The Anchorage Forestry Sciences Lab is set to close, and the future of the Pacific Northwest Research Station lab in Juneau is uncertain, since the U.S. Forest Service began a national restructuring last week.
The agency announced last Tuesday that its headquarters will move to Utah, the existing regional structure will be switched to a state structure and dozens of forest research labs will close. But there are still many unknowns that the agency says will be addressed over the next year.
The agency hasn’t decided yet whether to close the Pacific Northwest Research Station lab in Juneau, according to a letter that Chief of the Forest Service Tom Schultz sent to staff there.
“Your position is subject to reorganization, but it is unknown at this time if your duty station will remain in your current commuting area,” Schultz’s letter said. “The specific details, whether your facility is closing or not, and on what timeline, are being determined as part of the restructured R&D organization and will be communicated to you as soon as possible. Regardless, you should expect changes to the organizational structure, your reporting chain, the composition of your work unit, and potentially your position description as functions are consolidated.”
Eric Antrim manages bridge inspections in Alaska’s national forests and serves as the recording secretary for his union, the National Federation of Federal Employees Local 251. He said the Forest Service shared a little bit of information, but not enough to know what to do next.
“You don’t know what’s coming, you know, so it’s hard to prepare yourself for it,” Antrim said. “You’re just kind of in this constant state of distress.”
Antrim said this reorganization, following the reduction in force last year that slashed Alaska’s Forest Service workforce by about a third, will diminish the agency’s ability to carry out its mission to care for the land and serve people.
According to the agency’s press release, research stations that remain will fall under a single research organization located in Fort Collins, Colorado. An unidentified spokesperson at the national press office for the Forest Service said in an email that they do not know how many relocations will occur outside of those already announced for staff in the Washington, D.C. area.
“This transition reflects USDA’s broader effort to modernize agencies, eliminate redundancies and ensure taxpayer resources are used efficiently and effectively,” said Lisa Bryant, a national press officer for the Forest Service, in a separate email to KTOO.
Alaska’s national forests, the Chugach and the Tongass, were formerly arranged under Region 10, which covered Alaska only. According to the agency, Juneau will continue to serve as Alaska’s Forest Service headquarters under state reorganization.
Steve Gutierrez is a national business representative with the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union that represents many Forest Service employees. Although employees have been told that they will retain roles at the Forest Service, he said this reorganization could have the same impact as a reduction-in-force, or RIF.
“It’s like an unofficial RIF because you’re forcing people to move, and if people can’t relocate, they ultimately have to resign,” Gutierrez said.
He said the agency has a duty to bargain with those represented by the union, which he said should happen in the coming months.