U.S. wildlife agency cutting 565 jobs, closing refuges

[donsu]

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/45090.php


- The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is eliminating hundreds of jobs, cutting back programs and closing some national wildlife refuges as it grapples with a $2.5 billion budget shortfall.

-snip-

In all, the agency plans to cut 565 jobs from wildlife refuges by 2009, a 20 percent reduction.
The national refuge system encompasses 547 refuges and more than 96 million acres in all 50 states.
The Southwest region has a $27.3 million budget for its 45 refuges, which attract nearly 5 million visitors a year.

-snip-

Environmentalists said the staffing cuts that follow two years of other reductions will leave an already lean employment 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.

"Our national wildlife refuges are literally crumbling before our eyes," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife.
-snip-
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between this and the closing of scientific librarys.......

the neo cons are destroying/have destroyed all that was good about america.

and there they are, still occupying (by force) our White House.

disgusting

[NightWatcher]

1. the bastards

which one's are closing, I'll volunteer to take one over.
I read Kerouac's "Desolations Angels" and Abbey "Desert Solitare". I have wanted to be a ranger ever since then.
I think I should go squat in a closed park.

on edit "Abbey not Hoffman"

[CrazyOrangeCat]

3. Welcome to DU!

Yeah, I'll take one too.

(Desert Solitaire was Ed Abbey, btw.)

[NightWatcher]

6. thanks,

I was just listening to someone go on about Abbie Hoffman, and I guess my brain got confused

[Morgana LaFey]

18. Do it! No one will ever know.

Unless the poachers come and find you. That's what I'm afraid of: unauthorized logging, etc.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

2. K&R

bastards.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. I'm glad I got out of there when I did

USFWS is run by idiots in many cases, because people that have no business being placed as managers end up being all the managers. The jobs have low pay and are way overworked. They've never had the priority within the government they should have had. Some actual attention to the agency, not just governmental oversight from congressasses who want to get rid of the agency altogether, would go a long way.

[robinlynne]

13. As soon as Gore is president, he'll fix this!

[ourbluenation]

5. the smaller government=better government ideologues are at it again eh?

and we will pay more for it in the end.

[madrchsod]

7. wildlife or welfare??

there`s thousands of starving american bureaucrats in iraq that desperately need our help!

[blondie58]

8. little by little, they are stripping our country of its assets

they are also selling some BLM land in Colorado.

http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/upload/Factsheet-LandSellOff.pdf

America- for sale to the highest bidder. This makes me furious. I am a CO native and I have seen a big change in my state, as I'm sure is the same case with other beautiful parts of our country. We need to protect the wilderness and our open space. Once it is gone, it is gone and takes a long time to recover.

[kestrel91316]

9. That's ok. All the newly homeless and more than a few illegals

will be happy to camp in them and leave their garbage and kill all the wildlife to eat.

What's everybody worried about?

[blondie58]

10. nice blog, Kestrel91316!

and I like your description of "fixing kitty boo boos.

Hawks are like the kings of the air. I love watching them- they are so majestic.

[kestrel91316]

17. Oh THANK YOU SO MUCH, you are the first person to

comment on it. I really do need to sit down and write something else for it.

[DesertRat]

11. $2 Billion a week in Iraq

That's $10 million a hour. This administration's priorities are disgraceful.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

12. Mind-boggling.

:grr:

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. Their "priorities" are war profits. Nothing else matters to them and certainly not this Country

and it's inhabitants.

[Subdivisions]

15. "More than 200 wildlife refuges across

the country will be unstaffed."???

Holy shit!

[Lars39]

16. I hate to even mention this,

'cause it makes me ill thinking of it, but you just know meth is going to be cooked in these understaffed or closed refuges. :cry: