As Wildfire Risks Rise, Forest Service Shutters Labs That Study Them
New York Times
High intensity burns left from the Labor Mountain wildfire of 2025 in Wenatchee National Forest.
The U.S. Forest Service is closing 57 of its 77 research labs, including the Wenatchee Forestry Sciences Laboratory, as part of a large scale reorganization occurring across the country.
Dr. Susan Prichard, a fire ecologist and researcher at the University of Washington, has been collaborating with the Wenatchee Forestry Sciences Laboratory since 2006. Her work, alongside Dr. Paul Hessburg, examined how to reduce the risk of large intense wildfires and how landscapes become healthier if they are allowed to burn repeatedly.
‘The bottom line is, that reduces the care of peoples’ lands,’ Dr. Hessburg said about the looming closure. ‘You have to spend a lot of time in the woods to know the forest conditions, landscapes and how they change with wildfire and climatic changes.’
“The Forest Service was created in 1905 and, eight years later, officials added a research division to help manage forests based on science. They built labs to study the variety of trees, soils and wildlife from Florida to Alaska. Today, the agency manages 193 million acres of forests and grasslands, including 39 percent of all land in Idaho, 29 percent of Washington, and 25 percent of Oregon,” writes Eric Niiler.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/climate/forest-service-labs-wildfire-research.html
Written by Eric Niiler and photo edit by Matt McCann
