Refuges need relief

Five years of deep cuts have been catastrophic for our nation’s iconic National Wildlife Refuge System.

America’s National Wildlife Refuge System is the envy of the world. Refuges are home to many of our nation’s most breathtaking natural landscapes and its most iconic species. Made up of approximately 150 million acres of lands and waters, there is at least one national wildlife refuge in every state and territory, and within an hour’s drive of most major American cities. The refuge system generates an astonishing 32.3 billion each year in natural services, such as storm buffering and water purification for local communities. Refuges also benefit communities through recreation and tourism, pumping more than $2.4 billion into our economy each year, supporting more than 35,000 jobs and contributing an average of $4.87 in economic output for every appropriated federal dollar. Simply put, the refuge system is a national treasure. But it’s also got a very national problem: it’s been severely underfunded for the past five years.

Wildlife refuges provide important economic support, as well as vital habitat for vulnerable wildlife.

A memo developed recently by James W. Kurth, the chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System, describes the ongoing fallout from budget cuts since FY 2010 – an update to a similar memo last year. According to Kurth, refuges are continuing to struggle.

The cuts have been so drastic that even under President Obama’s proposed budget, when adjusted for inflation, funding for refuges in 2015 would still be $80 million less than before the budget was cut. The news gets worse and worse the closer you look. The proposal would put the refuge system’s maintenance budget at 15.5% less than 2010, even though the system itself has actually grown. Visitor services (which provides for staffing and education at refuge system visitor centers for the more than 45 million wildlife enthusiasts who come to the refuges each year) would be 20% less than 2010. Refuge law enforcement (responsible for protecting wildlife, habitat and refuge visitors) would be at 10% less than 2010. And the refuge planning budget, which supports land protection and conservation planning, would take one of the biggest hits of all: an 80% drop.

Some of the most alarming cuts are those that have been made to fire management. Fires are consuming more acreage every decade, and large wildfires have become more prevalent thanks in no small part to climate change. To help minimize the danger of out-of-control wildfires, and to help maintain fire-dependent habitat, the refuge system also has to conduct prescribed fire projects. But bigger and bigger bites are taken out of the budget each year, and the FY 2015 budget request would grant the program 32% less than FY 2010. We just can’t afford to cut firefighting jobs and resources when massive fires are decimating our natural lands and communities every year.

Funding for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its refuge system has been waning for a long time. The recession and subsequent federal budget cuts, not to mention the debacle of the sequester in 2013, have taken a serious toll on conservation efforts. Wildlife and habitat protection programs are starved for cash. This could have dire consequences for the plants and animals that need Endangered Species Act recovery programs, local communities that benefit from refuge tourism, and native wildlife under siege from invasive species.

A walkway at Oregon’s Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge

A report released this past summer by the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE), describes the incredible resources that depend on a functioning refuge system, from marine monuments in the Western Pacific that protect millions of seabirds, green and hawksbill sea turtles, monk seals and more, to the UL Bend Refuge in Montana, site of a landmark reintroduction program for the endangered black-footed ferret. The report also highlights the current funding status and needs for refuges and the higher funding levels necessary for optimal management and service.

The bottom line is this: Even the proposed budget falls $80 million short of what the refuge system would need to operate in 2010. And today’s refuge system is larger, and the wildlife that depend on it face even more threats. Time and time again, refuge managers and staff have scraped by on a ghost of a budget, but it can’t, and shouldn’t, go on forever. Congress and the president must do a better job in providing for this unique crown jewel of American conservation.

You can do your part by contacting your representatives and telling them that you want funding for our national wildlife refuge system to be made a priority! Together, we can continue to work to make sure that message is heard loud and clear on Capitol Hill.

Haley McKey is a Communications Associate at Defenders of Wildlife