More than 350 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees have been fired as a result of the Trump administration’s government reform; however, none from the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge complex have been let go yet, and the Friends of Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge want it to stay that way.
“This administration’s mass firing of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees will have devastating impacts on our public lands across the country …” the Friends said in a statement against the mass firings.
The Friends of Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, a nonprofit membership organization championing the protection of wildlife and their habitats, added that the lack of biologists, natural resource professionals and park rangers will lead to degrading habitat, endangered species being unmonitored and trails and roads being unmaintained and subject to vandalism as a result of the firings.
The refuge system in the United States already operates with fewer than 2,500 employees, resulting in a 30% staffing decline over 15 years, the Friends state. The small number of employees manage 95 million acres of land and 750 million marine acres, greater than any other federal land agency, with a bare minimum amount of resources.
“In my experience, staff from the Fish and Wildlife Service are some of the hardest working, most dedicated people I’ve ever come across,” Jim Maul, director of the Friends of Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and one of the founding members in the late 1990s, said. “I worked my entire career in the private sector, and they take a backseat to nobody. They’re gritty and they get by on less than what they need.”
He believes the mass firings have simply added to a continuous problem with the refuge system.
“Refuges have been chronically underfunded for as long as I’ve been involved with them. They are one of the best bargains and investments that our federal government makes in terms of the return on value for not only the mission of refuges, conservation and protection of habitat and that sort of thing, but also for people in terms of being able to access wildlife and have important outdoor experiences I believe,” Maul said. “And it’s just gotten worse.”
The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge has over 5,000 acres of marshes, grassland and woodlands that is managed by staff and volunteers. The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Complex, headquartered in Ridgefield, also manages three additional Southwest Washington wildlife refuges: Franz Lake, Pierce Lake and Steigerwald Lake in the Columbia River Gorge and Washougal.
“I feel like the Fish and Wildlife Service is already understaffed and underfunded and has been running with all of us trying to manage so much with so little,” said Samantha Zeiner, director of operations for the Friends of Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. “And then taking away even more just shows how little there is care for both our wild places and our humans. We rely on nature and we can’t survive without it.”
She believes the refuge system is already America’s best kept secret as many people have no clue about the wildlife refuges, with many that exist in the urban interface of major metropolitan areas.
“The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge is going through a very important transition as it goes from being a rural refuge to an urban refuge,” Maul said. “The pressures on it are increasing. It’s not getting easier to manage and care for. It’s getting more challenging and more difficult as there’s habitat loss from urban encroachment, and there’s also more and more that want to have outdoor experiences, and that’s what Ridgefield is, you know.”
The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge’s River S Unit with an auto tour loop is located at 1071 S. Hillhurst Road. The headquarters at the Carty Unit are located at 28908 NW Main Ave.
More information on the Friends can be found by visiting ridgefieldfriends.org.
