Federal Shutdown for Conservation and Ag Science?

[n2doc]

The problem with science–and in particular science involving living ecosystems–is that you can’t just unplug everything and go home. If you’ve set up an experiment with specific schedules for data collection, or living organisms of any kind, anything from weeks to years of work could be interrupted or lost during a shutdown.

A reddit discussion about how scientists expect to be affected by the 2013 Federal Shutdown gives a great example of this:

“I have 2 ongoing federal grants. One has already been delayed for months by sequestration, and due to that we already had to completely scrap the entire 2013 field season. (The animals are only study-able in August & September; the funding was delayed 6 mos but you can’t just go tell the animals “could you please postpone your breeding season till February? thanks.”. And you can’t always just bump things to next year – maybe the boats aren’t available, your lead grad student or postdoc will have left already, etc.).”

When you work with a living system, you have to follow the rhythms of your system. Corn harvests and neotropical songbird migration can’t be studied in January for most of the US. As I put together this post, I found the parts of the shutdown hardest to convey were the intangible effects on scientists.

I know quite a few people that work for or are funded by USDA, NSF, and other federal agencies. None of them were willing to talk to me on the record, which isn’t surprising. What was unusual is a sort of hopeless despair combined with a determined refusal to not give up on their science. I felt like I was trying to interview Monty Python’s Black Knight.

more

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/what-does-a-federal-shutdown-mean-for-conservation-and-ag-science/