GAO Finds Administration Continues to Endanger National Wildlife Refuge System

Just five short years after the Bush Administration celebrated the centennial of America's National Wildlife Refuge System, calling its future bright, the Administration is instead allowing the system to die a slow death by drastically cutting the budget and the workforce for refuges across the country, charged Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans Chairwoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU). Citing a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today, Bordallo said the Administration is endangering the future of the only system of federal lands devoted exclusively to wildlife conservation.

"It appears that insufficient funding has had a ripple effect across the Refuge System, forcing the Fish and Wildlife Service to further scale back operations at many refuges, or even close refuges to public use altogether," said Bordallo. "Perhaps most disturbing is law enforcement operations are woefully inadequate to cover a system of public lands that includes some of the most rugged and isolated terrain in the United States."

Bordallo, Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), co-founder of the National Wildlife Refuge Caucus, and Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, requested the GAO investigation last year in response to concerns about the Refuge System's growing operations and maintenance budget backlogs.

The GAO found that between 2003 and 2007, habitat management and visitor services at some of the 585 refuges comprising the National Wildlife Refuge System suffered as regional offices cut staff and prioritized facility maintenance to accommodate dwindling annual budgets. Up to 20 percent of fish and wildlife habitats were in poor condition in 2007 and environmental education and interpretation, two key visitor service programs, were considered poor quality at one-third of refuges, according to staff surveys analyzed by GAO.

Funding and staffing shortfalls were exacerbated by new challenges posed by external factors such as climate change, invasive species, drought, and habitat fragmentation. The report also emphasized threats to public safety, highlighting that an additional 200 officers are needed just to reach the minimum necessary to adequately protect refuge resources and visitors.

The GAO concludes that it will be difficult for the Refuge System to continue to fulfill its statutory mission and objectives unless additional attention and resources are devoted to the System. Another report issued in June by Management Systems International mirrored GAO's findings, giving the System a mediocre overall grade.

"For years I have heard from the refuge managers and friends groups in my district the devastating effects insufficient budgets have had on refuges at home and across the country," said Kind. "By documenting on a national scale the effects of years of underfunding, I hope these two reports will help provide a blueprint for moving the Refuge System forward, and generate the urgency and support in Congress to do so."

The report, "Wildlife Refuges: Changes in Funding, Staffing, and Other Factors Create Concerns about Future Sustainability", will be available on the GAO's Web site later today at: http://www.gao.gov/.

Source