Wildlife Refuges Suffer Heavy Job Losses

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-other/2007/mar/15/031501249.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Faced with a $2.5 billion budget shortfall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is eliminating hundreds of jobs, cutting back programs and leaving more than 200 national wildlife refuges unstaffed.

In all, the agency is planning to cut 565 jobs from wildlife refuges by 2009 - a 20 percent reduction.

The national refuge system encompasses 547 wildlife refuges and more than 96 million acres in all 50 states, attracting more than 40 million visitors a year.

Environmentalists say the staffing cuts - which follow two years of reductions - will leave an already lean work force depleted and result in a decrease in habitat management, restoration projects and education projects. More than 200 wildlife refuges across the country will be unstaffed.

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[phantom power]

1. and in 2010, the GOP will proclaim that the refuges don't work and must be privatized.

[MountainLaurel]

3. Not just privatized

But paved over, clear cut, drilled, etc.

[Botany]

2. Piss away 200 million a day in Iraq ...

.... and guess what? .... you have no $.