A new report commissioned for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), reveals that investments in natural resource conservation have a real impact on local jobs and economies.

The first phase of the report, titled “The Economics Associated with Outdoor Recreation, Natural Resources Conservation and Historic Preservation in the United States,”   http://www.fws.gov/refuges/news/pdfs/TheEconomicValueofOutdoorRecreation[1].pdf, completed in September 2011, found that the economic value of all U.S. natural resource conservation, outdoor recreation and historic preservation came to $1.06 trillion.

The report said, “The total value of ecosystem services provided by the acres of natural habitats in national wildlife refuges totaled $32.3 billion per year.”  In addition, it noted, “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contributed about $4.2 billion in economic activity and supported more than 32,000 jobs through its management of refuges and thousands of smaller natural areas.”

The researchers further determined that homeowners near parks and protected areas are repeatedly seen to have property values more than 20 percent higher than similar properties elsewhere.

The report also concludes that the loss of nearly 10 million acres of wetlands in the United States since the 1950s has resulted in an economic loss of more than $81 billion in all wetlands-related ecosystem services. Ecosystem services include all the functions performed by nature that provide benefits to humans, such as waste treatment, water supply, carbon sequestration, and other aspects of nature that help modulate and regular climate. Saltwater wetlands, freshwater wetlands, temperate and tropical forests, grasslands, lakes, etc. all provide different levels of these environmental services.

By Dan Ashe, Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Like all duck hunters, I know that, oftentimes, the worse the weather, the better the hunting. I look at our current conservation climate in much the same way.

Although our nation is going through some rough economic weather right now, we can’t lose sight of the fact that there are still enormous needs – and opportunities – for fish and wildlife conservation.

I understand and respect hunters, anglers and shooters who believe that in the current budget climate, conservation programs should share in any cuts. This community has always put what is right ahead of what is easy, and I believe the reluctant support some may give for budget reductions comes from genuine patriotism.

But we should recognize that America has always found a way to enrich her conservation legacy despite difficult times. During the Civil War, President Lincoln inked a land deal for what later became Yosemite National Park. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era, hunters supported landmark legislation that created the federal Duck Stamp and the Wildlife Restoration Act, contributing to the establishment of 142 wildlife refuges across the nation in that decade alone.

Now, the legacy of a century of conservation – indeed the future of the North American model of wildlife conservation – is threatened by the prospect of draconian cuts to conservation programs. These programs, though only a sliver of a percentage of the federal budget and largely inconsequential for deficit reduction, have been disproportionately singled out by some in Congress and their supporters.

This is not deficit reduction. These are policy and political objectives dressed-up as deficit reduction by those who seek to get those pesky fish and wildlife agencies – federal and state – out of the way of development. Never mind that America’s outdoor recreation economy generates 8.4 million, non-exportable U.S. jobs, most in rural areas, generating over $100 billion annually in federal, state and local taxes.

We recognize that we are stewards of taxpayer dollars, but I believe your state and federal conservation agencies have a demonstrated record of getting the most out of every dollar we do receive.

I urge everyone who cares about wildlife conservation and the future of hunting and fishing in America to stand up for our way of life. Demand that we live up to the courage and vision of our predecessors by holding the line on conservation funding. Participate in Ducks Unlimited’s “Double Down for Ducks” campaign and purchase two federal Ducks Stamps instead of one. Most of all, get out on the landscape with your kids and grandkids, and think about the kind of world we should leave to them.  It takes investment, and now is not the time to cut back on conservation spending.

Recently appointed Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe and Deputy Director Greg Siekaniec.

NWRA is pleased to report that Dan Ashe has been confirmed as the new Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The U.S. Senate confirmed Ashe on June 30, 2011, several months after being nominated to the position by President Obama in early December 2010. His nomination was held up by a few individual Senators seeking to secure guarantees by the Department of Interior over many non-FWS related issues, most notably, Louisiana’s Sen. David Vitter, who wanted the Interior Department to approve more offshore oil leases in the Gulf, something the FWS has no jurisdiction over.

NWRA also congratulates Gregory Siekaniec for his appointment as Deputy Director for Policy of the FWS. A career FWS employee for more than two decades, Siekaniec has served as the Chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System since 2009. Most recently, he oversaw the “Conserving the Future” process to create a reinvigorated vision to guide the Refuge System to meet the challenges of the next decade. The new vision was ratified in July, and reflects more than 10,000 comments submitted from refuge supporters across America. “We’re confident that Greg is exceptionally qualified to provide strategic program direction to the Fish and Wildlife Service in these challenging economic times,” said NWRA President Evan Hirsche.

Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks nominee Rebecca Wodder.

Unfortunately, another key Presidential appointee is still being held hostage over Gulf oil permits. Rebecca Wodder has been nominated to become the new Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks and would oversee many refuge issues. Senator Vitter is pursuing the same tactic used in Ashe’s nomination with Wodder’s. He has placed a hold on her confirmation until additional Gulf oil permits are issued.

As with Ashe, NWRA is urging Vitter to lift his hold and Congress to approve Wodder to head the management team that will help the FWS and National Wildlife Refuge System navigate the rough fiscal waters ahead.

Lawmakers spoke in favor of a proposal to expand volunteer opportunities at National Wildlife Refuges. The bill, H.R. 4973, from Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-Md.), would amend the 54-year-old Fish and Wildlife Act to create a national volunteer coordination program.

It would authorize $3 million for a national program to help set up and standardize programs for volunteers who want to assist federal employees in conservation and education programs. The bill calls for the Interior Department to develop the program within one year.
Paul Schmidt, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s assistant director for migratory birds, said his agency supports the bill, which would allow them to build capacity to recruit volunteers, manage the volunteer work force more effectively and offer enhanced training and mentoring programs.
“You’ll never be without volunteers, people want to volunteer — the question is, do you have the refuge staff to set them up and train them? You have to know what you are doing,” said Thomas Hook from the volunteer group Friends of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. “This will help create a consistent program across the system, a place to review best practices and coordinate.”

Care Urges Refuge Funding

• Refuges face a $3.7 billion backlog in deferred maintenance and operations funding. Washed-out trails, leaking roofs, closed roads, and broken equipment are just a few of the more than 11,000 problems currently waiting to be addressed on refuges nationwide. Unless funding is secured to address the backlog, many refuge facilities could deteriorate beyond repair.
• Crime is a big problem in the Refuge System, yet only 213 officers patrol its more than 150 million acres. A minimum of 209 additional officers are needed (at an additional annual cost of $31.4 million) to protect refuge visitors and respond to crimes that include drug production and dealing, wildlife poaching, illegal border activity, assaults, and a variety of natural resource violations.
• The Refuge System is fighting a losing battle against invasive plants and animals. Approximately 2.3 million acres of refuge lands are overrun with non-native invasive plants, while more than 4,400 invasive animal populations ravage millions more acres. The Refuge System needs at least $25 million per year to treat just one-third of its infested plant acreage and begin low-level control of invasive animals.
• There has been a dramatic increase in oil and gas drilling on 155 refuges, but the Refuge System is not well equipped to oversee these activities or clean up degraded sites. Some $15 million per year is needed to adequately oversee oil and gas operations on wildlife refuges.
• With the recent addition of more than 50 million acres of marine monuments in the Pacific Ocean, the Refuge System faces increased management, coordination, restoration, and law enforcement challenges. These increased responsibilities carry a price tag of between $18 and $35 million annually.

CARE has urged that Congress boost refuge operations and maintenance funding to $578 million for FY 2011. These funds are needed to provide nature programs to the public, maintain high water quality, complete critical habitat restoration projects, and properly patrol and enforce laws in the Refuge System. Since 2008, Congress has begun to reverse a damaging trend of budget cuts that started in 2003. “We need to maintain this momentum and continue to invest in these special places at a level that recognizes their importance to so many Americans,” notes Hirsche.

The Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE) is a diverse coalition of 22 conservation, recreation, sporting, and scientific organizations that represent more than 15 million members and supporters across the United States. CARE has been working since 1995 to help the National Wildlife Refuge System fight a serious funding crisis.

Federal officials trying to prevent invasive Asian carp from infiltrating the Great Lakes are using many of the same techniques used to fight the sea lamprey, a parasite that was once as feared as Asian carp but has been largely brought under control.

The first comprehensive national inventorying of the National Wildlife Refuge System’s lakes, rivers, wetlands and streams begins its first full year in 2011, as population growth and climate change increase competition for water resources.

The inventory of water resources is expected to take at least five years. By mid-2011, the Natural Resources Program Center hopes to start entering data on water quantity, quality, legal rights and infrastructure into a new national database. Survey data will also identify water-related needs, trends and threats for each of the 553 refuges.

“We will look at the quantity and quality of water available to wildlife habitats and species through the System,” says Mike Higgins, national water resources coordinator based at the new Natural Resources Program Center in Fort Collins, CO. “That will help us prioritize our efforts in a strategic way, so that if it looks like a refuge is not going to have enough water in 10 years to meets its conservation needs, we can explore what we can do to assure that refuge gets additional resources.”

Among the first refuges to provide data to the Water Resource Inventory and Assessment was Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota, which completed its inventory and draft report last November.   The refuge, about 3,000 acres of prairie wetland used by migratory and nesting birds, lies within the Red River Basin, which has experienced increased flooding in recent decades. Wetland restorations completed by refuge staff for wildlife benefits are also reducing flood damage for people living nearby. At “full pool,” the refuge’s nine actively managed wetlands hold more than 800 acre feet of water, the new report shows. Acquiring the remaining 3,000 acres within the refuge boundary would permit additional restorations to benefit wildlife and further relieve downstream flooding.

Great Lakes/Big Rivers Regional hydrologist Josh Eash calls the inventory “extremely useful” both in culling available information and in highlighting data gaps. “Almost everything we do is tied to water.  Without understanding what we know — and what we don’t know — about our water resources, as well as specific threats and needs, it’s often difficult to meet biological objectives.”

Quivira Refuge in Kansas, Shiawassee Refuge in Michigan, Alamosa Refuge in Colorado, Aransas Refuge in Texas and Cahaba River Refuge in Alabama are among the next in line for water inventories based on regional prioritization.

One challenge will be the immense scale of the project, Higgins says. “There’s no way we can inventory every small stream and wetland in Alaska’s millions of acres of refuge lands; we’ve accepted that,” he says. Seasonal variations present another challenge. Some wetlands, for example, hold water only three months of the year; others have been dried up for years by drought.

“How do we capture threats imposed by climate change,” asks Higgins. “One way we’ve chosen is to look at long-term trends, long-term data for stream flow, for example. Is it decreasing or increasing? Are water temperatures decreasing or increasing? In addition, where we have appropriate data from climate change models, we’ll incorporate those into our assessments.  “There’s a huge data gap there that needs to be filled,” he says.

Each year, as we celebrate the Refuge System’s anniversary on March 14, we have a chance to think once more about the twin driving forces behind wildlife refuges: a responsibility to save for future generations the wild treasures bequeathed to us; and the extraordinary people who work day-in and day-out to deliver our conservation mission. This year, we have one more element: The Conserving the Future process that will give us a renewed vision to guide the Refuge System for the next decade or so.

With Conserving the Future, we are building a new legacy for the future — giving birth to bold ideas even as we attract new partners, young people and more supporters for the timeless ideals embodied in the Refuge System mission. If you have not yet given your bold ideas or commented on the draft vision, you have until April 22, Earth Day, to say what you think on the Web site, http://americaswildlife.org/. Giving your comments on the draft vision will be your birthday gift to the Refuge System.

The Refuge System has had quite a year. The Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded April 20, 2010, igniting the worst environment disaster in the nation’s history. National wildlife refuges were hit with oil, as were the brown pelicans, an iconic species, that formed the basis for the Refuge System’s beginning. The final chapter of that disaster has yet to be written, but one fact is certain: employees of the Refuge System and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service served with dispatch and distinction as we fought millions of gallons of oil hitting our shores and soiling our waters.

The disaster can’t dim our successes:
• The 553rd refuge – Cherry Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania – was established on October 18. It is just 75 miles west of New York City, square in the midst of a growing metropolitan corridor where conservation of wild places is so challenging and so critical.

• When First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled her Let’s Move Outside! Initiative, where did she go? To Desert Wildlife Refuge Complex in Nevada, where the thriving Southern Nevada Agency Partnership shows what federal agencies working with city, county and state officials can do on behalf of youngsters and wildlife.

• After years of planning, the Refuge System launched its inventorying and monitoring program that will help garner much needed scientific data for making the best possible habitat management decisions.

And then there is what we do for wildlife, on refuge after refuge, year after year. Consider the Friends of Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, who, for the first time, staged a three-day songbird festival to show a new generation of conservationists the beauty of nature when habitat is conserved. Take Buffalo Lake Refuge in Texas, which has restored about 4,000 acres of shortgrass prairie that is essential to bison. And then there’s Assabet River Refuge in Massachusetts, which again enlisted Bristol County Agricultural High School in helping establish a population of Blanding’s turtles – benefitting the students right alongside the species, which is listed by the state as threatened.

Every wildlife refuge has played a central role in conserving wildlife habitat and species for a nation that is growing more urban, less connected to its natural resource foundations, and more in need of appreciating America’s great outdoors. Please join me as we celebrate our conservation legacy and most importantly, as we celebrate one another. Thank you for what you do each and every day.

Greg Siekaniec
Chief
National Wildlife Refuge System

Nearly 100 recommendations to guide the growth and management of the National Wildlife Refuge System for the next decade or so, the Conserving the Future draft vision covers the gamut of wildlife conservation issues. It is available at http://americaswildlife.org/ for public comment through Earth Day, April 22.

“The American public too often discounts wildlife conservation threats as being too far away, not relevant to their everyday lives and even temporal,” says the draft vision. “The finest minds, the strongest partnerships and the greatest innovation must be brought to the task of increasing society’s conservation literacy to fulfill the agency’s mission ‘for the continuing benefit of the American people.’”

Among its recommendations are:

• To work with tribes and other federal land management agencies to develop a National Conservation Strategy that works across landscapes with private landowners to increase the representation, size and connectivity of protected areas.

• To implement a plan to guide the Refuge System’s land conservation work and overhaul the Land Acquisition Prioritization System to help determine the importance of new and existing acquisition projects, including the establishment national wildlife refuges in urban areas.

• To encourage a Friends group for every staffed refuge; there are now about 230 Friends groups.

• To review the Appropriate Use Policy, so a wider variety of nature-based experiences may be possible. The draft notes that jogging, picnicking, sunbathing, bicycling and dog-walking often are considered outside of the wildlife-dependent recreation definition that guides strict interpretation of refuge appropriate use. “Refuge managers have become rightly cautious because they have seen what happens to wildlife resources when participation is too large and incompatible,” the draft says.

• To engage youth in an array of work and volunteer programs.

• Within the next 10 years, to more than double the number of minorities and people with disabilities who work for the Refuge System, in part by reaching high school and college youth from diverse communities and exposing them to Service conservation careers.

• To develop an environmental education strategy that not only inventories existing programs but also identifies priorities for investment of staff and funds and outlines basic standards for national wildlife refuges.

• To develop standards for credibility, efficiency and consistent application of science in planning and management.

• Working with state fish and wildlife agencies, to prepare a strategy to double youth participation in hunting and fishing by 2020, paying special attention to individuals of all ages with disabilities.

• To develop a five-year plan to “green” the Refuge System.

The draft also makes recommendations regarding climate change, law enforcement, fire management, marine ecosystems, invasive species, wilderness stewardship, and conservation science and research.

The draft vision is the work of 70 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees as well as the National Wildlife Refuge Association, a partner in the Conserving the Future process. A vision document is scheduled to be presented to the Service Director and top management in late May.

Tyler Hotten, 18, a high school senior in Underwood, North Dakota, got his wish this summer: a chance to work outdoors. After two months of mowing, weed trimming, goose banding and other labor at Audubon National Wildlife Refuge, he also came away with something more: an interest in a career in wildlife conservation. “If you like being outside, it’s the job for you,” he says.

That’s just what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service likes to hear.

The Service increased youth employment more than 50 percent in fiscal year 2010, exceeding the Department of the Interior’s goals. The Service hired 2,434 people ages 15 to 25 to work on national wildlife refuges and other sites — up from 1,535 in 2009 and 515 more than the 2010 target of 1,919 set by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s “Youth in the Great Outdoors” program.

New employees included 771 hired through the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC); 551 through the Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP) and Student Career Experience Program (SCEP); and 254 through permanent and temporary positions.

Partnerships with more than 70 organizations — such as the Student Conservation Association, The Corps Network and refuge Friends groups — brought 858 young people into the Service fold. To see highlights of Service-wide accomplishments, visit the 2010 Youth Employment Report, “More Than a Job.”

The jobs were varied and often physically demanding. At Baca National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado, YCC crews removed 13 miles of barbed wire fence. At Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico a youth crew improved access for visitors with disabilities. At William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, YCCers helped build a boardwalk, maintain trails, install landscaping and hand-pull invasive English ivy, tansy ragwort and oxeye daisy. “It’s very labor-intensive, bending over in the heat, pulling plants up by the root,” says refuge biologist Jock Beall. “The idea is not to dig or disturb the soil because that causes more seeds to germinate.”

Finley Refuge YCC crew member Lexxs Sutton, 17, of Monroe, Oregon, agreed the work was hard. But, she added, “I learned a lot of things, and it was probably the most fun job I will ever have.”

Read about youth hiring in the Northeast region.
See photos of YCC crews at work on refuges in the Northwest.
The Service hopes to maintain the same level of youth hiring in 2011. Learn more about youth job opportunities in the National Wildlife Refuge System.
Learn more about the Department of the Interior’s Youth in the Great Outdoors program.
See photos of some of the amazing young people at work on our national wildlife refuges.

Re   Kind Continues Efforts to Protect Mississippi

Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act to Reduce Sedimentation, Improve Water Quality

Washington, DC –U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) today reintroduced his Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act, legislation calling for the development of a coordinated, public-private approach to studying and reducing nutrient and sediment runoff in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. The bill also establishes a water-quality monitoring system and a computer modeling program to analyze data.

“The river plays a vital role in our economy and our quality of life in western Wisconsin,” said Rep. Kind, founder and Co-chair of the Upper Mississippi River Basin Congressional Task Force.  “Increased sediment and nutrient flow into the upper basin poses a very serious threat to the long-term health of the entire Mississippi River system. This bill will lay the scientific foundation necessary to ensure the future quality and beauty of the Mississippi for generations to come.”

The accumulation of excess sediment from increased soil erosion and nutrients, such as fertilizers and animal waste, in the Upper Mississippi River Basin degrades aquatic and wetland habitat and imperils a wide variety of fish and waterfowl.  The increased soil erosion causes applied fertilizer from area farms to wash into the river, resulting not only in dangerously high nitrogen and phosphorous levels, but also a reduction in the long-term sustainability and income of family farms, and the plaguing of farmers annually with $300 million in unnecessary costs.   In addition, sediment accumulation fills the main shipping channel of the river and valuable wetlands throughout the basin, reducing the value to wildlife and their capacity as nutrient filters and costing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers more than $100 million annually in dredging costs.

The Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act aims to produce the data needed to better understand sediment and nutrient flow from its source in the landscape to its destination in rivers and lakes and drive the innovation needed to solve the excess sediment and nutrient problem in the Mississippi River System.  The legislation establishes a sedimentation and nutrient reduction monitoring network and an integrated computer modeling program that, when combined, will provide the baseline data needed to make scientifically sound and cost-effective decisions to improve the Upper Mississippi River’s ecosystem.

“While there is no easy solution to stopping the runoff of sediment and nutrients into the Upper Mississippi River Basin, this legislation will make significant strides toward reducing this flow of harmful pollutants into the river.  I have worked closely with farmers, industry, sporting groups, conservation organizations, and government agencies to develop this effective, basin-wide, and non-regulatory approach, and am confident it will find support in both the House and the Senate.”

The reintroduction of the Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act is particularly timely considering the Mississippi River Basin Initiative introduced by Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack late last week.  The USDA initiative aims to improve the overall health of the entire Mississippi River, as opposed to the current regional approaches, and provides $320 million for improvement projects in states bordering the river.  Together, the two efforts will take important steps to maintain and improve the overall health of one of America’s most central water resources.

The Upper Mississippi River system, with tributaries and a basin encompassing much of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri, is widely recognized as one of our nation’s great multi-use natural resources. The Mississippi River and its tributaries provide drinking water to approximately 22 million Americans and the system’s 1,300 navigable miles transport millions of tons of commercial cargo via barges.  In addition, 40 percent of North America’s waterfowl use the wetlands and backwaters of the main stem as a migratory flyway, illustrating the environmental significance of the system as well as recreation capabilities.

- 30 -