WESTON, Mass. — A Massachusetts observatory that monitors earthquake activity in the region may be forced to cancel various programs due to a lack of funds.

The MetroWest Daily News reports that Boston College’s Weston Observatory faces cancelling tours, summer internships, evening public colloquiums and annual geological field trips.

Director Alan Kafka, an associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at Boston College, says the observatory needs to raise $50,000 to $60,000 to continue some of its public programming.

Kafka attributes some of the financial difficulties to a political climate that makes it hard to obtain government funding for science.

The observatory conducts research on earthquakes and provides educational resources about the science of seismology and related geosciences. It has been recording earthquakes since 1931.