The U.S. Forest Service is closing 23 research and development stations in more than a dozen states as part of an organizational overhaul under President Donald Trump that is intended to trim costs and concentrate the agency’s resources in Western states, officials said Sept. 3.

The work being done at the research stations will continue at other sites, Forest Service Associate Chief Chris French said in an interview.

An additional 41 research facilities that faced possible closure will remain open after local officials and members of Congress raised concerns about the reorganization, which was announced in March.

The research stations in Anchorage and Juneau, which had been marked for possible closure in the March announcement, were moved off the endangered list and will be retained, according to the Sept. 3 announcement.

Research by Forest Service employees ranges from studies on invasive species and protecting water resources to how wildfires are changing as climate change dries out and heats up forests.

“Our primary goal was to get our facilities costs under control,” French told The Associated Press. “We’re not closing any ongoing science activities. We’re not closing any of the experimental forests that are important to our researchers.”

Bill Avey of the National Associated of Forest Service Retirees, an advocacy group, said the Forest Service has long struggled to pay for all its facilities, acknowledging that some opportunities for consolidation exist. But Avey, who worked at the agency for four decades, said its current leaders, including Chief Tom Schultz, need to defend the importance of forest research more vocally.

“He should be doing a much better job of pushing back and justifying and explaining some of the research work,” Avey said. He added that the 41 facilities being retained likely would have closed as well if not for pushback from his group and others.

The latest closures — along with previously announced plans to shut regional offices in Atlanta, Milwaukee and Portland — will save about $16 million, officials said.

The planned closure of the century-old Pacific Northwest Research Station in Oregon, with about 250 employees, is part of a consolidation of research functions into a single site in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The reorganization also includes moving Forest Service headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said the move, expected to be completed by next summer, will bring leaders closer to the landscapes they manage and the people who depend on them.

Conservation groups have criticized the changes, warning that they could reduce access to forests and threaten wildlife habitat and clean air and water.

Federal data shows that the Forest Service has lost about 6,000 employees, or about 15% of its workforce, during Trump’s second term as part of the Republican administration’s sweeping cuts to agencies that oversee the nation’s natural resources.

The Sentinel contributed reporting for this story.