For over a century, the federal government has headquartered its research into wood at an outlet of the Forest Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a hulking stone building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. …Today the lab buildings are closed, and Bechle and most of his colleagues are furloughed, part of the ongoing government shutdown that began on Oct. 1. In that time, the Trump administration has tried to lay off some workers and threatened not to release back pay. …But as the shutdown stretches on with no end in sight, these lab buildings and the hundreds of Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey employees inside are an example of the often-hidden impact of federal jobs, at a time that federal workers face unprecedented instability and uncertainty. …Nayomi Plaza, a material scientist said she worries the current climate will discourage younger scientists from pursuing government research.