We won’t pretend to be experts on the U.S. Forest Service or forest management.

Only time will tell if President Donald Trump’s move to reorganize the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies that include the U.S. Forest Service, reduce bureaucracy, and place more employees outside Washington, D.C. is a good move or a bad move.

But bringing more Forest Service staff to Warren County as the county becomes a headquarters for the Mid-Atlantic states and New England, a region that covers 12 states, can only be a positive development locally. We are a region that has been struggling to attract new industry and new residents for decades. Trump’s move, by itself, doesn’t solve our problems. It does, in our view, constitute a similar positive development much in the vein of a new manufacturing company moving into the county.

It should also be good news for the Allegheny National Forest. Previously, the state fell under the Forest Service’s Eastern Region, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That structure is now being dissolved as part of the agency’s transition from nine large regions to 15 smaller, state-based offices. It can only be a good thing that the regional office overseeing the local forest will be located here.

None of these changes are happening tomorrow. We have no doubt there will likely be a court challenge, but even without a legal fight the restructuring of the Forest Service will take place in phases between now and 2027. But if it does come to fruition, Washington, D.C.’s loss will be Warren County’s gain.

When was the last time you could say that?