Government shutdown delays, disrupts environmental studies on WTOP| The monthlong partial shutdown of the federal government is disrupting environmental research projects nationwide. Scientists with universities, nonprofits and private companies are feeling the pinch. They can’t collaborate with…
The rainwater collection system is broken at the environmental research station on a remote, rocky Pacific island off the California coast. So is a crane used to hoist small boats in and out of the water. A two-year supply of diesel fuel for the power generators is almost gone.
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel ordinarily would help with such problems. But they haven’t been around since the partial federal government shutdown began a month ago, forcing researchers with the nonprofit Point Blue Conservation Science to rely on volunteers to haul bottled water and 5-gallon (18-liter) jugs of diesel to the Farallon Islands National Refuge, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from San Francisco.
Still, the scientists are pressing on with their long-running study of elephant seals during the crucial winter breeding season. They tag and monitor the lumbering creatures, whose numbers are recovering after being hunted to near-extinction, and study how warming oceans could affect them.
“We’ve found some creative solutions, but things will get more strained the longer the shutdown is continued,” said Pete Warzybok, a marine ecologist with Point Blue.
The impasse has delayed, disrupted and now threatens to derail environmental research projects across the nation — and not just those conducted by government agencies.
Scientists with universities, nonprofit organizations and private companies say their inability to collaborate with federal partners, gain access to federal lands and laboratories, and secure federal funding is jeopardizing their work on a vast array of subjects, including invasive and endangered species and air and water quality.
Researchers might miss court-ordered deadlines for reports involving endangered plants or animals. Warm-weather field studies that must be planned months in advance could be delayed or canceled. And studies that rely on strict monitoring or testing schedules could be compromised.
Depending on how long the shutdown lasts, the damage could range from inconvenient to irreparable.
Scientists with a constant presence on the Farallones since 1968 might have to leave if their agreement with the government isn’t renewed by the end of March.
