Underfunding Crippled USA National Wildlife Refuge

Underfunding Crippled USA National Wildlife Refuge



March 2007 - In an attempt to cope 
with a huge budget backlog, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
is cutting and redeploying staff in the National Wildlife 
Refuge System across the Southwest and the Pacific Regions. 
Reductions in services will impact refuges in Arizona, New 
Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, 
Guam and several Pacific islands. 
As a result of the cuts, environmental education programs for 
school children will be eliminated, there will be cuts in 
endangered species recovery programs, habitat management and 
law enforcement will be diminished. 
In the face of "increasing operating costs and increasing 
conservation needs," Chris Pease, chief of National Wildlife 
Refuges in the Southwest says the region will be eliminating 
38 positions over the next three years. 
Bobcat on New Mexico's Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge 

The Southwest workforce plan consists of a mix of cost-savings 
measures over a three year period to obtain a budget ratio of 
80 percent salary to 20 percent operating expenditures. 
"Permanent staff reductions are planned as personnel costs 
consume a hefty portion of the budget," Pease said. 
Staff reductions will occur through retirement, attrition and 
relocation, and staffing reductions will also occur in the 
Regional Office located in Albuquerque with the savings to be 
directed to the field stations, Pease explained. 
These reductions come on top of the 22 positions left vacant 
since 2004. The plan further states that "each subsequent year 
beyond Fiscal Year 2009 may require annual reductions of five 
to seven positions just to cover cost of living increases." 
The Pacific region contains 64 national wildlife refuges 
covering more than 3.5 million acres of public land and 
waters. 
According to the workforce plan that outlines the cuts, the 
Pacific region is leaving 32 positions vacant and will 
eliminate another 17 jobs by fiscal year 2009, resulting in a 
total of 49 eliminated positions. Because of these staffing 
cuts, 28 refuges, or 44 percent of the refuges in the region, 
will remain completely unstaffed and 21 refuges, or one-third 
of the refuges in the region, will experience further 
reductions. 
The plan calls for the elimination of almost a quarter of the 
biologists in the Pacific region, crippling the wildlife 
agency's ability to monitor and restore wildlife populations. 
One quarter of the staff that actively manages habitat will 
also be eliminated, causing over 40 invasive species control 
projects and wetland restoration projects to be reduced or 
abolished outright. 
Only six full-time law enforcement staff will remain in the 
entire Pacific region. 
The Columbia National Wildlife Refuge is situated within the 
Columbia Basin of central Washington 
Since 2001, funding for the National Wildlife Refuge System 
has increased from $300 million to $383 million in fiscal year 
2006, but the increase has been directed to specific 
priorities such as invasive species control, borderland 
security and maintenance needs at specific refuges, said 
Pease. 
"Our national wildlife refuges are literally crumbling before 
our eyes. Across the country we're seeing how the culmination 
of years of negligent funding devastates these special 
places," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of 
Wildlife. 
"The only solution to bolster and reinvigorate the country's 
irreplaceable wildlife refuge system is to provide adequate 
funding that is commensurate with the nationally significant 
benefits these lands provide to the American people," 
Schlickeisen said. "At the same time President [George W.] 
Bush is championing funds for our national parks, he should 
also push for adequate funding of another national treasure, 
the national wildlife refuges." 
Refuges are currently managed at a cost of less than $4 per 
acre. By comparison, the National Park System receives more 
than $20 per acre for management. 
Alarm bells warning of the funding crisis have been ringing 
for years. "The Refuge System already suffers from a crippling 
$3 billion backlog in top priority operations and maintenance 
needs," Michael Woodbridge, director of government affairs for 
the nonprofit National Wildlife Refuge Association told a 
Congressional hearing in July 2006. "Without modest funding 
increases from Congress, refuges will continue closing their 
gates, and the public will be the ones who pay the price." 
Staff member conducts an environmental education session at 
Oklahoma's Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge. 
The Southwest Region's workforce plan is part of larger effort 
nationally to strategically manage the nation's Refuge System. 
Each regional office is tasked with finding ways to balance 
salary and operational costs to maintain workable ratios. The 
other regions have not yet issued their workforce plans. 
"If the Service and the Refuge System do not act decisively 
now, it will spend the next few years reacting," said Pease. 
"By instituting these cost-saving measures, we can better 
address our conservation mission." 
The Southwest Region includes 45 refuges located in Arizona, 
New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas and contains 2.86 million acres 
of habitat that attracts a variety of wildlife. These refuges 
are part of the larger National Wildlife Refuge System that is 
managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Altogether, 
there are 547 refuges with nearly 100 million acres. 
Under the new plan, Southwest refuges will be classified into 
one of three tiers based on each refuge's habitat management 
needs, visitation, and law enforcement requirements. 
"We've created three strategic tiers of refuges which 
clarifies the roles that individual refuges play in terms of 
habitat management, visitation, and law enforcement needs, and 
have structured the staffing needs accordingly," said Pease. 
Tier 1 is composed of focus refuges, which tend to have the 
largest landholdings, diverse habitats, rare fish and wildlife 
species and offer extensive visitor services programs. They 
will be expected to have a full range of staff in a variety of 
disciplines and will support Tier 2 and Tier 3 stations. 
Tier 2 are the refuges targeted for staff reductions although 
some staff will remain to conduct basic refuge management and 
maintenance. Some visitor services will be offered such as 
wildlife viewing and interpretation and special events. 
Tier 3 are the unstaffed refuges and tend to be of a size that 
does not require extensive habitat manipulation to achieve 
wildlife objectives. While the refuges may be opened for 
visitors for special events or for self-directed tours, there 
will not be staff on-site. Staff from a neighboring Tier 1 or 
2 refuge will manage these refuges. 
Four refuges will be grouped into two complexes, and 
maintenance teams will be used to complete small construction 
projects. 
"We want to ensure a natural resource legacy for future 
generations. Regardless of future budget outcomes, these 
strategic decisions to better manage the workforce and 
prioritize refuge needs over the next three years are 
important to accomplishing the mission of the refuge System," 
said Pease. 
Changes by State: 
In Arizona, Focus Refuges, Tier 1, are Buenos Aires, Cabeza 
Prieta, Kofa/Imperial and Bill Williams. Kofa and Imperial 
will be combined into a complex and share many of the same 
staff. San Bernardino, Havasu and Cibola fall into Tier 2. 
Arizona's Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge where 
javelina, deer, coyotes, bobcats, and cougars are found along 
with neotropical migratory birds such as the yellow warbler, 
vermillion flycatcher, and summer tanager. 
Arizona will lose 16 percent of the workforce on its nine 
national wildlife refuges, which host over one million annual 
visitors. 
The biological program at Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, 
inhabited by many endangered species, including the 
southwestern Willow flycatcher, will continue to suffer 
without a biologist on staff as it is classed as Tier 2. 
Leslie Canyon Refuge, established to protect endangered fish, 
is classed as a Tier 3 and will have no on-site staff. 
In New Mexico, Bosque del Apache is the sole Tier 1 refuge. 
Two refuges in the northeast corner, Las Vegas and Maxwell, 
will share staff as a Tier 2 complex. Other Tier 2 refuges 
include Bitter Lake and San Andres. Grulla on the eastern 
border is a Tier 3 refuge. 
New Mexico will lose 20 percent of the workforce on its seven 
national wildlife refuges, which host over 225,000 annual 
visitors. Under the new plan, only one refuge will provide 
adequate biological services for wildlife and educational 
programs for visitors, while six refuges will have reduced 
staff or no staff. 
In Oklahoma, Salt Plans, Ozark Plateau and Wichita Mountains 
are classed as Focus Refuges. Sequoyah, Deep Fork, Little 
River, Tishomingo and Washita are Tier 2 while Optima is the 
only Tier 3 refuge. 
Oklahoma will lose 18 percent of the workforce on its nine 
national wildlife refuges, which host over two million annual 
visitors. 
Eliminating the refuge manager at Little River Refuge is 
expected to impact management of some of Oklahoma's last 
remaining bottomland hardwoods. 
On the 16,000 acre Tishomingo Refuge, which receives more than 
200,000 annual visitors, there will only be one law 
enforcement officer who will split his or her time with 
Hagerman Refuge in Texas, impacting resource protection and 
visitor safety. 
Texas has already complexed several of its refuges; these 
complexes are included as Focus Refuges. Focus Refuges include 
Laguna Atascosa, Lower Rio Grande Valley, Santa Ana, Aransas, 
Matagorda Island, Brazoria, San Bernard, Big Boggy, Anahuac, 
McFaddin, Texas Point, Moody, Attwater Prairie Chicken, and 
Balcones Canyonlands. 
Tier 2 includes Trinity River, Hagerman, Muleshoe, Caddo Lake 
and Buffalo Lake. Little Sandy and Neches River fall into the 
Tier 3 group. 
Texas will lose 11 percent of the workforce on its 21 national 
wildlife refuges, which host some one million annual visitors. 
Under the new plan, wildlife and visitors at seven Texas 
refuges will have reduced staff or no staff and minimal 
services. 
"Wildlife refuges are national treasures, home to some of our 
nation's most imperiled wildlife and critical to ensuring our 
nation's waterfowl remains healthy and abundant," said 
Schlickeisen. "Neglecting these refuges and cutting back on 
staff, services and programs puts the mission of the refuge 
system at risk. Congress needs to fund the refuge system and 
continue to invest in this country's wildlife heritage." 
An endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper in the Hakalau Forest 
National Wildlife Refuge, set aside in 1985 to protect and 
manage endangered forest birds and their rainforest habitat. 

Hawaii & the Pacific Islands will lose eight percent of the 
workforce on its 20 national wildlife refuges, which host more 
than three million annual visitors. The cuts will sharply 
reduce or eliminate habitat restoration and invasive species 
control programs on nearly 2 million acres of refuge lands, 
waters, atolls, and reefs, and abolish interpretive and 
education programs for the visiting public. 
Idaho will lose almost a third of the workforce on its seven 
national wildlife refuges, which host more than 50,000 annual 
visitors. The cuts will sharply reduce or eliminate habitat 
restoration and invasive species control programs on more than 
84,000 acres of refuge lands, and abolish interpretive and 
education programs for the visiting public, including area 
schoolchildren. 
Oregon will lose 18 percent of the workforce on its 15 
national wildlife refuges, which host more than 2 million 
annual visitors. The cuts will sharply reduce or eliminate 
habitat restoration and invasive species control programs on 
more than 1.1 million acres of refuge lands, and abolish 
interpretive and education programs for the visiting public, 
including area schoolchildren. 
Washington will lose over a quarter of the workforce on its 22 
national wildlife refuges, which host more than 2 million 
annual visitors. The cuts will sharply reduce or eliminate 
habitat restoration and invasive species control programs on 
343,000 acres of refuge lands, and abolish interpretive and 
education programs for the visiting public, including area 
schoolchildren. 





 

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