How federal job cuts threaten the environment’s future

One in five federal wildlife scientists lost their jobs this past year, creating an expertise void in a field where, as one environmental group warns, “there are no jobs necessarily doing this monitoring in the private sector in the same way.”

Based on data from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 1,778 jobs within the Fish and Wildlife Service were lost between November 2024 and November 2025, reflective of the sweeping governmental staffing cuts implemented since the start of President Trump’s second term. 

Scientists and researchers such as refuge managers and fish biologists comprised 5,500 of the Department’s jobs in 2024 and have decreased to less than 5,000 or nearly 10% within the past year, according to Center for Biological Diversity data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Noah Greenwald, the Center’s endangered species co-director, said the 20% cut to the department and 10% cut to the scientific staff has pushed the wildlife research community into unprecedented territory. He said there have been direct impacts on initiatives to protect endangered species as well as the general public’s understanding of how preservation affects the world around them.

Greenwald said the Trump administration’s approach is intentional because it undermines long-standing protections for the nation’s air, land and wildlife. By cutting the staff in charge of monitoring the environment, it decreases the public’s awareness and may even cause them to not believe there are any threats.

“It’s a real head-in-the-sand approach,” Greenwald said.

Greenwald added that it’s notable that many of the federal positions don’t exist in the commercial sector.  

“There are no jobs necessarily doing this, for example, monitoring fish and wildlife in the private sector in the same way,”  Greenwald said. “It’s reducing our capacity to know what’s happening in the world.” 

Virtually observe nature

Tour Whitaker Ponds Nature Park in Portland, Oregon, with these 3D photorealistic interactives. Produced by Nathan Olszewski.

Katy Weil, a senior natural resource scientist and wildlife biologist at Metro Portland, said she’s seen the direct impact of the federal job cuts at the local level in Oregon.

Weil said researchers are not only responsible for doing the scientific work but also informing the public as to their observations and assessments on the environment.

“When we lose that, then obviously those things don’t happen,” Weil said. “The monitoring and the storytelling don’t happen, and then people don’t get to find out.”

Weil cited a research project involving the lamprey, a jawless eel-like fish with significance to Indigenous communities. Weil said efforts to better define the lampreys’ unusual role in the ecosystem had gained momentum, but then federal job cuts began.  

“In the last year or two at the most, committed, passionate people when it comes to this ancient fish had to go and everyone was in shock,” Wail said. “That’s an example of the frustration, then shock, sadness and grief.”

With the scientific community’s tendency to bond during research projects and collective goals they want to achieve, Weil said the past year has been even more difficult with fewer people to work with in her field. 

“I’m not saying it’s like species going extinct, but you start to feel as though your community is on the endangered species list. It’s hard.”