Time is exhausted to weigh on the revision of the forest service which would close the headquarters of the North West Pacific

The US Forest Service is preparing to close its northwest Pacific Headquarters and to move work on its Portland research station in Colorado.

This is a decision that a Trump administration memo has declared will make the agency more efficient and less bureaucratic. But wood groups say that the change could slow journalization on federal land, just as the administration promises to increase logging. State foresters say that could increase the risk of fire. Environmentalists and defenders of outdoor recreation fear that it is one more step towards what they consider to be dismantling of the entire forest service.

Public members lack time to weigh on the proposed decision, which is part of a broader reorganization described by the Trump administration earlier this year. The American Department of Agriculture, which manages the forest service, says that people can submit their reflections on the plan by sending an e-mail to reorganization@usda.gov until Tuesday, September 30.

In relation: Trump dismissal of forest service workers raises concerns about forest fires in Oregon, the West

The staff of the North West Pacific Forest Service in Portland survived 24 million acres of 16 national forests in Oregon and Washington. The centenary research station directs scientific studies on forest fires, watersheds, forest ecology and natural resources, which become the backbone of forestry service management decisions in the region.

Many groups that care and regularly use federal land in Oregon and Washington – whether for leisure, conservation, logging or cattle grazing – fear that the loss of regional staff drain the forest service of local expertise and will debilitate its public services. The USDA has already lost more than 15,000 employees this year as part of President Donald Trump’s push to reduce the government.

American agriculture Brooke Rollins described the plan in a brief memo in July. She called on the USDA to consolidate its nine regional offices in five newly designated centers in UTAH, Colorado, Missouri, Indiana and North Carolina. His plan would also consolidate the seven research stations of the forest service in one in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Rollins said that the change is intended to bring the agency “of its customers” closer, but that the locations of the hubs are far from the areas with the most land of the forest service.

Rollins’ memo was light on the details. He did not say if the forest service would move its regional staff or put an end to his posts. Nor is it clear how the forest services chain could change, as if the national forests of Oregon and Washington will continue to be managed by a regional forestry – or where this forest would be located.

Changes in forestry service are part of a very unusual process for an administrative overhaul. According to an analysis of the congress published earlier this year in response to other Trump administration measures, the internal reorganization of this magnitude must generally be authorized by the Congress by law.

The USDA did not ask for the approval of the congress before announcing its plans. The senators of the two political parties have toasted the leaders of the USDA over the decision during a committee hearing in July. It was only then that Rollins published his memo and asked for the public’s contribution by e-mail.

The staff of the state of Oregon state say that the proposed change could exercise an administrative burden more in the state.

“The loss of a cohesive leadership structure would decrease the reactivity required to increase wood production and reduce the risk of forest, finally forcing the State to spend additional resources to coordinate with 11 distinct forest units,” the Forestry and Oregon agriculture.