Help increase funding for Sanibel refuge, National Wildlife Refuge System
The J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel is part of a much larger system and is one of 568 national wildlife refuges and five marine national monuments. They encompass more than 850 million acres of land and waters.
Working on a budget of a mere 61 cents per acre per year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for managing these lands and its 64 million annual visitors with this very challenging budget and struggles every year to do so. In comparison, the National Park Service receives over 50 times more ($31) per acre for land management. It’s time Congress understands the vital work and value of our national wildlife refuges — including “Ding” Darling — and supports the USFWS and budget request.
Refuge management requires investments in both the staff and tools necessary to manage wildlife populations, recover endangered species, control harmful invasives, adapt management strategies to address climate change and provide opportunities for wildlife-dependent recreation. The $504 million National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) budget for fiscal year 2021 is identical to that of 10 years ago. However, inflation during the intervening years has reduced the purchasing power of those funds by more than 20 percent. The negative impact on the NWRS has been dramatic, including the development of a huge backlog of maintenance and other projects and the loss of some 1,000 staff nationwide. Despite this severely constrained funding, the NWRS generates approximately 35,000 jobs and provides $2.4 billion in economic output each year, with every $1 of its budget returning about $5 to local economies.
At the Sanibel refuge, the impact during these same 10 years has been even greater with a budget reduction of 60 percent and a staff reduction from 21 to eight. At the same time, the number of annual visitors to the refuge has grown from 650,000 to almost 1,000,000.
Unfortunately, we cannot focus solely on the critically needed funding for our own refuge. Congress develops and approves a total federal budget, which includes the budget for the entire NWRS. Once approved, the responsibility for distributing funding to individual national wildlife refuges — including “Ding” — is in the hands of NWRS senior management.
Even though not yet approved by Congress, fiscal year 2022 funding for the NWRS is projected to be $519 million, a very modest increase. However, Congress is also currently reviewing the proposed fiscal year 2023 budget. As a result, the time is now to impress on our elected federal representatives the importance of approving a 2023 budget to support the NWRS.
Visit https://dingdarlingsociety.org/articles/advocate#/15 to ask your senators and representatives to support a FY2023 federal government budget that includes funding for the NWRS’ operations and maintenance account at $712 million. This is well short of the $1 billion required to assure full funding of the system, but would be a significant step in the right direction. The more of us who communicate this critical message to our elected representatives, the greater the chance we’ll collectively be heard, and positive action will be taken.
Mike Baldwin is a member of the Advocacy Committee for the “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society-Friends of the Refuge. For more information, visit www.dingdarlingsociety.org.