America's Refuges

From wetlands to forests, prairies to seashores, the National Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System) includes more than 96 million acres of some of the most visually stunning and biologically diverse lands and waters in America. These wild lands harbor more than 20 million acres of designated wilderness and more than 50 million acres of potential wilderness.

There is a national wildlife refuge in every state and territory of the nation. Alaska boasts the most refuge acres, while North Dakota has the largest number of refuges. Unlike other conservation systems, the East Coast has hundreds of national wildlife refuges. And there is a refuge within an hour’s drive of almost every major city. The Refuge System contains a diverse array of habitats from the bog marshes of J.N. ”Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, to the dry plains of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in Montana. In addition to providing critical habitat for thousands of species, the Refuge System filters drinking water for communities, reduces flooding, and provides places for wildlife dependent recreation such as hiking, photography, hunting, and fishing.

With the rapid conversion of natural habitats to housing complexes, shopping malls, and other development, America’s fish and wildlife are threatened as never before. Today, more than ever, our national wildlife refuges are a critically important natural resource.

Refuge Improvement Act

The Wilderness Society proposed and worked for more than a decade to pass organic legislation for the National Wildlife Refuge System. That effort succeeded in 1997 with passage of the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act.

The Refuge Improvement Act mandates that in administering the Refuge System, the Secretary of the Interior shall provide for the conservation of fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats within the Refuge System, and directs the Fish and Wildlife Service to prepare Comprehensive Conservation Plans for each national wildlife refuge. These plans direct management of the refuge for 15 years and provide an opportunity for the public to influence management of the Refuge System. The Act’s vision is to ensure that planning efforts consider biodiversity, ecosystem level conservation, and wilderness preservation as vital concepts in wildlife management. The plans are an important tool for identifying and recommending wilderness.

Refuge Wilderness

Congress passed the Wilderness Act in order to “secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.” For this purpose, Congress established a National Wilderness Preservation System of federal lands “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

The Refuge System harbors some of the most spectacular areas left in America. Currently there are 73 wilderness areas in the Refuge System, covering about 20 million acres and comprising about 20 percent of both the Refuge System and the total wilderness acreage in the country. Expanding wilderness designation on refuges fits into the vision promoted in the Fish and Wildlife Service publication, Fulfilling the Promise, which emphasizes that long-term refuge planning look at biodiversity, ecosystem level conservation, and wilderness preservation as vital concepts in wildlife management.

Existing and potential designated wilderness areas are resources whose value must be addressed on each refuge; in fact, the Refuge Improvement Act requires that wilderness reviews be conducted as part of the Comprehensive Conservation Planning process that is required for every refuge.

photos:
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. Courtesy FWS.
Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado. Courtesy FWS.