Regional climate research center facing closure under proposed Trump budget

Managing invasive plants, protecting salt marshes and conserving the habitats of endangered species are just some of the projects at the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center that are threatened under a federal budget proposal from the Trump administration.

The center — which helps state and local partners across New England develop plans to adapt wildlife, water and land to the effects of climate change — stands to lose all of its funding, as do eight other centers across the country that form a national network focused on meeting the challenges of climate change.

The center’s leadership at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and its partners said the loss would hamper the work of natural resource managers at the local, state, tribal and federal levels who protect natural places that people use every day.

“If you like to watch birds, if you like to fish, if you like to go on walks in the forest, then you probably would care that ecosystems research is being cut at the federal level,” said Bethany Bradley, co-director of the center and a professor at UMass Amherst.

The administration's budget proposes eliminating the $326 million ecosystems research program administered by the U.S. Geological Survey. The proposed cut was first reported by Science Magazine. The program supports the nine regional climate adaptation science centers and a national hub, as well as related research on toxic substances and invasive species.

A White House statement announcing the spending proposal said it "guts a weaponized deep state" and eliminates funding for programs including what it calls the "Green New Scam." The statement said federal spending would be redirected toward President Trump’s priorities such as increased production of fossil fuels. The budget plan still has to be approved by Congress.

Staff at the center who could be working on upcoming projects or planning for an incoming class of graduate students are instead “ spending a lot of time gaming out scenarios of what happens if we lose funding tomorrow,” Bradley said.

“ It's just a lot of time and effort and mental energy and pain spent on unknowns,” she added.

The center employs 24 people, plus 14 graduate student fellows. Researchers said its focus on science that natural resource managers can use is beneficial to the public, even if it often goes unnoticed.

Brian Yellen, director of the Massachusetts Geological Survey, is working on a center-funded project to study the origins of coastal sediment. He said this research has implications for coastal areas and beaches.

“ Everyone likes going to the beaches. If we cut off all the sediment to the beach, no more beaches,” he said.

Yellen said research into sediment and how it’s changing due to rising sea levels can help natural resource managers in cities and towns make decisions about dam construction, street paving and erosion protections.

The center’s researchers also study invasive species such as emerald ash borers and spongy moth caterpillars. They’ve developed calendars in collaboration with Native American tribal leaders to guide management of invasive insects, provided information sheets that explain scientific research and concepts and hosted events on invasive aquatic knotweed.

“ We hear all the time from the folks that we're working with that things [in the environment] are changing,” said Emily Fusco, deputy director of the center. “Sometimes the science just isn't necessarily there yet, and they need that science developed. And that's really where our researchers come in.”

Fusco worries that closing the centers will harm research on habitats, rising sea levels and invasive species at a time when average temperatures are warming.

“ If we don't have the science to back up the decisions that we're going to be forced to make in the coming years and decades, then we're not gonna be able to make the best decisions,” she said.

Some center researchers wrote in a public statement that cuts would “deal a significant blow” to national efforts to protect biodiversity, and would add “to the economic burden of managing invasive species.”

Native Plant Trust CEO Tim Johnson said the loss of regional hubs like the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center would create more "blind spots" in addressing the pricey effects of climate change.

"The impacts of climate change are incredible expensive," Johnson said. "That's why it's in the interest of the federal government to have regional centers that help to address it and mitigate the risk."

Yellen said this cut could do the opposite of what the Trump administration says it wants to achieve in terms of increasing government efficiency.

“ If we don't invest in the research," he said, "we're ultimately wasting money on outdated practices that that may or may not work in a changing climate, in a changing environment.”