This town on the Cape is a hub for climate scientists. Under Trump, its local economy is shaking.
The small upper Cape community has been a sort of company town for environmental scientists for more than a century.
Erin Douglas March 27th, 2025, 3:04 PM
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WOODS HOLE — An unease has settled over this small-town community of scientists lately like the fog that crept across the upper Cape on a recent March morning.
It’s difficult to see around the bend: Will the scientists have a job next month? Will their life’s work be halted? Will their colleagues flee abroad, seeking funds and political support for their research?
“Science in Woods Hole is most definitely under threat,” said Max Holmes, president and CEO of Woodwell Climate Research Center.
“We don’t know what the future holds, but we’re not going to just sit back and wait,” Holmes said. “We’re going to use our voice.”
Right now, that voice is a lonely one. The very fact that Holmes is still willing to speak publicly about the Trump administration’s economic impact is unusual here, where several climate research institutions depend on federal dollars to function.
Of all the places vulnerable to federal funding cuts to the sciences, Woods Hole may be one of the most extreme examples. The small scientific community on the upper Cape, nested in the town of Falmouth, has long been a sort of company town for environmental scientists ever since the nation’s first federal fisheries lab was established there in 1871.
“It’s coming at us pretty hard,” said Catherine Bumpus, president of Woods Hole Community Association, of the federal spending cuts. “The backbone of Woods Hole is science, or it has been for 150 years.”
Scientists out of Woods Hole in Falmouth researched how underwater meadows capture carbon in the Cape Cod area in July 2024.
Scientists out of Woods Hole in Falmouth researched how underwater meadows capture carbon in the Cape Cod area in July 2024.DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF
There are six climate and marine science centers in Falmouth, population 32,000, the largest of which is the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The institution has about 1,200 employees, making it one of the largest employers on Cape Cod. Catering to this powerful scientific presence are spin-off companies, start-ups, instrument manufacturers, and materials suppliers, as well as bars and restaurants for the scientists who live on the Cape year-round.
The research centers that power this offseason economic engine need federal funding to operate. Being among the top attractors of federal funds within Massachusetts, typically a point of pride for the institutions of Woods Hole, now reads more like a liability under the Trump administration.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution relies on federal grants and contracts for more than two-thirds of its total revenue, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
So far, the institution has only seen some minor delays in grants and contracts, according to Suzanne Pelisson, director of public relations for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. But fear lingers.
“We are very concerned about the potential impacts of recent directives on core ocean science and technology programs, as well as the loss of knowledgeable and dedicated staff,” Pelisson wrote in a statement. She noted that potential personnel and funding cuts would “undermine US leadership in oceanography and many other scientific fields.”
Another research institution in the area, the Marine Biological Laboratory, receives about $18 million in federal funds each year, a third of its operating revenue.
Then there are the sizable research centers that the federal government operates in the area: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the US Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Center. There’s also the Woods Hole Science Aquarium, the oldest public aquarium in the nation, operated and funded by NOAA.
Carrie Albertin, PhD research scientist, worked in the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole in 2022.
Carrie Albertin, PhD research scientist, worked in the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole in 2022.DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF
Hundreds of recently hired NOAA employees across the nation were fired by the Trump administration; many have at least been temporarily reinstated after a legal challenge. As for the aquarium, there has not yet been any change to its operations, budget, or staffing levels, according to Teri Frady, chief of research communications for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center.
At Woodwell, Holmes’s ability to speak out is based on a strategic decision made eight years ago: During the first Trump administration, the climate research center’s leadership was spooked by the president’s animosity toward climate mitigation efforts. The center produces fundamental climate change research — such as studying forests, soils, the tropics, and the Arctic.
So, feeling vulnerable, they began to shift the organization’s financial strategy to reduce their exposure to the federal government. Now, only about 15 percent of their revenue typically comes from federal sources, down from about half their funds in 2016, and most of their revenue comes from philanthropy.
“We didn’t want all our eggs in one basket,” Holmes said. Though he does not anticipate cutting big scientific projects this year due to the Trump administration’s policies, Holmes says there will be some “across-the-board belt-tightening.”
The broad-based cuts to climate research that Woodwell worried about never materialized during the first Trump administration. Trump’s second term, though, has already been more aggressive in implementing spending cuts and changing agency directives, particularly for areas that do not align with right-wing positions.
Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson for the White House, did not respond to questions about whether it is the policy of the Trump administration to eliminate climate change research. In a statement, Rogers wrote that the administration “is committed to cutting wasteful spending and realigning the federal government to match the priorities of the American people.”
In Woods Hole, recent firings at NOAA rocked the community, as did Trump’s executive orders that sought to block grant funding for topics disliked by the right.
Scientists in Woods Hole also said they’re concerned about the reliability of National Science Foundation funds, which support a considerable amount of research in the area. Local businesses are worried about a potential decline in much-needed year-round jobs that help provide economic stability after the departure of summer beach-goers.
Scientists worked on research of Octopuses, squid, and other cephalopods at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole in 2022.
Scientists worked on research of Octopuses, squid, and other cephalopods at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole in 2022. DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF
“There’s worry in the air,” said Hillary Osborn, a local painter and business owner in Falmouth. Her business is slow, but that’s not unusual this time of year, she said. The impacts will be clearer in the spring but for now, there are lots of rumblings. “We know people who are concerned that they’ll not have their jobs,” she said.
Business owners in the “blue economy,” which generally refers to research and businesses tied to ocean sustainability, are already noticing a slowdown in sales.
Some blue economy business owners, who declined to go on the record due to fears of retaliation, noted that they’re cutting marketing budgets and other extraneous spending. They’re not going to buy or spend money on anything they don’t have to, they told the Globe, at least not until the economic outlook for the sciences improves.
Congressman Bill Keating, a Democrat who represents the Cape, said that several local business owners have privately told him and his staff how funding cuts, tariffs, and federal firings are hurting business. It’s going beyond the ocean research industry and their suppliers, he said.
One local artist, for example, shared with the representative that sales are down 75 percent this quarter, which the owner attributes to her customer’s fears of federal spending cuts to the sciences.
Few, if any, of the Cape business owners impacted by the decline in consumer spending are willing to complain about it publicly, though.
“I’ll talk to them and say, ‘let’s raise awareness of the effects of this,’ and they will, to a person, say, ‘don’t use my company, and don’t use my name,‘” Keating said.
“I think to be effective, people will have to speak up,” Keating said.
Dinghies were tied up at a small dock in Woods Hole.
Dinghies were tied up at a small dock in Woods Hole.DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF
There are also concerns about what will be lost permanently. Other countries, particularly in Europe and Asia, have long sought to recruit US scientists with free lab space, luxury housing, and higher pay. As the deal to move abroad is increasingly tough to turn down, many in Woods Hole say they’re worried America will lose its competitive edge in the sciences.
“We’re just squandering our leadership positions,” said John Holdren, an environmental scientist based in Falmouth who led the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under former president Barack Obama.
Trump administration policies are also dampening efforts to train the next generation of scientists: In February, amid the Trump administration’s efforts to stamp out diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, a committee affiliated with scientific institutions in Woods Hole canceled a 10-week program for underrepresented college students in the marine sciences.
Holdren said he’s worried that Trump’s policies are “killing off a pipeline of young people” who are interested in science.
“They see that this is a beleaguered domain, and they don’t want to bet their futures on it,” Holdren said. “We’ll never know what discoveries didn’t get made early enough to make a difference.”
