The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service recently announced that it will move its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, Utah, and transition to a state-based organizational model.

The restructuring plan calls for the closure of four research facilities in Pennsylvania, including one in Long Pond, Monroe County.

The Long Pond site is associated with science conducted by the Northern Research Station for the Forest, Inventory, and Analysis Research Program.

“These reorganization changes do not eliminate scientists, end research programs or reduce our broader geographic presence; research will continue across the country,” a USDA spokesperson told the Times News. “In many cities, the ‘closures’ refer only to individual buildings where small groups of scientists sit today, and those staff and programs are simply moving into fewer facilities.”

The other Pennsylvania research and development facilities scheduled to close are in Irvine, York and Williamsport.

In a recent announcement about the restructuring plan, the USDA noted that the Forest Service lands are “overwhelmingly concentrated in the West.”

“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,” Secretary Brooke L. Rollins said in a statement.

Alongside the relocation of its headquarters, the Forest Service will begin transitioning to the state-based organizational model designed to shift authority closer to the field by organizing leadership around state-level accountability, it noted.

Pennsylvania will house a state office in Warren.

— Jill Whalen