Fish and Wildlife Review Misses the Mark, Historic Opportunity to Strengthen Refuge System

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today released the results of its long-anticipated review of the National Wildlife Refuge System. In response, Defenders of Wildlife issued a snapshot report detailing a severe and expansive crisis, which the FWS review downplayed.  

“The FWS review nibbled at the edges of the crisis but ultimately missed a historic opportunity to improve the Refuge System,” said Christian Hunt, national wildlife refuges and parks program director at Defenders of Wildlife. “The reality is that not a single refuge is fully staffed and over half have no staff on site, leaving our most prized habitats in a state of decay. Simply reorganizing, increasing efficiencies and cutting red tape is not enough. FWS also needs substantially more funding and investment, which the report failed to clearly underscore.”

FWS examined the Refuge System’s structure, current resources and opportunities for improvement, among other internal and external factors. 

“Although it offers useful and informative findings, the review speaks loudly for what it lacks,” added Hunt. “The Refuge System is an essential safe haven for endangered species, yet the review did not even acknowledge much less attempt to improve conditions for imperiled wildlife. Instead, a lopsided emphasis on grazing and logging, coupled with the pressure on refuge managers to accommodate those uses, undermined what could have been an important and impartial review.”

The Refuge System is the country’s largest network of public lands and waters. Between 2010 and 2025, the number of full-time refuge staff plummeted by roughly 30%. Since taking office, the Trump administration has made the problem worse by pushing out hundreds more Refuge System employees.

To detail these impacts, Defenders of Wildlife produced a snapshot report, Wildlife Left Wanting: A Staffing Crisis in the National Wildlife Refuge System. Within the report, interviews with refuge staff, featuring more than 30 refuges across the country, paint a sobering picture of impacts caused by systemic underfunding and short staffing, revealing details the FWS review did not acknowledge. 

“The Refuge System has never been given the resources it needs, but what has long been a challenge is now a full-blown crisis,” said Nathan Marcy, senior policy analyst at Defenders of Wildlife and author of the report. “The interviews included in our report paint a dire picture: FWS has abandoned management projects, closed visitor centers and shuttered community programs, sending refuges countrywide into disrepair. Congress must step up and fund refuges in the way that they need, otherwise wildlife will continue to suffer the consequences.” 

The National Wildlife Refuge System is the only network of federal lands managed for wildlife. At least 444 of the 573 wildlife refuges support one or more federally threatened or endangered species, and roughly 513 ESA-listed species — nearly one third of the total, including the Red Wolf and Florida panther — rely on refuges. 

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