The research and development team at the U.S. Forest Service employs about 1,500 people full-time, a small but mighty faction inside an agency that, until recently, was 35,000 strong. The research it conducts spans everything from managing visitors at recreation hotspots to understanding the pulse of life and land on the 193 million acres the agency manages.
Since President Donald Trump took office, his barrage of executive actions in the name of curbing waste has imperiled the basic functions of federal agencies. At the Forest Service, the result is a climate of fear and uncertainty that’s stymieing the scientists working to fulfill the agency’s mission — sustaining the nation’s forests and grasslands for the public’s long-term benefit — just as the summer research field season ramps up.
“Science and research are critical to maintaining public lands,” said Jennifer Jones, the program director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists. Federal scientists intimately understand the ecosystems of the p... Read more
