<p>A steady rain falls though a canopy of pines and oaks as researcher David Scott collects a handful of spadefoot toads from a collection bucket on the edge of Rainbow Bay at the Savannah River Site.</p><p>Every day for more than a quarter century now, researchers like Scott from the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory have monitored the amphibians moving in and out of the 2 1/2-acre wetland in the longest-running research project of its type in the world.</p><p>But now federal budget cuts threaten the project, as well as the work conducted a few miles away where scientists in a molecular laboratory map the peromyscus genome _ the genetic map of the deer mouse and white-footed mouse that can spread the Hantravirus.</p><p>Going back virtually to the dawn of the atomic age more than a half century ago, scientists at the lab operated by the University of Georgia have conducted ecological research at the 300-square-mile federal nuclear complex on the Savannah River.</p><p>But in February, the lab was notified the $7.8 million it gets from the Department of Energy will be eliminated this fall, effectively shuttering the lab, which employs 180 people.</p><p>"In this tight budget environment, we were forced to make difficult priority decisions with regard to scientific research," said Mike Waldron, a department spokesman. "We took a very careful look at the department's scientific priorities and made appropriate decisions based on the resources available."</p><p>Although additional money from the university and grants round out the lab's almost $11 million budget, there is not enough outside money to keep the lab running, said Carl Strojan, the lab's associate director.</p><p>"The public would loose a credible source of unbiased information on the health of SRS ecosystems and on the impacts of site operations" if the lab is shuttered, said Paul Bertsch, the lab's director.</p><p>The ecology lab started in 1951 when lawmakers in Washington wanted an independent assessment of what impacts the nuclear facility, then known locally as simply the bomb plant, may have on the environment.</p><p>"There is a perception on the public's part that once you walk over this line and go onto the Savannah River Site there is trouble," Strojan said. "In some ways that is good for us because there is that perception that people still want us doing work here."</p><p>Scientists at the lab can study what they want and publish in independent journals without government approval, he added. They have published dozens of books and papers about their studies, which provide a long-term analysis of the environment near a nuclear facility.</p><p>Over the years, they have pursued research in everything from radiological effects, such as ground migration of contaminants, to remediation and restoration.</p><p>The public may be more familiar with reports on such things as finding a four-legged screech owlet or that some turtles with elevated levels of radiation migrated to a farmer's pond off the site.</p><p>"Things like that occasionally crop up," Strojan said. "But the major impression we take away is that the ecosystems are healthy and in part that reflects the way DOE has managed this site."</p><p>In 1972, the old Atomic Energy Commission made the site the nation's first National Environmental Research Park.</p><p>The designation meant the site became a "protected outdoor laboratory" where long-term research could be conducted about human's effects on the environment.</p><p>After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union in 1986, the Savannah River Site and the lab were visited by Soviet scientists dealing with the aftermath.</p><p>"They had never been to the United States but they knew Par Pond and Pond B because of the research done here and they knew the people by name," Strojan recalled. "They had never met them but they had read their papers."</p><p>Waldron said that the lab is not operated by the Department of Energy and can still get outside grants and funding.</p><p>During a visit here last month, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman made no promises department money for the lab could be restored.</p><p>But lawmakers on both sides of the Savannah River have pledged to work to maintain it.</p><p>A letter to Bodman signed by the U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson of Georgia and U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint of South Carolina said the lab has "a long and distinguished history."</p><p>It noted a five-year agreement with the Department of Energy calls for the it to operate through June, 2006 and that $5 million will be needed to keep it running through then to honor the agreement even if next year's budget is cut.</p><p>Graham has said he will work to get the money to keep the lab going.</p><p>"We have done our part to balance this budget so I'm not embarrassed to ask for a few million dollars for the lab," he said during the Bodman visit.</p><p>Isakson also has visited but warned the tight budget could be tougher on programs with smaller budgets.</p><p>Jean Sulc of St. Helena Island, who chairs the Savannah River Site Citizens Advisory Board, also wrote the Department of Energy.</p><p>The lab is noted for work "not just on radioactive and industrial pollution, but on all forms of environmental contamination," the letter noted.</p><p>While the lobbying goes on to save the lab, "I am very optimistic about the outcome," Bertsch said, adding it has had a chance to show its importance to lawmakers, the public and the government.</p><p>"The fact that the ongoing research and insights derived from the research are based on a 54-year knowledge base of the SRS and its ecosystems is unique," he said.</p><p>Strojan also is cautiously optimistic.</p><p>"I think it's very likely we will survive," Strojan added. "I don't think anybody is going to say all your money is back in the budget and continue (just) what you are doing."</p><p>But "$7 to $8 million is not that much in the grand scheme of things," he added. "Everybody seems to think that what comes out for that $7 or $8 million is worth it."</p>
