NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE MANAGERS EXPRESS CONCERNS

A survey of national wildlife refuge managers by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) indicates that wildlife refuge budget cuts are crippling conservation and compromising wildlife law enforcement and visitor safety.

According to the PEER survey, an overwhelming percentage of refuge managers are worried that the nation’s 100-year-old, 100 million acre system of wildlife refuges is in trouble. PEER received surveys back from more than half (52%) of the 337 managers overseeing the 545 refuges and 37 wetlands management areas across the country.

• More than nine in ten (94%) say the situation is deteriorating and that “base funding (salaries and fixed expenses) at my refuge is declining in real terms”;
• Nearly two in three (62%) conclude that the refuge system is not “currently accomplishing its missions.”
• More than two in three (72%) estimate that “staffing levels for my refuge fall [more than 25%] below its core requirements”;
• Two out of three (66%) agree that the practice of “complexing” or consolidating refuges “is leaving refuge units basically un-staffed.”

As one refuge manger wrote in the essay portion of the survey, “Erosion of staffing is killing us.” Another added. “Currently, the greatest factor negatively impacting our station is lack of funding.” Substantial percentages also claim these cuts are negatively affecting both visitor safety and protection of wildlife and habitats from poaching, excessive take and other law violations.

With little or no support staff, more than three in four (86%) managers estimate that they are able to spend less than half of their time doing “conservation work, as opposed to purely administrative tasks.”

The deteriorating fiscal situation appears to be fueling a growing pessimism amongst refuge staff:

• More than two in three (67%) are no longer “optimistic about the future of the refuge system.”
• A similar percentage (65%) rates morale as either poor or “at an all time low” (26%).”
• A strong majority (57%) lack “confidence in the current leadership of the Fish & Wildlife Service.”
• Not a single refuge manager registers strong confidence in agency leadership.
• There is growing sentiment in favor of removing the refuge system from the Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS).
• Nearly half (43%) calling for creation of a separate agency.
• Significantly, two in three (66%) believe that resources “for my refuge are diverted to meet other (FWS) needs.”

The Blue Goose Alliance, a national non-profit conservation organization, concurs with the refuge managers calling for a separate agency. The Alliance mission is to create a National Wildlife Refuge Service. See its web site at: http://www.bluegoosealliance.org/

See the full results of the PEER refuge manager survey at:
http://www.peer.org/docs/nwr/07_5_2_survey.pdf