MISSOULA – Missoula County has drafted a letter headed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture stating the value of the U.S. Forest Service’s Region 1 office in Missoula while raising concerns about the agency’s proposed consolidation. …“It seems intuitive that Forest Service management and leadership is best located close to the public lands they manage,” said Mike Burnside with Conservation Matters – a group of retired land managers. “It doesn’t seem workable to have everyone reporting to the D.C. office or five offices somewhere else. We don’t see that as being workable.” The Forest Service operates 10 regional offices across the country. Under the proposal released by the Trump administration last month, those offices would close and consolidate into five hubs located in Utah, Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina and Missouri. The Northern Region Headquarters in Missoula — one of the nation’s oldest and most storied — would close.