Feds Coastal Research Crew Bucks Headwinds

... “If resource agencies cannot rely on long-term funding, they cannot implement long-term monitoring programs, which means we cannot track long-term trends. And if we cannot track trends we won’t know if our ecosystems are changing — and that seems to be the intent of the federal bureaucracy these days,” says Ian Wren, a staff scientist with the nonprofit San Francisco Baykeeper. “The administration has pushed for cuts to USGS, NOAA and EPA in an attempt to shield themselves from unfavorable science outcomes. In the Bay Area, we’ve always welcomed scientific insight into our planning and business conversations, and been willing to pay for it.”