The Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry in Hilo is among more than 50 U.S. Forest Service Research and Development Facilities that are slated for closure. On Thursday, Hawai‘i U.S. Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, led 16 Senate Democratic colleagues in urging U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz to provide Congress with a full breakdown of the service’s decision to close these facilities. “Since announcing the list of facilities being evaluated for possible closure in March, very little detail or analysis has been provided to Congress or the public on the factors being considered for each facility,” wrote the senators in a letter to Schultz. “Instead, official responses rely on broad assurances- stating only that the agency is assessing ‘operating costs, amount of space, utilization rate, number of employees’ and proximate facilities – without revealing the actual methodology or criteria driving these determinations.”