For the Bears and Birds of the Refuge System, Proposed Regulations Offer Hope

According to the White House, roughly 41 million acres — an area the size of Florida — have received new land protections during President Biden’s administration. The Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area — the 571st unit of the Refuge System — was created in Florida in March 2024. The administration shielded pristine Arctic habitat in Alaska from damaging development such as roads and oil and gas. And President Biden expanded and created new monuments in California and Nevada, protecting wildlife and cultural traditions.

Amidst these welcome developments, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposal to update its management policy and establish regulations to maintain the ecological integrity of the National Wildlife Refuge System, the only network of lands and waters devoted to wildlife conservation in the U.S.

What is BIDEH?  

If finalized, the Biological Integrity, Diversity, and Environmental Health — or BIDEH — regulations would protect bears, wolves and mountain lions from predator killing programs meant to artificially inflate prey numbers. In recognition of the harms row crops can inflict on native wildlife, there would be a presumption against farming on refuges and the use of pesticides would be better controlled. Refuge managers would also be given new tools to better address climate change, water disputes and invasive species. Overall, the regulations offer a commonsense framework rooted in principles of conservation biology.  

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Lisa Hupp/USFWS

Despite the good these regulations could do, the proposal has been met with resistance. Critics argue a “one-size-fits-all” approach to refuge management will take decisions out of the hands of local refuge managers. Yet the draft regulation was carefully written to thread that needle. While it states FWS will “prohibit” actions such as farming and predator control on refuges, in every case it defines generous carveouts to allow such practices where necessary to fulfill individual refuge purposes. Farming, for instance, may be used if necessary to provide food for birds on refuges created for waterfowl.  

The proposed rule thus only creates a default position for the Refuge System — the collective of nearly 600 refuges managed for wildlife conservation — that favors natural conditions and processes. It allows refuge managers to either wind down potentially harmful practices or to continue them if they are supported by written analysis.  

This is just as Congress intended.  

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David Hinkel/USFWS

The Refuge System’s Management History  

For decades, the Refuge System was a management free-for-all. A damning 1990s government report documented grazing, logging and other activities occurring on over 90% of refuges. In remarking upon the need for change, Senator Lindsay Graham recognized “[r]efuge managers, despite their best efforts, have often been susceptible to outside pressure to allow these damaging activities.”  

A series of lawsuits, led by Defenders of Wildlife, The Wilderness Society and the National Audubon Society, helped set the stage for legislative reform, which was ultimately realized through the Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 — a visionary law that reined in the discretion of refuge managers and prioritized the conservation of not one species, but all. Chief among the law’s mandates was that FWS “maintain the biological integrity, diversity and environmental health” of refuges. Congress has yet to impose on a federal land management agency a clearer, science-driven mandate.  

The Present Refuge System

Today, the Refuge System protects tropical and temperate rainforests, coral reefs and wetlands, and prairies and tundra, spanning all 50 states and encompassing U.S. waters in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In its folds live some of the world's rarest wildlife. The red wolf, found nowhere else on the planet, hunts amongst the pines and wetland forests of Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina. The California condor, North America’s largest bird, can be scoped riding the thermals above Hopper Mountain NWR, California. Black-footed ferrets, largely extinguished from the Great Plains, prey upon prairie dogs in the shadows of bison on Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR in Colorado. And the frosted flatwood salamander finds oasis among the pines and ponds of St. Marks NWR, Florida, one of three remaining breeding sites.  

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Mike Budd/USFWS

As the Refuge System has evolved, so has the science. Overwhelming evidence now demonstrates predators are good for ecosystems, pesticides are generally harmful and farming, while it may be beneficial for huntable waterfowl and deer, can otherwise diminish biodiversity and undermine the mission of the Refuge System.  

The Refuge System’s Future

As the global extinction crisis accelerates, protecting species and their habitats is more important than ever. Despite its relatively small land base, one-third of federally listed endangered and threatened species rely on the Refuge System, highlighting the need to ensure management is based on sound science. We applaud FWS for upholding its mandate and implore the agency to hold the line by finalizing strong, science-based regulations. Only then can we ensure our Refuge System meets the conservation challenges of the twenty-first century and remains a network of lands where wildlife must come first.