PUBLIC LANDS: Interior to unveil plan for growing refuge system
Phil Taylor, E&E reporter
Published: Wednesday, January 29, 2014
The Interior Department will soon release a draft policy to guide the growth of the National Wildlife Refuge System in the face of climate change, ecological threats and tight budgets.
The agency tomorrow will announce the release of a draft strategic growth policy that will spell out how the system prioritizes land acquisitions and the conservation of endangered species, migratory birds and waterfowl.
Since 1903, when President Theodore Roosevelt established Florida's Pelican Island as the first national wildlife refuge, the system has grown to 150 million acres and more than 560 refuges, with at least one in every state.
The National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act in 1997 tasked the Fish and Wildlife Service to "plan and direct the continued growth" of refuges to ensure best use of limited resources.
"This draft policy instructs the Refuge System to focus its protection measures on priority conservation features in order to ensure that our limited resources are directed to make the greatest contribution to the conservation of species in a strategic, cost-effective, and transparent manner," the agency said in a Federal Register notice to be published tomorrow.
The draft policy emphasizes the need to consider future climate change and stressors like habitat fragmentation and invasive species when planning acquisitions and other projects and to consider mitigation steps to ensure projects succeed.
It requires projects to be arranged in a "geographically efficient manner to safeguard ecological processes across the landscape" while complementing the resiliency of surrounding lands.
"We cannot fulfill our mission in the face of unparalleled challenges related to climate and non-climate stressors unless we provide consistent direction for adding lands and waters to the system in a science-based, cost-effective, and transparent manner," the agency said.
The draft policy, which will be open to public comment, will become part of the FWS manual.
According to the draft, the strategic acquisition of lands is increasingly important amid a changing climate, rising development pressure and real estate prices, and new opportunities to collaborate with conservation partners.
Refuge advocates, including sportsmen and wildlife experts, recently warned that funding for the refuge system is in danger of backsliding, threatening future refuge jobs and efforts like invasive species removal and prescribed fire (E&E Daily, Nov. 6, 2013).
The omnibus appropriations bill passed by Congress this month funds refuges at $472 million. That level was a 4 percent bump above 2013 sequestered levels but still $27 million short of the president's request and down from a peak of $503 million in fiscal 2010.
Growth and enhancements of the refuge system in large part depend on funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which allows the agency to purchase new lands and sign conservation easements with private landowners, including farmers and ranchers, as well as the North American Wetlands Conservation Act.
Unlike national parks, refuges can be established either by Congress or through administrative action.
The House Natural Resources Committee last summer passed H.R. 638 by Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), which would strip Interior's authority to establish new refuges.
Fleming at the time argued that Fish and Wildlife "is incapable of effectively managing what they already own" and that new refuges without congressional oversight place "huge new financial burdens on our taxpayers."
