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ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Botanical Garden and the St. Louis Zoo, which are losing more than $900,000 amid the Trump administration’s funding cuts, are looking for new ways to pay for research intended to help endangered animals and threatened plant species.

The garden lost more than $550,000 and the zoo nearly $400,000 after receiving a termination notice from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency President Donald Trump wants to eliminate as part of his administration’s cuts.

The zoo was one of two dozen organizations a March 20 letter urging Congress to protect the IMLS.

The funding loss is expected to delay several conservation programs at each organization. At the zoo, for example, the grant money was to fund research to help endangered animals at its new WildCare Park in north St. Louis County. The garden planned to use the funding to help better manage and preserve plant species, among other projects.

“We are exploring other ways to make up for the loss of this funding,” said Billy Brennan, the zoo’s director of public relations and government affairs.

The zoo and garden — supported by donations and taxpayer money through the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District — are among the largest and most prominent local organizations to lose IMLS funding.

Others include the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, Missouri Historical Society and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. The Holocaust museum lost $130,000, but an anonymous donor stepped forward to help the organization continue digitizing interviews with Holocaust survivors who settled in St. Louis and American veterans who helped liberate concentration camps. SIUE lost money for a program to teach high school students the value of libraries and encourage careers in the field through paid internships.

The local organizations altogether lost about $1.5 million through the cuts. The IMLS is one of seven agencies Trump .

Founded in 1996, the IMLS provides support for libraries, museums and other organizations to improve access to learning, according to its website. Organizations across Missouri have received $16.1 million from the agency since 2020. Most of the funding went to groups in St. Louis and Kansas City.

The Botanical Garden will lose more than $566,000, according to spokeswoman Catherine Martin. The money funds research into the management of “ex situ species” — the conservation of threatened plant species in a controlled environment, such as a botanical garden.

“It is increasingly important as more plant species face the threat of extinction,” Martin said in an email. “The tools were to be shared with other institutions.”

The grant also was being used to create a web application to prioritize plants based on criteria like rarity and climate suitability, she said.

The zoo lost nearly $250,000 to set up a biobank for animals at WildCare Park, a 425-acre, safari-style park and conservation center that’s slated to open in 2027. The money would also have funded a scientist position, said Brennan, spokesman for the zoo.

The zoo said 70% of the WildCare Park species are from populations that are in decline and threatened with extinction. The biobank was to house biological samples for reproductive research.

“It will delay our ability to buy biobank freezers and animal handling equipment that will be incredibly beneficial to conservation and research efforts at WildCare Park,” Brennan said. “The equipment would greatly expand our ability to take part in studies and contribute to knowledge of many endangered and threatened species.”

The zoo also lost more than $105,000 that funded ecology programs at six area school districts. Brennan said the funding provided 18 paid internships for high school students to learn about collecting environmental samples and analyzing them in a lab, as well as to participate in community science projects, like turtle tracking in Forest Park.

Brennan said the zoo will use money from its general fund to continue the internships and a temporary part-time position.