But the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement, a diverse group of 21 conservation, sportsmen, recreation and scientific organizations ranging from the National Audubon Society to the National Rifle Association, suggests that downsizing at the Bison Range is but a small window into what it calls a national crisis.
The nation's wildlife refuge system is operating at half the budget it needs, according to a new report by CARE.
The National Bison Range is one of 547 wildlife refuges in America. They range from the half-acre Mille Lacs National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota to the 19-million-acre Yukon Flats NWR in Alaska.
And they're all under the same gun as the Bison Range, according to Evan Hirsche, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association.
“The Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement is made up of groups with historical disagreements on many issues, but the one thing they can all agree on is that the national refuge system is massively underfunded,” Hirsche says. “The refuge system is dying on the vine.”
The report predicts that unless Congress increases funding, the refuge system will be unable to effectively control or eliminate aggressive invasive species, enforce safety regulations and protect refuge visitors, manage habitat for the benefit of wildlife and wildlife watchers, and implement conservation measures for threatened and endangered species.
“Due to persistent funding shortfalls, the refuge system has been forced to restructure its work force and compromise its mission,” the report states.
The 40 million people who annually visit refuges, CARE says, increasingly find shortened or eliminated visitor center hours and closed roads, dilapidated viewing platforms and hiking trails, eliminated biological and educational programs, and reduced or canceled hunting and fishing events.
For a while, an annual funding agreement with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to perform some of the work here made the Bison Range immune to the cutbacks going on nationwide.
But when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service abruptly canceled the contract in December amid abundant finger-pointing by both sides, the Bison Range became susceptible. While negotiations for a new funding agreement never got off the ground - an FWS spokesman said his agency never received any direction from its overseer, the Department of Interior, on how to proceed - the service announced the Bison Range staff would be cut from 17 full-time equivalent positions to 6.3, and that the bison herd would be reduced as well.
CSKT officials say they were told by Fish and Wildlife Service personnel that the herd would be cut from 325 to 100. The FWS denies that, and says no decision has been made on how many bison will remain at the Mission Valley refuge.
Meantime, a Polson architect, Paul Bishop, announced plans to form the Friends of the National Bison Range (the first meeting is Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Bison Range picnic grounds). Bishop indicated the group would fight the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to slash the staff and herd in Moiese.
There are approximately 250 similar refuge-backing groups around the country, and Hirsche - whose organization helps them lobby Congress - says he applauds the idea of Friends of the National Bison Range, but questions the methods.
“It's a very unorthodox arrangement, for a friends group to have an adversarial tone at the outset,” Hirsche says. “Most friends groups - virtually all of them - start with an extensive discussion with refuge management about the needs of the refuge. You want a collaborative relationship with the Fish and Wildlife Service, and if you don't have that communication, it's a recipe for disaster.”
“Before your group adopts an adversarial stance against the FWS, I would ask that you take the time to meet with them, learn about the legal framework under which the refuge is required to operate, share your ideas about what the group would like to accomplish, and develop a better understanding of the needs of the Bison Range and National Wildlife Refuge System,” Hirsche wrote Bishop in a letter mailed Friday.
Bishop could not be reached for comment.
Hirsche says the National Wildlife Refuge Association strongly endorses tribal involvement at the range, one of the stated goals of Bishop's new group.
“The tribes have an excellent reputation for wildlife management, and the range is clearly a part of their cultural and geographical community,” Hirsche says. “The Fish and Wildlife Service is an outstanding organization with tremendous experience. A successful outcome will need to involve both. I would hope leveler heads prevail, and we get past the heated rhetoric of what has been a divisive debate.”
CARE's report says the refuge system needs an additional $15 million a year just to maintain its present services by keeping up with inflation.
It recommends a $55 million increase, to $451.5 million, with continued increases until the budget reaches $765 million a year by 2013, if Congress wants the Fish and Wildlife Service to perform its congressionally mandated duties.
The report says there is a $1.23 billion backlog in operational needs in the
100-million-acre system, and a $1.53 billion backlog in maintenance needs.
“Years of flat funding, combined with rising fixed costs, have forced the FWS to develop and implement regional work force restructuring plans that eliminate hundreds of staff positions, completely de-staff some refuges, cut educational and recreation programs, and severely curtail services nationwide,” the report says.
“Already, about a third of all wildlife refuges have no staff at all, and the Fish and Wildlife Service's regional work force plans have identified scores of additional refuges that are going to close their gates or have on-site staff removed,” says U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis. “Not only does this hurt the hunters and anglers that can no longer gain access to these areas, but lack of staffing can also cause biological operations to cease and invasive species to expand unchecked. We cannot allow our refuges, some of the last remaining areas of pristine wilderness in America, to deteriorate.”
Kind has formed the Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus, which has grown to about 135 members, according to Hirsche.
The Bison Range isn't alone, according to the CARE report.
“Under the new work force restructuring plan, Montana staffing will be reduced by 16 percent from 2004 levels,” the report says. “With the permanent loss of managers, biologists and maintenance personnel, Montana refuges will be forced to cut educational programs, close offices, allow equipment and visitor infrastructure to fall into disrepair, and significantly reduce biological management and monitoring of endangered species at certain refuges.”
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
On the range
To read the complete Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement report, visit http://www.fundrefuges.org and click on the CARE logo.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)