Guest commentary: Tell Congress to oppose federal cuts to science, research
The White House recently announced significant cuts to federal science-based agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The proposed federal budget calls for cuts of more than 50% to the NSF and EPA — agencies that are tasked with providing American citizens with clean air and clean water — and cuts 32% of the NOAA’s top-line funding.
This expands on the previous cuts made in 2025 to the NOAA. Those cuts disrupted fisheries management, hurricane weather forecasting and ocean research. The proposed lack of funding continues that trend.
Some of the deepest proposed cuts will be to the U.S. Forest Service. The current administration’s plans are to shut down 57-77 Forest Service research facilities. This would serve to threaten public access to our national forests while providing lucrative grants to companies to expand private logging infrastructure and resource extraction.
Influenced by former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Forest Service was founded in 1905 to protect our public forests and to prioritize conservation at a time that rampant logging was destroying some of our irreplaceable old-growth forests.
The research generated by the U.S. Forest Service has been instrumental in understanding, providing a valuation for and managing the millions of acres of timber held in the public trust. In addition to providing recreation opportunities and a host of jobs that arise to cater to people enjoying our public lands, healthy and well managed forests absorb carbon, filter water and reduce flooding, as well as save millions of dollars in water filtration while helping to prevent dangerous and costly wildfires.
As an organization dedicated to protecting and caring for Southwest Florida’s coastal ecosystems, the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SCCF) relies on science and research to inform our policy initiatives. It takes years of research and data to provide the evidence needed to identify problems, track progress and create effective solutions to the problems facing our natural systems.
Without accurate data, recovery efforts are essentially guess-work, which can lead to wasted time, resources and worse — ineffective outcomes. Once gone, many of these programs cannot simply be restarted at a future date; there are monitoring efforts and large decades-long data sets that will disappear forever.
This decision is not one that can be made unilaterally by the executive branch. It is up to Congress to decide how to spend your tax dollars, and it needs to raise its voice in opposition.
Visit https://sccf.quorum.us/campaign/160945/ to join the SCCF in contacting our leaders in Congress to oppose these harmful cuts to valuable federal science and research and to support the founding principles of this county — to balance the protection of its natural resources for the safety and use of its citizens.
Founded in 1967, the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s mission is to protect and care for Southwest Florida’s coastal ecosystems. For more information, visit sccf.org.
To reach SANIBEL-CAPTIVA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION, please email