A year after the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Lab seemed doomed to close, dozens of researchers and other workers remain -- and the lab's new director believes the core of scientists and workers can rebuild the facility, known around the world for its ecological research.

"Is (rebuilding) it optimistic? Yes. Is it doable? Yes," said the lab's new director, Carl Bergmann.

UGA officials were afraid they might have to close the lab last year, after U.S. Department of Energy officials unexpectedly slashed the lab's funding to $1 million -- down from $8 million two years earlier.

When Dr. Bergmann became director last year, he said he expected his job would be overseeing the lab's orderly closure.

After just a couple of visits, however, Dr. Bergmann said he was convinced the facility was too important to be allowed to die.

For nearly 60 years, UGA scientists have conducted ecological research at the lab at Savannah River Site.

"A large part of my job was to give the people some hope again," Dr. Bergmann said.

He told workers the lab was not going to close and set to work trying to find money to keep the place going.

UGA officials chipped in about $2 million, and research grants added between $400,000 and $500,000. The lab remained open, but with fewer than half the employees.

In the future, university officials want the lab to become self-sufficient, bringing in enough research money to pay operating costs without relying on UGA to foot part of the bill, Dr. Bergmann said.

"It's going to be very difficult, but I'm certainly hopeful that we will be able to do this," said plant biologist Rebecca Sharitz, a longtime member of the lab's faculty.

Few places in the world rival SRS' value for ecological research, said ecologist Whit Gibbons, who's been at the lab for more than 40 years.

At about 310 square miles, SRS is the largest protected wildlife habitat in the eastern United States, bigger than the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, he said.

"There's nothing comparable in the Southeast," he said.

"It's one of the most intensely studied areas in the world," said Dr. Sharitz, a plant biologist.

UGA scientists have been working at the site since 1952, when legendary UGA ecologist Eugene Odum first began studying the effects of radiation on plants and animals in the area.

Ecologists and other scientists at the lab did groundbreaking research on how contaminants move through ecosystems and food chains, and how land reverts from cotton fields to forest when left alone, said Paul Bertsch, the lab's director before the latest cuts.

"It's clear that the current (presidential) administration's focus wasn't on the types of things (the lab) is really good at," Dr. Bertsch said. "We stood out there as a target."

The lab is down to fewer than 50 scientists and other workers, compared with 110 a year ago.

Some top scientists have left, including Dr. Bertsch, who took about half a million dollars a year in grant funding with him when he took a job last year at the University of Kentucky.

Before last year's cutbacks, lab scientists were pulling in around $2.5 million a year in competitive research grants from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, Dr. Bertsch said.

This year, such competitive grants will total between $400,000 and $500,000, Dr. Bergmann said.

He expects to see grant money from the Energy Department and other federal agencies grow over the next few years, however.

"The attitude from DOE continues to be very positive," he said.

Dr. Bergmann is also trying to get scientists from other universities to do research at the lab.

Scientists at the lab this year have had to overcome one obstacle most researchers don't face as they compete for grants.

"We continue to fight the perception that the lab has closed," Dr. Bergmann said.

And though the lab continues this year, its future is not assured, said David Lee, UGA's vice president for research.

"It's been touch-and-go," Mr. Lee said. "Even today, it's not a sure thing. I'd say we've made better progress than any one of us would have imagined. We've restored cooperation with DOE and renewed enthusiasm."