Are refuges in Trouble?
There are 542 refuges in the U.S. comprising 95 million acres of protected land. Individual refuges serve as a multitude of purposes, including protecting endangered plants and animals and their habitats, preserving wilderness areas, providing outdoor recreational and educational opportunities, and providing lands and waters for traditional uses such as hunting and fishing. One would think that from the overall ownership of land and wonderful activities that the refuges provide, animals that are threatened or endangered would be totally protected. However, it takes a lot more than one would think to keep these refuges up and running. The biggest problems that our government is facing are lack of funds and trained personnel. These two problems have led to a diverse number of complications among the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) and the Department of the Interior.
While money doesn’t make one happy, it does, however, make the world go round. Every branch in the government receives a certain portion of money, which supposedly is enough to adequately fund everything to keep the agency operating. The problem is that the overall budget that the NWRS receives is very small. This alone creates many problems within its already fragile system.
The government funding necessary to conduct research and management programs is inadequate for many species. This lack of funding often has life and death consequences on numerous species. However, public support for financing the protection of threatened and endangered species has increased over the last few decades. Much of the habitat restoration funding comes from non-profit organizations and non taxable groups. These individuals do a lot of fundraising and donating of all sorts to keep wildlife refuges going. The NWRS refers to these groups as “Refuge Friends” and they are held in high regard by many refuge employees (Wildlife Society, 2004).
The general public also helps out with many donations and other types of needed services. Much of the manual labor done on refuges can be attributed to contractors or volunteers. Since the NWRS cannot afford to hire new employees community volunteers are always a great help. Many volunteers will actually go to their local wildlife refuge and approach them with a plan of action that they dev...
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... my own eyes. The lack of funding causes cuts and problems to arise while employees work in politically heated conditions. When someone says, “I am only one person what can I do?”, my answer is: use what power you can to volunteer your time to a cause that is worthy of needing help like the NWRS. Because knowledge is power and a biologically diverse environment is worth it.
Bibliography
• Williams, V. (n.d.). retrieved May 02, 2004, from http://www.rep.org.html.
• The Wildlife Society, (n.d.). retrieved May 02, 2004, from http://www.wildlife.org.
• , . (2003, June 28).Stop hunting in wildlife refuges. Billings Gazette, pp. .
• (1999). Final policy on the national wildlife refuge system and compensatory mitigation under the section 10/404 program . retrieved May 02, 2004, from www.epa.gov.
• National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, (n.d.). retrieved May 03, 2004, from Applying for a Grant Web site: http://www.nfwf.org.
Ever since 1973, when the Endangered Species Act came into being, conservationists and private landowners have been debating over whether to preserve the habitats of many endangered species found in unprotected areas (Ligon et al, 1986). Increasing levels of human development has led to the cutting of old-growth forests and construction of roads and other physical barriers to wildlife. These activities have greatly contributed to the fragmentation of wildlife habitat, which has had detrimental effects on the population structure and survivorship of the affected area’s indigenous species. One species that has been affected by habitat fragmentation is the red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis), a nonmigratory bird with a home range covering most of the southeastern United States (Roise et al, 1990). Habitat fragmentation has led to the loss of genetic variability, nesting sites, and suitable population sizes to support cooperative breeding requirements. These factors have been responsible for the precipitous decline of the red-cockaded woodpecker. Because the red-cockaded woodpecker provides important ecological and economic benefits to both humans and the environment, we should strongly consider enacting a conservation plan for this species.
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United States. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2010. Web. .
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Estimates are that at the turn of the twentieth century over two million wild horses roamed free in the western United States. However, having no protection from their primary predator, man, by the 1970’s there numbers had dwindled to less than thirty thousand. In 1971, after a massive public uproar, Congress by a unanimous vote enacted the “Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act” (Act) that characterizes wild horses and burros as national treasures and provides for their protection.
Committee on Senate Energy and National Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. 3 June 2003: ESBCO. Mission Viejo Library., Mission Viejo, CA. 31 July 2005. http://web31.epnet.com/citation.
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States. National Park Service. (2014, May, 12). Nature & Science. National Parks Service. Retrieved May 19, 2014, from http://www.nps.gov/yose/naturescience/index.htm
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