Welch: “I urge you to take into account the impact locally, not just the impact financially: to save a dollar, you may lose a forest.” 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Forestry, Natural Resources, and Biotechnology, today pressed Tom Schultz, Chief of the Forest Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), about how the U.S. Forest Service’s reorganization plan  will hinder the agency’s capacity to managing the National Forest System, including Vermont’s Green Mountain Forest. 

“As a Senator from Vermont—and someone who sits in the seat of Senator Leahy, who was so instrumental in helping us—this is a vital institution for Vermont. This is a vital institution for the well-being of our environment. I urge you to take into account the impact locally, not just the impact financially, where: to save a dollar, you may lose a forest,” said Senator Welch. 

Watch Senator Welch’s full remarks below: 

Read a key excerpt of Senator Welch’s exchange with Forest Service Chief Schultz about reports that the Trump Administration is considering closing the Forest Service’s Research and Development office at the George D. Aiken Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Burlington: 

Sen. Welch: Reorganization is always a tough issue, because it’s legitimate to have fresh eyes on the situation, but the consolidation has real impacts…We have a George Aiken Research Center that is in danger of being closed down. And I want to just point out that consolidation and moving people may ultimately result in some ‘efficiencies,’ but on the other hand, there is enormous value in having people assigned to be placed where they’re doing the work…So, can you speak to me about what’s going to happen to the George Aiken facility?   

Forest Service Chief Schultz: Yes, sir. So, there’s been no determinations made on any closures. We’re still evaluating sites…What we’re looking at—all of these agreements, all of these structures—can we renegotiate some of those rates? How do we get our cost structure down? Like I said, our biggest issue right now is looking across all of our facilities, knowing that we have a shortfall and how can we best consolidate and save funds. So, there’s been no determination to close that site or that facility. 

Sen. Welch: Let me just speak to that, because that doesn’t give anybody any reassurance…If the focus on reorganization is just saving money—you know, bring back Elon Musk and DOGE—doesn’t work out so well. That decision about whether to relocate people from where the work is being done in the area, that the work needs to be done, comes with an immense cost in terms of the quality of the work. So, it’s hard for me to see how it makes any sense to be talking about closing down this facility that is a modest budget impact that has a huge environmental positive impact.  

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Senator Welch has been a leading voice in protecting the Green Mountain State’s forests and natural resources. The Senator recently secured $750,000 in federal funding for the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board through the Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) process to expand the Vermont Farm and Forest Viability Program’s capacity to serve working lands businesses, with a focus on beginning farmers and businesses. Senator Welch has also slammed the Trump Administration’s efforts to gut the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pollution standards and mass firing of EPA scientists. 

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