Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik is ordering a top-to-bottom review of the nation’s wildlife refuges, with the first report due early next year.
"The National Wildlife Refuge and National Fish Hatchery Systems require a programmatic, comprehensive review," Nesvik said, according to a directive posted on an FWS documents website.
Nesvik said, "These reviews will ensure that the Service is directing its resources (e.g., staff, funds, and assets) to best meet our highest mission priorities."
The director, who took office in August, said he wants to examine "refuges or hatcheries established for a purpose that no longer aligns with the mission" of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Nesvik wants to identify "opportunities to achieve efficiencies in the areas of governance, oversight, and span of control."
Desirée Sorenson-Groves, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, told Politico her organization was "optimistic" about the audit.
"To help the refuge system, an audit is a good first step to understand the challenges and opportunities," Sorenson-Groves said.
"We look forward to working with the FWS on suggestions for the refuge system," Sorenson-Groves added.
Senior adviser Joshua Coursey, who was previously CEO of an organization dedicated to the conservation of mule deer, has been assigned to lead the review.
A public lands policy specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity called the review “insidious.”
"The Fish and Wildlife Service has already fired scientific experts and undermined the agency’s ability to protect our country’s wildlife — and now Mr. Nesvik is looking for more pretext to shutter Refuge and Hatchery operations," Ashley Nunes said.
The FWS oversees 573 refuges, which Nesvik said was "some of the country’s most iconic landscapes, waterways, and oceans."
A letter written by 20 Democratic lawmakers recently criticized how the Fish and Wildlife Service is being run.
"A startling amount of staff and expertise needed to manage the refuge system and protect America’s wildlife have been lost due to the administration’s firings, early retirement programs, and other efforts to push staff out of the Service," the lawmakers wrote.
Sam Barron ✉
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