts<\/p>\n At a House Budget subcommittee hearing<\/a> last month, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz answered lawmakers\u2019 questions about Trump\u2019s 2027 budget recommendations,<\/a> which cuts total Forest Service funding by more than 70 percent, and about the agency\u2019s reorganization plan<\/a>. Schultz said the Forest Service will prioritize activities like timber sales, critical minerals, energy development, and recreation. The plan moves wildfire efforts to a new agency in the Interior Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s budget<\/a> also eliminates the entire $309 million Forest Service research budget.<\/p>\n Representative Josh Harder of California asked Schultz what this would mean for federal forest researchers.<\/p>\n \u201cIsn\u2019t it true that there\u2019s also a reduction of 800 scientists in this re-org as well?,\u201d Harder asked.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, there is no reduction of any scientist in this reorganization that\u2019s proposed,\u201d Schultz responded.<\/p>\n Schultz said there is a difference between the Forest Service reorganization plan, which moves some research funding to other programs, and President Trump\u2019s proposed 2027 budget, which eliminates the research funding.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president\u2019s budget is looking to shift research from where it is today to more of a model that would be done either in the private sector or with universities,\u201d he testified.<\/p>\n Schultz noted that Congress would ultimately decide whether to approve Trump\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n Still, given the proposed budget cuts, Schultz said the reorganization plan looks to close underused research buildings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have many facilities that have either zero employees, one, two, or three employees,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what we\u2019re looking to do is\u2026we are looking to retain research and researchers over facilities and facility managers.\u201d<\/p>\n The Irvine lab in Warren County is an example. The number of employees there has dwindled over the past twenty years from around 18, to only four staff today, and that includes only one researcher. According to one source, when researchers have retired, their positions have not been filled.<\/p>\n According to reports, staff across the country have already been sent letters, requesting that they look for other Forest Services positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pennsylvania\u2019s timber industry relies on the Forest Service<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kinda scary to think about,\u201d said Matt Galey, a forester who manages 118,000 acres of private land in northwest Pennsylvania, \u201cI just can\u2019t state enough how valuable they are.\u201d<\/p>\n Galey said his team relies on the Irvine lab, and the other federal research facilities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re constantly asking the research lab in real time. Forest managers or foresters will be out on the ground, a lot of times it would be something relating to forest health,\u201d he said. \u201cWho or what is going to fill that gap because it\u2019s really an invaluable resource to a land manager [like] myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Foresters in Pennsylvania are often managing land for hardwood trees like oak and black cherry, two species that\u00a0 drive an important part of the state\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n![\"long](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_6355.jpeg\")
A view of the Allegheny Plateau near the Allegheny National Forest. Photo: Julie Grant\/ The Allegheny Front<\/p>\n