The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will cut 565 of its staff on national wildlife refuges nationwide by 2009, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Several years of stagnant or declining budgets have exacerbated a backlog in refuge operations and maintenance of more than $2.5 billion, forcing the dramatic 20-percent reduction in staff.

The Service personnel actions are part of regional workforce restructuring plans that not only eliminate refuge staff, but also cut back on refuge programs and even close refuges in response to persistent and projected budget shortfalls. To date, five of the Service's seven regions have released staff-reduction plans, including plans for two regions?the Pacific and Southwest?released this month.

The Pacific region of the National Wildlife Refuge System, which consists of 64 refuges encompassing more than 3.5 million acres, will have reduced field staffing at refuges by 49.5 positions from fiscal years 2005 to 2009. Over this five-year period, refuge staffing will be reduced by 29 percent in Idaho, 28 percent in Washington, 18 percent in Oregon, and 8 percent in Hawaii and the other Pacific Islands. The Service reports that these staff reductions will result in scaling back and, in some cases, eliminating biological-monitoring projects, invasive species-control programs, habitat-restoration projects, interpretive activities, environmental education programs and facility maintenance.

The Southwest region will eliminate 38 positions during the next three years on its 45 refuges, which consist of 2.86 million acres in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. In New Mexico, only one refuge will provide adequate biological and educational programs to wildlife and visitors, while six refuges will suffer the effects of reduced or no staff. For instance, staff cuts at the Bitter Lake refuge will hamper efforts to manage adequately its water habitats, which are surrounded by a harsh, dry environment. In Oklahoma, the loss of the refuge manager at Little River refuge will make it extremely difficult to manage properly some of that state's last remaining bottomland hardwoods.

To help reduce refuge staff losses and other cuts to refuge operations and maintenance, the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE)?a diverse coalition of 21 wildlife, sporting, conservation and scientific organizations that represent a national constituency numbering more than 5 million?is recommending that Congress provide $451.5 million for these purposes in fiscal year 2008 and increase funding nearly $1 billion by 2013. An effort to support the fiscal year 2008 CARE request is being led by Representatives Ron Kind, Jim Saxton, Mike Thompson and Michael Castle, who are the cochairs of the Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus.

Information on the Service's Pacific and Southwest region workforce reduction plans may be found at www.fws.gov/pacific/refuges/workforce_planning/index.html and www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/index.html.