Shutdown will cast a long shadow over research
The sudden halt to US government functions leaves me worried about the effects on science for years to come, says Anne Jefferson.
As the longest-ever government shutdown finishes its fourth week, I keep waking up in the night with thoughts of a fence.
In Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, we’ve planted thousands of saplings with the help of hundreds of volunteers. Those tiny trees are supposed to be part of a decades-long experiment on the critical zone, the life-sustaining region from groundwater to treetops. The only thing that protects the saplings from hungry deer is a thin fence. And the Park Service rangers who protect the fence are furloughed — not working because they’re government employees. Although the deer haven’t got through yet...