By Caroline Brouwer, Advocacy Chair
Friends, this is a call to action. Our elected leaders are in the process of dismantling large swaths of the federal government, and public lands are high on their target list.
National wildlife refuges are YOUR lands. National parks are YOUR lands. National forests are YOUR lands. You should be able to visit, hunt on, birdwatch on, and hike on these lands. You should be able to expect these beautiful landscapes, rich wildlife habitat and the wildlife species that call them home to be well managed for the purposes laid out by Congress in their establishment.
In the past eight weeks, many thousands of federal employees have been illegally fired. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to these firings, and they are cutting deeply into the services that you, an American taxpayer, should be receiving. At least 12 Fish and Wildlife Service staff in Alaska were fired, four of them from refuges. In addition, about 14 have taken the “Fork in the Road” (resignation with several months of pay) buyout offers. Others have had positions that were offered and accepted rescinded, some as they were packing to move to Alaska and important positions like refuge managers are not being filled! It is a chaotic situation and difficult to determine just how many employees we have lost. Fish and Wildlife Service leaders are required to submit plans March 13 about how to further downsize. We expect many more people to be terminated in reduction in force actions or early retirements.
We expect these reductions in the workforce will lead to minimal to no management on Alaska’s 76 million acres of refuges. The Fish and Wildlife Service goes into this in a weakened position as refuge staff had already been reduced 30% over the last 15 years. An important refuge like the two million acre Kodiak Refuge home to the largest brown bears now has only 7 staff where five years ago it had 14. Only one staffer (they used to have 4) covers visitor services managing their visitor center (30 cruise ship visits per year), outreach to eight villages on the refuge, public use cabins, bear viewing sites, and over 100 special use permits to be evaluated and administered annually (bear viewing, float plane transporters, set net sites, research projects, hunting guides), and a formerly-active environmental education program. Because of these ongoing cuts, the Kodiak visitor center has been closed all winter for the first time and Salmon Camp, one of the oldest and best children’s refuge education programs, has been reduced from five week long sessions in Kodiak city and the villages to three short visits to villages. The enthusiastic young woman Kodiak had just hired to manage the visitor center and start supplying services to the public again was fired one month into her job by DOGE in the Valentine’s Day Massacre.
It takes staff to manage a refuge and help the public responsibly enjoy and learn about the wonders of the refuge. Salmon Camp on the Kodiak Refuge was one of the most successful programs serving more than a hundred families a year, many of them from the Coast Guard Base Kodiak. With the public use staff cut from four to one, Salmon Camp in Kodiak is no more.
These cuts will affect all public land users, and biological work that keeps our wildlife safe. Next, Congress and the Administration may question why we are holding on to these lands that are “unproductive” and unmanaged. And after that, Friends fear they may add oil and gas as a purpose for all refuges as they did during the first Trump term for the Arctic Refuge, sell off some refuges for development, permit mining, and allow “intensive management” (such as predator control) which is contrary to the refuges’ purpose of maintaining natural biodiversity. Even if refuge lands are not sold, there will be few refuge staff left to protect the original purposes of refuges. These are OUR refuge lands, park lands, and forests. The Administration has already announced plans to heavily log national forests and suspend provisions of the Endangered Species and Migratory Bird acts.
We need you to call your Congressional representatives. Every day. Ask that the staff fired under DOGE be rehired, the vacated positions be refilled, the refuge manager positions filled (only 7 managers for 16 refuges) and credit card use restored so they can buy supplies for the rapidly approaching field season (DOGE put a $1 limit on credit cards). Remind them that you value refuge employees and the work they do to protect wildlife and refuges. Refuges are not for sale! Many members of Congress are starting to complain that they are getting too many phone calls. Good. These elected officials work for US, and they should respond to us, their constituents, not the President. We cannot allow them to dismantle public lands.
Alaska’s two senators are Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan. Our House member is Rep. Nick Begich. You can also reach them or any state’s delegation at the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
If we do nothing, and do not use our voices to speak up in protest, we predict that we will lose many of the public lands and the values they protect that make Alaska great.
