Trump administration cuts endanger many critical science programs in Alaska, researchers say

Yahoo

11-05-2025

May 11—Scientific work that has long benefited Alaskans is in the crosshairs as President Donald Trump's administration moves to slash funding for climate and environmental studies, Alaska scientists say.
Entire research institutes that often work with universities, such as the Alaska Ocean Observing System that provides critical weather data and other services, face an existential threat in the president's budget blueprint released earlier this month, they warn.
Also, the Trump administration's efforts to shrink the federal workforce add further concern that long-running studies of fish, wildlife and Alaska ecosystems are being compromised, they say.
"It's critical to our economy that this work be done, but without the federal government's support it won't be done," said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist for another threatened program, the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. "It's expensive to do this work in Alaska. You can't hire Princess Cruises to take you around the Bering Sea to do fishery surveys."
Trump's budget proposal, which must be approved by Congress, appears to target two federal research programs that are especially important in Alaska, according to national news reports relying on leaked documents from federal agencies.
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the scientific research arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is slated for elimination as an office, according to a memo reported by several national news organizations.
The $315 million cut, if approved by Congress, would eliminate the ocean observing and climate assessment institutes in Alaska, along with other research institutes and programs in the state, Thoman and other scientists said.
The budget office also proposed a $300 million cut to eliminate the Ecosystems Mission Area, the biological research arm of the U.S. Geological Survey, Science magazine reported last month, citing another leaked document.
Ending the programs would have huge consequences for scientific work in Alaska, said Sheyna Wisdom, executive director of the Alaska Ocean Observing System.
Federal funding and agencies play a huge role in Alaska, providing research that supports commercial fisheries, subsistence harvests and environmental monitoring, Wisdom said.
"Right now, all of that is being challenged," Wisdom said.
J. Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson with the Interior Department overseeing the U.S. Geological Survey, said in an email that "no funding decisions have been finalized."
Peace did not respond to a question seeking to verify the leaked letter involving the USGS.
Monica Allen, a spokesperson with NOAA, referred questions about budget cuts to the White House press office, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Billions of dollars in proposed cuts
Trump's budget leaves significant room for the proposed cuts.
It would remove $5 billion from NOAA, and $565 million from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Targets for elimination include grant programs and climate-dominated research.
Trump's focus on gutting federal programs and staff has already spurred many Alaska scientists to leave their jobs, scientists said.
Emily Weiser stepped down from her job as a wildlife biologist at the Alaska Science Center this spring because of the uncertainty.
She had led development of a program to improve accuracy in counts of brant geese using artificial intelligence and plane-affixed cameras.
She found more stable employment in March with a transportation planning group in Anchorage, she said.
The threat to the Ecosystems Mission Area where she was housed was a key reason she quit, she said.
Project 2025, viewed by many as a Trump administration blueprint, seeks to "abolish" the ecosystem group, using its former name as the Biological Resources Division.
Doing so would cut about 60 positions at the Alaska Science Center in Anchorage, Weiser said.
The cut would terminate fish and wildlife surveys that help ensure sustainable hunting and fishing, she said. Much of the work helps protect game populations so they can be hunted in perpetuity, she said.
"If you're hunting something, you want to make sure you manage it so that you can hunt them in the future," said Weiser.
Scientists in the group also monitor the health of several animals, including struggling caribou herds that attract hunters worldwide, she said. Its research also provides information that's used to protect animals that aren't hunted, such as declining songbirds, she said.
"We have to figure out what's hurting those populations, to hopefully mitigate that, and then make sure that they're always available for people to hunt," she said.
Weiser said roughly a dozen people in the group have left their jobs this year.
"We've seen the writing on the wall," she said.
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A 'devastating' impact
Dan Ruthrauff, also part of the ecosystem group, accepted the Trump administration's offer for deferred retirement in April.
For nearly three decades, he studied the migration of Alaska's breeding birds, among other efforts.
The Alaska Science Center is a leader in avian influenza research because of the work by the Alaska ecosystems group, he said.
"For waterfowl hunters, monitoring rates of avian influenza is important," he said. "If there's a bird die-off, we get on the ground and try to inform hunters about safe preparation methods."
Studies at the group also focus on king salmon, a traditional subsistence food whose stocks have collapsed as water temperatures have risen.
"The warming waters in Alaska is an active area of research with huge economic bearing for the state," he said.
Ending the ecosystems group would stop vital research in Alaska, including on polar bears, he said.
The reduction of scientists in Alaska this year has already led to less research, he said.
More cuts appear to be on the way.
The Interior Department is planning reduction-in-force layoffs that include 1,000 employees in the U.S. Geological Survey, with a focus on the ecosystems group, according to a May 7 article in Government Executive.
"Science is this slow process of building knowledge and to think that that pyramid of knowledge could be swept aside is just sad," Ruthrauff said. "So many people have worked so hard to accumulate all this good information. To see it just disappear would be really devastating."
Fishery surveys and safety data in question
The proposed cuts to NOAA, if enacted, would end other major scientific endeavors in Alaska, researchers say.
The Alaska ocean observing system, based in Anchorage, informed its email subscribers last month that it could be shut down if the cuts go through.
It asked recipients to "urge continued support" for the program with Alaska's congressional delegation.
The elimination of the institute would end several important services, including the maintenance of equipment that provides weather and wave data in about 100 locations across Alaska, said Wisdom, the executive director.
Fishermen, mariners, emergency responders and others use the information to plan travel and activity, she said. Villages use it for emergency planning, say if a storm is coming, she said.
The group funds maintenance of the small weather stations and the wave buoys, which provide wave height, direction and water temperature, she said. It disseminates the information through the ocean observing institute's web portal. The Marine Exchange of Alaska and other groups are part of the effort, Wisdom said.
The gear is often placed in remote areas with little such information, even in the Arctic Ocean to inform whalers in small boats.
"We're working with groups that are trying to be innovative, to figure out different ways to collect information that is collected very easily in the Lower 48 but not here," Wisdom said.
If the cuts are enacted, the institute would lose about $3.5 million in grants annually. The grants are passed on to other entities, attracting several million additional dollars, she said.
Along with other grants approved in Biden-era legislation such as the $1 trillion Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, the institute will pass along more than $8 million in grants this year, she said.
Some of group's projects have been halted this summer, after Trump froze project funding related to those Biden-era bills, Wisdom said.
One of the delayed programs involves an experimental salmon counting program in Western Alaska using drones, an effort involving the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and Quinhagak village, she said.
Last year, the Biden administration also proposed sharp but smaller cuts that would hampered the ocean institute, where nine people are employed. Wisdom said.
Congress rejected those cuts. Wisdom said she hopes that will be the case once again.
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Climate institute raises alarms
The Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy also sent out a recent email letting people know its existence is in jeopardy if the NOAA cuts are approved.
It asked subscribers to fill out a survey describing how the program would affect their lives, jobs and communities.
The center, 20 years old and based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, employs nine people, said Thoman, its climate specialist.
The program provides climate information to Alaskans around the state, including raising awareness about growing fire risks in Alaska, or supporting research for an avalanche warning system.
"Our overarching goal is helping Alaskans be resilient in the environment they live in, which is facing rapid change," he said.
On Thursday, the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative — the Pacific Northwest version of the Alaska climate institute — said it received a termination letter from an administrator with NOAA.
There are about a dozen such institutes nationwide, Thoman said.
"This is flashing red lights for us," Thoman said.
It has already been alarming to see the loss of many experienced scientists, he said.
"In Alaska, those scientists are not immediately replaceable," he said. "That will have decades-scale impacts on what we can do, right down to how is the North Pacific Fishery Management Council going to set quotas if they don't have the information they need."
Delegation raises concerns about fishery surveys
Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said at a recent committee hearing that he's concerned the federal government doesn't have the staffing and resources to conduct fishery surveys.
"When you don't do stock assessment surveys, you know what happens? My fishermen can't fish," Sullivan told Paul Dabbar, the nominee for deputy secretary of the Commerce Department. "All they need is a survey and it's not happening."
Sullivan is "weighing in with the administration" on all proposed cuts and changes that would affect Alaska's economy, his spokesperson, Amanda Coyne, said in an email.
Sullivan also raised alarms at the committee hearing that the Oscar Dyson research vessel, which conducts fishery surveys, had not had its maintenance contract approved. The deadline was just days away, Sullivan said.
The Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA, approved the contract after the hearing, Coyne said.
Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski's office said Congress, having received Trump's budget proposal, will determine appropriate funding levels.
"She has publicly reiterated her support for NOAA and the critical services they provide to Alaska, from stock assessments for our fishermen, to providing detailed weather forecasts and warnings," her spokesperson, Joe Plesha, said in an email.
Murkowski also has been a longtime supporter of the U.S. Geological Survey, which provides decisionmakers at the Interior Department with "the most accurate data and information regarding natural resources and Alaska's environment," Plesha said.
Alaska Republican U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III "has met with several Alaska industry leaders and fishing communities who have all echoed the same message: research and stock assessment studies are essential for Alaska's fishing industry," spokesperson Silver Prout said in email.
"We are evaluating proposed changes to NOAA and will continue to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to defend investments that support economic returns and safety for Alaskans," the email said.