Dozens of eliminated grants threaten environmental health in the Western U.S.--including the Grand Canyon
Dozens of grants to environmental groups partnering with national parks were suddenly eliminated by the Department of the Interior, halting seed collections and wildlife monitoring across the Western United States. Millions of seeds intended for reforestation projects will remain unused in storage, while crucial scientific studies have been suspended midway, resulting in layoffs and unfinished work.
Melanie Gisler, director of the Southwest branch of the Institute for Applied Ecology, described the situation to online news site SFGATE: "None of the grants we were working on involved diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. It was on the ground conservation work."
It all began on the morning of September 23, when six organizations received emails notifying them of the cancellation of federal funds totaling $3.5 million. The official reasoning merely stated that the projects no longer "align with the administration's priorities," with no further explanation. Among the affected groups were the Institute for Bird Populations and the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, which had to suspend bird counts in national parks throughout the West.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum justified the cuts as part of a cost‑reduction initiative: "@Interior saved American taxpayers MILLIONS of dollars," he wrote on X, "today by cutting nearly 80 grants to wasteful environmental groups."
Environmentalists, however, argue that the impact is very real and tangible: native seeds collected in Olympic, Mount Rainier, and North Cascades National Parks, intended to reintroduce important plants burned in wildfires or destroyed by other disasters, remain unused. Morgan Franke, program manager for native seeds at the Institute for Applied Ecology, emphasized the importance of collecting those seeds, explaining that they would lose their viability if left in cold storage for too long.
The cuts also affect wildlife monitoring programs, which are essential for understanding which bird populations are struggling. The Institute for Bird Populations lost six grants from the Park Service, including initiatives in the Pacific Northwest, Sierra Nevada, and Southwest, including the Grand Canyon.
Rodney Siegel, executive director of the Institute for Bird Populations, noted: "We spent all summer collecting data, the data is half analyzed and now it's over. We can't finish."
These sudden cutbacks have both ecological and human impacts: nonprofit organizations have had to lay off staff and halt long‑running activities. In an already underfunded sector, the fate of scientific monitoring in particular represents a significant setback for the conservation of America's national parks.