New tool launched to map out NOAA sites

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Environmental advocates have mapped out the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 735 sites across the country with a new interactive digital tool as the Trump Administration seeks to cut about $2 billion from the agency in the 2026 budget year. 

The Environmental Defense Fund has created its new tool using NOAA data to map out hundreds of NOAA sites throughout the country, including more than 30 in Florida or off its coast.

“NOAA oftentimes is viewed as just another sort of far away, distant federal agency in DC, when the reality is that NOAA is in local communities across the country and millions of Americans rely on programs and services that NOAA provides every day,” said the Environmental Defense Fund’s Senior Director for Ocean Public Affairs, Reggie Paros. Some of those services include weather forecasting and storm tracking.

The Environmental Defense Fund map is color-coded. A red dot for example, shows an Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research site. While an orange dot represents a National Marine Fisheries Service site. 

“As you’re going in and looking at the map, you can indicate and see what federal budget line items are potentially being cut by the Administration and how those will impact your local communities,” Paros said. 

Among those proposed cuts is closing the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory in Miami. “One of the other biggest areas that they cut is the Marine Fishery Service. They suggested over a 40% cut to that part of the agency,” Paros said. 

The Trump Administration’s Budget Estimates Congressional Submission argues, “A leaner NOAA that focuses on core operational needs, eliminates unnecessary layers of bureaucracy, terminates nonessential grant programs, and ends activities that do not warrant a Federal role, will provide better value to the American public while maintaining activities that are essential to protecting lives and property.”

The new federal budget year begins Oct. 1, but Congress has not yet reached a deal to fund the government.