Refuges Need Funding

What a difference a year can make. Last March, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton had this to say at a centennial celebration for the National Wildlife Refuge System: “On this historic occasion, we invite every American to discover a wildlife refuge near their home and to join with us in protecting these natural treasures for the next 100 years.” A year later, the funding for the nation’s 542 refuges, including 10 in Maine, is so precarious that a reserve in Maine may be closed to public access. It will be hard for the public to discover a refuge if a “closed” sign is hanging up.

Already, 200 refuges nationwide have no staff. The Sunkhaze Meadow refuge in Milford covers more than 10,000 acres yet has only four employees to manage the land, tend trails and protect an area that is home to 200 birds and the state’s second largest peat bog.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the refuges, has been flat funded for years. That means the agency has actually fallen behind because operating costs have increased while its funding has not. For example, Congress recently passed a 4 percent pay increase for all civil service employees. Many agency budgets, however, were not increased by 4 percent. The budget for fiscal 2005, which starts in October, is expected to have a $1.5 million shortfall for the Northeast region and the situation is expected to be worse in 2006.

“With 6 million visitors annually, refuges in the Northeast simply cannot sustain continued funding cuts. It would be a great loss if one of Maine’s treasured wildlife refuges were forced to close as a result of the funding cuts,” Sen. Susan Collins wrote to Secretary Norton recently, urging that the administration rethink its proposed budget.

Employees are already being shifted to the highest-priority refuges around the country. That has left Maine’s refuges short staffed. An acting manager oversees both the Moosehorn Refuge in Washington County and the Aroostook Refuge, several hours north. An environmental educator position at Petit Manan Refuge, off the coast, has been vacant for two years. This position is necessary, not only to help visitors enjoy the refuge, but to ensure that they don’t harm the habitat of migratory birds.

Against this backdrop, it is hard to understand a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to increase the Petit Manan Refuge by buying up 87 additional islands. As development increases along the coast and on Maine’s islands, preserving these islands for wildlife habitat and human recreation is a worthy goal, but when the government can’t take care of the land it already has, it is hard to understand why it wants to acquire more.

Refuges, not as glamorous as their national park cousins, need attention and funding too.