E&E News: “Forest Service Scrambles to Justify Research Shakeup”
RFF Senior Advisor Ann Bartuska comments on the future of research at the US Forest Service.
“‘What [a changing research direction] signals to me is that any research east of the Mississippi is not considered relevant by the administration, except for [forest inventory and analysis] and forest products,’ said Ann Bartuska, a former deputy chief of the Forest Service for research and development and formerly chief scientist at the Department of Agriculture during the Biden administration.
Bartuska, now a senior adviser at Resources for the Future, said she worries that closing research sites in the South will sacrifice the restoration of longleaf pine and the role of fire in Southeast forests.”
