The Moab-based Southwest Biological Science Center has long been a cornerstone of desert science in the Colorado Plateau, pioneering research into ecology, land restoration, and the iconic biological soil crusts—known locally as “biocrusts”—that stabilize the fragile red rock landscape. But now, the future of that research is in jeopardy.
A new proposal from the White House aims to eliminate the entire budget for the Ecosystems Mission Area of the U.S. Geological Survey, effectively shutting down the program that supports this work.
“This is a really big concern to everybody who interacts with these landscapes around our area,” said Kristina Young, founder of Science Moab and a former USGS biological technician. “They do this really important science that focuses on the fact that the world is changing, and we need the best available information in order to understand how to work within and thrive within the changes that are happening.”
The proposed cuts would halt all research conducted through the Ecosystems Mission Area—a program that employs more than 1,200 scientists and staff nationwide, including a substantial team based here in Moab.
Young emphasized that the science conducted at the Moab field station is not abstract.
“Specifically, the Southwest Biological Science Center here in Moab has really pioneered the study of biological soil crusts,” she said. “It was really here within the USGS where the study of biocrust became a discipline.”
The crusts—living networks of mosses, lichens, cyanobacteria, and fungi—play a critical role in preventing erosion, cycling nutrients, and nurturing seeds in harsh desert conditions. Moab’s own “Don’t Bust the Crust” campaign, now a familiar slogan across trailheads and educational signage, was born from USGS-led outreach.
The center’s contributions go far beyond slogans.
“We also, because of the USGS, have the world’s longest running experiment looking at climate extremes in deserts,” said Young. The ongoing experiment has helped land managers, including those at Arches National Park, understand how to choose climate-resilient native plants for restoration projects.
“This information is not just… put away in research papers. It is directly relevant to land managers and the local community.”
World-famous research Jayne Belnap agrees, pointing out that much research has gone into how to graze livestock sustainably to help ranchers in the Southwest.
For Belnap, a long-time USGS ecologist, the proposed cuts are more than a budget line—the lost jobs represent a threat to the integrity of science.
“Once the expertise goes, you can’t just put it back,” she said. “Those guys that have been here for years accumulating all the knowledge… you’re not going to just get someone back if you decide to change your mind.”
Belnap points out that dryland ecosystems like those in the Moab area are among the least studied, and the USGS center has become a global leader in the field.
Both scientists noted the recent investments made into the local facility.
“We just spent a lot of money redoing that facility,” Belnap said. “All that money will just go to waste.”
Federal science jobs, they stressed, are not just about employment. They shape the very fabric of Moab’s community.
“So many people have come to this community specifically to work at this science center,” said Young. “It is not just a separate place in the community. It is an employer… a place that brings in new talent, who then sticks around and does a lot of good.”
The proposed cut echoes a policy vision promoted by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which calls for eliminating the USGS’s biological research entirely and shifting research duties to universities via short-term contracts. But scientists worry this approach would decimate the long-term, place-based work that has defined the Moab field station.
“It looks like savings on paper for a year,” Belnap said. “But you’re tinkering with chairs on the Titanic.”
Despite the dire outlook, both Young and Belnap stressed that Congress has the final say.
“Congress has the power to not defund this,” said Young. “In the past, Congress has… chosen to invest in the importance of this type of research.”
With Utah Representative John Curtis among those who have visited the Moab facility, supporters are hoping local ties and bipartisan appreciation for science will keep the program afloat.
In the meantime, advocates are urging Moab residents to speak up.
“Losing this type of science that’s meant to be local and meant to serve the region is going to have really big implications,” Young warned. “And leave a really big hole in our ability to mitigate changes that we all know are coming—and are already happening.”
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