And when the Trump administration began cutting and freezing funding for federal science research last year, the situation got worse. Q: What’s causing the lab’s money troubles, and what are the implications for the future of the Marmot Project? But none of this is going to replace federal funding. Q: What do you want other researchers who are navigating the same precarious federal funding environment to take away from OnlyMarms? A: I hope we’ve helped raise awareness of the problems we’re facing, and particularly for the value of federal funding of science and the value of federal funding of long-term ecological research.