WASHINGTON -- A coalition of wildlife organizations, conservation groups and others released a report Thursday warning that proposed congressional budget cuts threaten the integrity of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The report from the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement says that unless Congress provides adequate funding for the refuge system, the economic, conservation and educational benefits refuges provide could be in jeopardy.
"The 553 national wildlife refuges that make up the 150 million-acre refuge system are critical to the health of human communities and to the vitality of local economies," Evan Hirsche, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association and chairman of the CARE coalition, said in a statement. "Every federal dollar invested in the refuge system returns, on average, $4 to local communities. This is no time to cripple a critical federal program that provides such an impressive return on investment."
North Dakota has 15 national wildlife refuges, along with five wetland management districts and one national game preserve. Minnesota has 13 national wildlife refuges and seven wetland management districts.
Every U.S. state and territory has a national wildlife refuge within an hour's drive of most metropolitan areas. The refuges:
ADVERTISEMENT
_Attract about 45 million visitors each year, with a range of activities that include wildlife-watching, hunting, fishing, photography, hiking, canoeing, kayaking and environmental education.
_Protect clean air and safe drinking water for nearby communities.
_Generate more than $1.7 billion for local economies and create nearly 27,000 U.S. jobs annually.
History of shortfalls
The report, "Restoring America's Wildlife Refuges 2011: Assets for All Americans," notes the refuge system has been underfunded since its inception in 1903, and the diversion of personnel to respond to last year's Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has made it even harder to keep up. The report cites the need for adequate federal funding to:
_Address a crippling operations and maintenance backlog of more than $3.3 billion.
_Tackle chronic understaffing, which has left more than 36 percent of refuges without any on-site staff.
_Address a severe shortage of law enforcement personnel that leaves only 213 officers, when 845 are needed, to patrol the system's 150 million acres, even as both visitation and crime are increasing.
ADVERTISEMENT
_Treat more than 2.5 million acres of refuge lands overrun with non-native, invasive plants, and combat nearly 4,000 invasive animal populations that ravage millions more acres -- problems that can spread beyond refuge boundaries.
Funding increases for the refuge system in fiscal years 2008 through 2010 helped address some of the shortfalls. To maintain that progress, CARE has urged Congress to fund the refuge system's operations and maintenance budgets at $511 million in FY 2012 -- an increase of $8 million from 2010 funding.
Some members of Congress have proposed cutting budgets back to FY 2008 levels to deal with the nation's fiscal challenges. But doing so, the report said, "would devastate a system already under stress."
"No good business leader would allow their company's capital assets to deteriorate," the report said. "Similarly, Congress should not pursue a budget strategy that would cause the further deterioration of assets that belong to all Americans. Such an approach simply does not make good business sense and will only cost taxpayers more in the future.
"Protecting our National Wildlife Refuge System with a strong investment today will continue to pay returns to the American people many times over."
On the Web: The full report
