When the Trump administration began freezing federal funding for climate and ecosystem research, one of the programs hit hard was ours: the U.S. Geological Survey’s Climate Adaptation Science Centers.

These nine regional centers help fish, wildlife, water, land – and, importantly, people – adapt to rising global temperatures and other climate shifts.

The centers have been helping to track invasive species, protect water supplies and make agriculture more sustainable in the face of increasing drought conditions. They’re improving wildfire forecasting, protecting shorelines and saving Alaska salmon, among many other projects.

All of this work happens through partnerships: Scientists, many of them affiliated with universities, team up with public and private resource managers – the people who manage water supplies, wildlands, recreation areas, shorelines and other natural resources – to develop the research and solutions those managers need.

But in spring 2025, after 15 years of operation of the centers, the president’s proposed federal budget zeroed out funding for them. Federal workers at the centers were threatened with layoffs.

Three of the nine regional centers – covering the South Central, Pacific Islands and Northeast regions – were left unfunded when the Office of Management and Budget withheld and then blocked funds Congress had already........

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