Thom Adamson left his role as a science communicator at the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center during the summer of 2025. He now works as an English educator with the Sioux Falls School District. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Thom Adamson had been through uncertainty in his job before, including government shutdowns. But earlier this year, it felt different.
Adamson worked as a science communicator at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Resources Observation and Science Center for 18 years before walking away in July.
He was responsible for translating scientific research and accomplishments for the EROS website, producing and leading a podcast showcasing EROS work, and leading several tours a week through the facility.
EROS, located northeast of Sioux Falls, archives satellite images to monitor land use and changes — including helping with emergency disaster responses, such as wildfires, or analyzing the impact of drought, disease and flooding across the world.
Amid widespread federal workforce and spending reductions by the Trump administration, Adamson and his team of a dozen people were instructed that they’d be laid off in July. But their funding was restored a week or so before the date arrived.
By the time Adamson’s job was no longer in jeopardy, the 55-year-old was convinced it was time for a change. It felt too fragile to trust.
“Even without being political, just being objective about it, the uncertainty feels different now,” Adamson said. “It’s a lot more extreme.”
About 154,000 federal employees took buyouts — officially known as deferred resignations — offered by the Trump administration earlier this year as a way to reduce the size of the federal government. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said recently that he expects the total decrease in the federal workforce to reach more than 300,000 eventually.
Adamson is not included in that number, because he was a contracted employee. He joined EROS when he and his wife moved to Sioux Falls in 2007. He enjoyed scientific writing, found it rewarding to work with scientists and was fascinated by the work accomplished at the site.
Now, Adamson teaches English in the Sioux Falls School District. He was an educator before joining EROS.
During the recent federal government shutdown, he vacillated between empathy for his former coworkers — recalling the stress thrust upon him in prior shutdowns and leading up to potential shutdowns — and relief at not enduring shutdowns anymore.
Adamson is worried that the Trump administration’s propensity to cut government spending could jeopardize the EROS mission.
“If they don’t understand the value of the work at EROS, they might see it as a great place to cut costs,” Adamson said. “There’s a lot of cost to cutting science, and there’s a lot of science going on at EROS.”
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