The National Wildlife Refuge System is threatened by decades of drastically insufficient funding
Critical Investments are Needed
Our national wildlife refuges are essential for protecting biodiversity and climate-resilient habitats, providing community-driven conservation, and expanding wildlife-dependent recreational opportunities nationwide. However, increased funding needs paired with a stagnant budget has led to a Refuge System that is quickly eroding in habitat management and an ability to even keep refuges open.
The $503 million appropriated to the Refuge System in fiscal year (FY) 2010 is worth nearly $730 million today (as of September 2024), yet actual funding sits at $527 million–a mere .62 cents per acre, or $5.55 when only accounting for the land acres. The failure to offset the impacts of inflation has led to unsustainably low staffing levels and lost capacity. After accounting for inflation levels, hiring needs, fixed costs, and the significant increase in visitation and acreage of the Refuge System since FY2010, the Refuge System needs a substantial increase to at least $2.2 billion in federal funding for its Operations and Maintenance budget to effectively fulfill its conservation mission, provide opportunities for wildlife-dependent recreation, and connect communities to nature.
A Growing Refuge System
Despite only a minor increase in funding since FY2010, the Refuge System has added over 18 new refuge units and hundreds of millions of acres of marine national monuments. It has also added new services, such as the Urban Wildlife Conservation Program launched in 2012 that seeks to address inequalities in recreational access and conservation participation. This program has dramatically changed the way conservation is delivered to communities, and visitor numbers have grown to over 67 million visitors a year--an increase of 46% since FY2011. While the additional acreage, the creation of the urban program, and the increased visitors have enhanced the Refuge System and benefited the communities around these refuges, this growth has also put more pressure on the already stressed and underfunded System.
The Staffing Crisis
Over 27% of permanent staff positions have been lost since FY2011. Several much-needed positions are eliminated yearly as congressional appropriations lag behind inflation and actual funding needs. Today, no refuges are fully staffed, and more than half of refuges have zero staff on-site, leaving existing refuge staff stressed and overworked. Many refuges have closed to the public and are completely unmanaged, and many have been merged into complexes to share remaining staff across multiple refuges.
Much of the Refuge System is virtually unprotected due to the lack of law enforcement officers, with some officers covering entire states and refuge units hours away from one another. The staffing shortage also impacts volunteers from local communities, who provide additional free labor equaling 20% of the Refuge System workforce and account for over a million hours of work every year. Many volunteer programs–critical for the operation and maintenance of refuges–are being cut back or entirely eliminated due to a lack of supervision from full-time professional staff or necessary infrastructure.
We urge Congress to prioritize addressing the staffing shortfalls of the Refuge System and provide the necessary additional funding to adequately staff the Refuge System.