Earlier this month, the Department of the Interior submitted court documents outlining its plans to lay off just over 2,000 employees nation-wide amid the ongoing government shutdown.
While these firings have been put on hold, for now, they could strip New Mexico of already scarce wildfire research resources.
, the proposed layoffs will impact many different sectors under the Interior 鈥� including a sizable 57% reduction of staff at the U.S. Geological Survey鈥檚 , which does scientific research for a slew of natural resource agencies.
That would leave the center with just 30 people overall.
While most of its staff are based in Colorado, the center has a small but mighty research presence in New Mexico.
鈥淭he New Mexico Landscapes Field Station was this institution of incredible forest ecology research in New Mexico, doing some of the most groundbreaking, fascinating forest research,鈥� Andreas Wion told 91暗网.
Up until two months ago, Wion was a research ecologist at the station but felt 鈥渇orced out鈥� as the Trump administration actively and aggressively downsizes the federal government.
Reflecting on his tenure at the field station, Wion pointed to the research he did on tree growth rings as an important contribution to documenting fire on the landscape.
鈥淥ftentimes that involves collecting either small cores or sections of trees, cross dating the rings, making sure they all line up in the right way, and then looking for evidence of past fires within the tree rings,鈥� Wion said.
By collecting over 2500 different unique fire scar sites from tree rings across the country, the New Mexico field station spearheaded a North American 鈥�,鈥� giving historical fire insights over the entire continent.
Currently, in addition to analyzing tree rings, the New Mexico field station has who research fire, forest ecology and wildlife. Some of this research has spanned decades in the Jemez Mountains and the Valles Caldera.
But, Wion said there are very few forest ecologists who study the impacts of wildfire in New Mexico, highlighting the dangers that the proposed job cuts can have for understanding wildfire in the Southwest.
鈥淵ou can have missing years in your data, but losing the infrastructure, the people, the knowledge, the intellectual capacity to continue these long term data sets is something that can't just be rehired and re-taught,鈥� Wion said.
While the center is indeed small 鈥� and always has been 鈥� it attracts lots of grants and research money, said Craig D. Allen, and former leader of the New Mexico USGS field station. Allen founded the center over three decades ago, first headquartered at Bandelier National Monument.
鈥淚 mean, it's productive,鈥� Allen said. 鈥淔or every dollar USGS puts into it [the New Mexico Landscape Field Office] has, over the last 20 years, brought in $3 of non-base funding to support the work that's been done.鈥�
Allen said that the USGS field station was revolutionary for its time, but was eventually followed by newer institutions dedicated to research forest ecosystems, such as the New Mexico Highland鈥檚 and the University of New Mexico鈥檚 .
Still, he is insistent the USGS field station stands out from the rest, thanks to the broad swath of fire ecological work it does.
鈥淭he field station in its current, modest form, still has the potential to continue to be productive if it manages to persist through current governmental reorganization,鈥� Allen added.
For now, a federal judge has as a lawsuit from two federal employee unions snakes through the courts 鈥� creating confusion within the Department of the Interior on what positions are possibly subject to layoffs.
If these planned job reductions come to fruition, it鈥檚 unclear if the New Mexico field station will be left intact.
Messages to the Department of the Interior and Fort Collins Science Center seeking comment and interviews were met with automatic messages about the ongoing government shutdown, which prohibits most federal employees from working until Congress passes an appropriations bill.
