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March 3, 2007
Twenty percent of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Midwest regional workforce will be reduced.
That will amount to the elimination of 71 positions in the Midwest Region's national wildlife refuges, according to the USFWS.
The personnel reductions, planned for the next three years, are the result of nationwide budget shortfalls in the National Wildlife Refuge System, the only network of federal lands in the world dedicated specifically to wildlife conservation.
The Midwest Region covers eight states and includes 54 national wildlife refuges, 12 wetland management districts and more than 1 million acres of public land and water.
Officials said since fiscal year 2004, the Midwest Regional Refuge System budget has remained relatively static. At the same time, however, personnel costs have increased an average of 5 percent annually. Operational costs, such as fuel, equipment and other expenses, have also increased.
To offset the rising costs, the Midwest Region has already left 35 positions vacant and plans on reducing an additional 36 positions.
Losses will occur in each of the eight states in the Midwest Region. Officials said Minnesota will lose 27 full-time positions, Wisconsin 10, Illinois nine, Iowa eight, Indiana and Missouri six each, Michigan four and Ohio one.
Two refuges in Minnesota, Hamden Slough and Crane Meadows, will no longer have staff members on-site.
Regional Refuge System Chief Nita M. Fuller said the employee reductions will affect habitat management efforts, as well as services offered to the visiting public.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the 96 million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, encompassing 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 81 ecological services field stations.
For more information, visit the Website at http://midwest.fws.gov.
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