AMHERST — The Natural Resources Conservation Service office located at 451 West St. since 1980 could close as part of 748 lease terminations posted online last week by the Trump administration.

Like the potential shuttering of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Northeast regional headquarters in Hadley this summer, the site where U.S. Department of Agriculture services are provided to farmers and others across the state is listed among places Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency could close. That initiative seeks to end federal leases on nearly 9.6 million square feet of space, resulting in what it contends would be $660 million in lease savings.

The NRCS office is identified as a 22,428-square-foot building with a $484,122 annual lease. Because the lease is renewed every five years, with 2025 being the year the lease would expire, the termination would realize only $80,687 in total savings.

The USDA office at 59 Montague City Road in Greenfield is not listed among the lease terminations at this time. The location opened May 15, 2024, with the USDA having secured a 10-year lease to house two of its agencies there — the Farm Service Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The USDA issued a statement that Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins is supporting the Trump administration’s efforts to trim the size of the federal government.

“Secretary Rollins fully supports President Trump’s directive to eliminate wasteful spending and ensure taxpayer dollars are used effectively,” the statement reads. “USDA is optimizing building capacity and consolidating underutilized offices to reduce inefficiencies, while continuing to prioritize frontline services for farmers, ranchers and rural communities.”

The NRCS office has been located at the same West Street location since the building was constructed 45 years ago, and an office has been in the Amherst region since the Soil Conservation Service was created in 1935. In the 1970s, the Soil Conservation Service office was located at the edge of downtown Amherst, at 29 Cottage St., in a building about half the size of the current building.

This is not the first time that the federal government has tried to move the office. In fact, in 1990 and 1995, the USDA placed ads seeking “economically advantageous” sites within 3 miles of the 451 West St. site. The location also survived a December 1992 purge where proposals were made to streamline and close various farm assistance offices across Massachusetts.

Agri-Pulse Communications Inc., a digital outlet focused on farm, food and rural policy issues, reported that 58 Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service offices are included in the proposed lease terminations. That publication spoke to Steve Peterson, who is serving as USDA’s acting deputy undersecretary for farm production and conservation, at the Commodity Classic in Denver, where he said that the purpose is to “evaluate savings and see whether or not there’s the ability to renegotiate or find other locations in those areas to possibly find cheaper rent.”

Still, there are more significant concerns for what might happen, highlighted in a message from the South Deerfield-based Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, which on Wednesday released a statement about the threats being faced by local farm businesses, farmworkers and the local food economy from the Trump administration’s executive orders and administrative actions.

That statement from CISA observes that the USDA has worked to build programs acknowledging the importance of small- and medium-scale farms, which are the most represented farms in the Northeast. The programs it offers have included direct support for farms and investments in expert assistance around farm viability, climate resilience and similar topics, but there are potential cuts due to a reliance on federal grants.

“These cuts will diminish CISA’s capacity, along with many of our peer nonprofits,” the CISA statement reads. “This — along with the firings of local field agents at USDA offices without cause — is a direct threat to the network of support for local farms and our local food system.”

The USDA referred questions about possible changes to its operations to the General Services Administration. The GSA didn’t immediately respond to questions from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, but told Agri-Pulse that acting General Services Administrator Stephen Ehikian’s vision “includes reducing our deferred maintenance liabilities, supporting the return to office of federal employees, and taking advantage of a stronger private/government partnership in managing the workforce of the future,” and the space consolidation plan was part of “reviewing all options to optimize our footprint and building utilization.”

“To the extent these terminations affect public-facing facilities and/or existing tenants, we are working with our agency partners to secure suitable alternative space,” the GSA spokesperson said. “In many cases this will allow us to increase space utilization and obtain improved terms.”

The website for the Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Amherst lists 36 employees, with staff including biologists, natural resource specialists, resource conservationists and workers who handle everything from farm bill programs to ecological sciences.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service office is significantly smaller than the 72,220-square-foot U.S. Fish & Wildlife site, which has a $1.6 million annual lease that, if ended, would yield $11.5 million in total savings, according to the Trump administration.

Other buildings in the Pioneer Valley identified by the Trump administration for possibly terminating leases are all in Springfield, including the 14,036-square-foot Internal Revenue Service office, with a $294,206 annual lease that would lead to $465,826 in total savings; the 894-square-foot Small Business Administration office, with a $20,562 annual lease that would lead to $61,686 in total savings; and the 599-square-foot Employment Standards Administration building, with a $9,995 annual lease that would lead to $38,315 in total savings.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.