Defenders of Wildlife Blog

The National Wildlife Refuge System is the only system of federal lands in the U.S. dedicated primarily to conserving wildlife and their habitats. But what happens when Congress doesn’t give our refuges the funding they need? Defenders of Wildlife and 20 other organizations that make up the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE) released a report this week that sheds light on that very question.

Restoring America’s Wildlife Refuges 2011: Assets for All Americans points to a long history of inadequate funding that has left the Refuge System struggling to fulfill its conservation mission. For example, in 2010, the Refuge System:

• had an average of only $3.36 to spend per acre to manage and protect more than 150 million acres of land and water.
• had to leave 87% of the 2.5 million acres overrun with invasive plants untreated.
• could only afford to employ 213 of the recommended 845 law enforcement officers needed to protect refuge resources and visitors.
• faced a more than $3.3 billion backlog of important operations and maintenance projects.    

Refuge funding is vital to protecting habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers and other wildlife

Though still far below what’s needed, small budget increases over the past few years have offered hope for our refuges. Unfortunately, some members of Congress want to turn back the clock on funding to 2008. That would mean cutting $69 million from the Refuge System’s already stretched budget, forcing habitat management projects to be scaled back further and critical staff positions to be eliminated. That’s why CARE is urging Congress to maintain a steady investment in the Refuge System and keep these special places on the right path to protect America’s wildlife. 

Learn more:

Read the full report here.

Watch this video by Defenders’ Federal Lands Director Peter Nelson to find out how funding our refuges helps protect the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.

Funding Refuges to Save Woodpeckers

Wolves and other wildlife under threat by Congress

This week, Defenders along with 34 other conservation organizations delivered the Green Budget 2012 to Congressional offices. The document is a blueprint for how we can cut spending and sift out the areas where investment continues to be the wise decision.

For example, each year oil and coal companies receive $60 billion through tax subsidies, despite the fact that they continue to make record profits. Cut!

On the other hand, programs that keep our wildlife and wild places healthy underpin an outdoor recreation industry that contributes $730 billion to our economy each year. Investing in those areas is, as Defenders President Rodger Schlickeisen says, “not only a personal and moral responsibility but an economic no-brainer too”.

…they are using the budget deficit as an excuse to advance an extreme ideological agenda.

But while the budget battle takes center stage, an effort mounted by U.S. House leadership could potentially do untold damage to our environment. And even more troublingly, they are using the budget deficit as an excuse to advance an extreme ideological agenda.

The spending bill passed by the House and currently being deliberated by the Senate (H.R.1) also contained numerous anti-environment amendments, totally disconnected from budget issues. These bad policy riders contain body-blow attacks on core environmental laws we need to keep our air and water clean.

One bad policy rider blocks all Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding for greenhouse gas pollution control. Another prevents EPA from protecting and restoring waterways in over 20 million acres of wetlands and habitat.

And as it stands, the bill includes attacks on the Endangered Species Act that would effectively remove all protections for most wolves in the Northern Rockies and deprive California’s Bay-Delta of a sustainable life-giving water supply.

Everyone understands that money is tight and tough choices must be made if we are going to reduce the budget deficit. And we need Congress to make sure that the cuts they make are smart cuts. But exploiting this budget process to advance a long-held anti environment agenda? That’s just wrong.

Learn more about why H.R.1 threatens the future of American wildlife.

Take action now: Urge your senators to oppose efforts to eliminate vital protections for healthy wildlife, air and water.

On the 30-day anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that has led to what may be one of the worst environmental disasters this country has ever seen, Defenders of Wildlife takes a look at 20 ways the oil industry and our federal government have failed to keep us safe from the dangers that offshore oil and gas drilling poses to wildlife and coastal habitats. We also recommend 10 ways that Congress and the administration can make changes that could help prevent future oil catastrophes and mitigate the impacts of the current crisis.

Read the full story

This entry is posted by guest blogger Tim Male, vice president of Conservation Policy for Defenders of Wildlife.

Yesterday, the White House announced a set of priorities for emergency supplemental funding associated with the ongoing Gulf oil disaster.  The legislative package laudably focuses on steps to reassure consumers that seafood coming from the Gulf is safe, food aid and jobs assistance for people and communities affected by the oil spill, and raising liability caps and a 1 cent per gallon increase in the excise tax on oil companies to fund the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund that will eventually repay the cost to the taxpayer to clean up this mess.

However, on the day when the government announced that the first dead marine mammals affected by the spill have washed up on Gulf beaches, more needs to be done for wildlife. Read the full story