by Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle
April 1, 2026
The U.S. Forest Service plans to close a century-old Portland-based forest research station and a regional U.S. Forest Service headquarters but open a new federal office in Salem in a massive restructuring of the federal agency.
The movements are part of a broad plan Forest Service officials announced Tuesday to move the agency operations westward, including shifting headquarters in Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City.
Officials will also close all nine regional Forest Service offices across the country, including the Northwest office in Portland, and consolidate seven state-based research stations, including the 100-year-old Pacific Northwest Research Station, also in Portland, into a single research station in Fort Collins, Colorado. Smaller Forest Service research and development facilities in Corvallis and La Grande that are associated with the Pacific Northwest Research Station will remain open.
Brooke Rollins, head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that oversees the Forest Service, first shared her intentions to restructure the agency in July, explaining that it would reduce costs and put staff closer to federal forestlands, which are mostly in the West.
In addition to relocating its headquarters, the Forest Service will roll-out a “state-based organizational model,” in which state directors will be assigned to 15 state offices throughout the country, including a new one in Oregon’s capital.
Lisa Bryant, a spokesperson for the Forest Service, did not provide many details about what the Salem office would look like, when it would open or who would lead it, but said that the new director will be “determined in the coming months.” Offices will include a “small leadership support team” with staff in charge of intergovernmental coordination and communications, according to the agency’s announcement.
Joy Krawczyk, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said in an email it’s too early to know how the federal shakeup would impact the state agency’s work but that officials are excited to see a U.S. Forest Service office in Salem, and to hopefully partner more closely with staff there.
“We generally support the strengthening of state-based leadership for mission implementation,” she said.
The closure of the Portland-based U.S. Forest Service regional office and the Pacific Northwest Research Station are expected over the next two years, Bryant said. The two institutions have for years been resources for wildfire prevention, scientific research, forestland management and conservation across the Northwest.
The number of employees working for the U.S. Forest Service Northwest Region Headquarters is unclear, but there are roughly 246 permanent, full-time staff — mostly scientists — employed by the Pacific Northwest Research Station, according to its website.
Closing the state-based research centers and moving the work to Colorado is meant to bring research staff under a single leadership structure, to “unify” priorities, streamline decision making and cut down on administrative costs, according to the news release.
Bryant said staff will likely be relocated rather than cut.
“This effort is focused on modernizing how the agency is organized, not eliminating the workforce needed to deliver the mission,” she said, adding that current Forest Service employees will be offered the opportunity to remain with the agency at their current pay grade, though their work and where it takes place might change.
Bryant said Forest Service employees will get more guidance “as different milestones approach,” but did not specify what those milestones are.
Restructuring the nation’s primary wildfire response agency for federal lands before the start of what is expected to be an intense wildfire season in the West will not be an issue, according to the news release, because the agency’s Fire and Aviation Management program and the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho will be untouched.
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