Environment  November 15, 2017

NEON in Boulder to lay off 55 workers in January

BOULDER — The National Ecological Observatory Network, a federally funded organization based in Boulder, will cut 55 jobs this January, according to a Workforce Readjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing.

NEON, headquartered at 1685 38th St., Suite 100, in Boulder, is operated by Ohio-based Battelle Ecology and is mostly funded by the National Science Foundation. Its mission is to gather data on the impacts of climate change, land-use change and invasive species on natural resources.

Katy Delaney, a spokeswoman for Battelle Ecology, in a voice mail message early Wednesday, said the layoffs were part of a planned reduction as the project moves from the construction phase to operations phase. NEON is nearing the completion of building out of 81 field sites across the United States from which NEON will collect and analyze data. It recently received permits for sites in Yellowstone National Park, as well as Hawaii and California, which will complete the network. Delaney said fewer people are required as the project moves into its operational phase. “This is no surprise to anyone at NEON,” she said.

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After the layoffs, NEON will have approximately 200 employees in Boulder. Delaney said that number fluctuates seasonally, and can at times reach 300 to 400.

A story in Science magazine in 2016 said the NSF agreed to spend $35.5 million more to complete the network. At that time, it was going to cost a total of $469 million to complete the project, and there were questions as to how much it would cost to operate the network once up and running.

The project was conceived in 2000 and by the time construction began in 2012 NEON Inc., formed to lead the project and eventually replaced by Batelle,  had already endured several changes in leadership and was struggling to obtain the land-use and environmental permits needed for the more than 100 sites on which instruments would be deployed for as long as 30 years. A series of recent reports by NSF’s internal watchdog highlighting spending irregularities by NEON Inc. drew congressional scrutiny and generated pressure on NSF to take action.

Editor’s note: This story was first published Nov. 14 and was updated Nov. 15 to include a comment from Batelle Ecology, and on Nov. 16 to update number of employees at NEON.

 

 

BOULDER — The National Ecological Observatory Network, a federally funded organization based in Boulder, will cut 55 jobs this January, according to a Workforce Readjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing.

NEON, headquartered at 1685 38th St., Suite 100, in Boulder, is operated by Ohio-based Battelle Ecology and is mostly funded by the National Science Foundation. Its mission is to gather data on the impacts of climate change, land-use change and invasive species on natural resources.

Katy Delaney, a spokeswoman for Battelle Ecology, in a voice mail message early Wednesday, said the layoffs were part of a…

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