AMHERST — Ahead of an expected round of workforce reductions at the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center based at the University of Massachusetts is preparing for the worst case scenario: elimination of the entire operation.

The climate center network, which includes nine regions around the country and a national branch, connects scientists with natural resource practitioners to create cutting-edge research, tools and strategies to adapt to changing climates. The center’s research advises movement of invasive species, management of water and forest resources, protection of coastal communities and much more.

While based in Amherst, the center here represents the New England region and involves many scientists, students and institutions who, since 2012, have worked on a total of 170 research projects.

“It’s a very unique model science in the way that we’re not just in our ivory tower imagining what a practitioner might need,” said Bethany Bradley, co-director of the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (NE CACS). “We know these people and can call them and figure out exactly what they need. This is a game-changer in my career because it makes me feel useful.”

The center, however, may soon see its funding slashed by the Trump administration. In April, Science Magazine reported that a leaked draft of the White House fiscal year 2026 budget proposed cutting funding for the United States Geological Survey Ecosystems Mission Area, the agency’s $307 million research arm.

Media reports, including one from Government Executive, which produces daily news on government business, predicts that the firing of climate adaptation scientists funded through USGS could take place as soon as Thursday. Three of those staff have offices at UMass.

“We were initially hopeful prior to January when this administration took over because we survived the last Trump administration,” Bradley said. “We’re able to effectively argue to the previous Trump administration that if we as a society want to essentially double down on fossil fuel production and ultimately emissions, we need to able to adapt to the changes that we are creating. But USGS wasn’t getting any traction or meetings with anyone in the federal government.”

Potential cuts to funding threaten 20 ongoing projects throughout the New England region and another seven post-doctorate researchers and UMass staff members, Bradley said.

The center’s current 14 fellows could also lose their fellowships, leaving the doctoral candidates to look for money elsewhere to continue their thesis research.

“Post-doc researchers are a bigger concern because there isn’t a place for them to land,” Bradley said. “With the PhD students, UMass has been tremendous putting money where they can to help students who have funding fall through.”

USGS’s research branch includes 43 Cooperative Research Units nationwide, including the Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit that occupies space in the same building at the NE CASC. Representatives from this unit could not be reached for this article, but Bradley, who works closely with many of their staff, said the group faces similar consequences and losses.

“There is a host agreement through the University of Massachusetts, but the bulk of the actual science that gets done is through project solicitations facilitated by the USGS center, and we will be losing a bulk of the projects,” Bradley said.

The loss of USGS research and the Climate Adaptation Science Center would have a cascading impact on climate adaptation knowledge and research. While other climate scientists research temperature forecasts, climate models and atmospheric projections, climate adaptation projects have more direct applications by filling in information gaps and providing tools in high demand for natural resource managers.

As an invasive species ecologist, Bradley said she helped create a Regional Effort on Invasive Species and Climate Change (RISCC) Management, which tracks and predict the movement of invasive species in the region. Mangers then asked her to prioritize the most dangerous invasive species using her ecological expertise. In the process, Bradley said she would look to south to states like New Jersey, whose climate may soon match the commonwealth, to see the species and mitigation strategies employed by the state, and then analyze the success and failures.

“It has been awful for all the federal employees because they’re operating under all the uncertainty,” Bradley said. “Seeing your colleagues get fired left and right is a pretty tough place to work at.”

This news was not unexpected by climate adaptation scientists, Bradley said. One of the goals in Project 2025, a policy outline by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation that mirrors many of the Trump administration’s actions, includes, “Abolish the Biological Resources Division of [USGS] and obtain necessary scientific research about species of concern from universities via competitive requests for proposals.” The Biological Resources Division is the former name of the Ecological Mission Area program.

There are 60 federal employees at in the CASC program at USGS, and 25% of those staff opted into the Trump administration’s voluntary retirement or deferred resignation plans, Bradley said.

The funding for climate adaptation research in Massachusetts will now fall to the state, which has traditionally designated more resources to climate mitigation, like net zero or carbon neutral energy planning, than adaptation. Residents who wish to show their support of ecosystem and ecological protections can call their state and federal representatives. But, most importantly, Bradley requests people tell scientists that their work is appreciated.

“It actually does make a huge difference to hear from people who support you because it’s really easy to be in this field and be in a vacuum,” Bradley said. “People think that no one cares about ecosystems, and I don’t think that’s true.”

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.