📷 Black-billed Magpie at Camas Nationwide Wildlife Refuge, ID | Brent Lawrence/USFWS
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH twenty fourth, 2025 –The Nationwide Wildlife Refuge Affiliation (Refuge Affiliation) vehemently opposes the proposed switch of Camas Nationwide Wildlife Refuge (NWR), part of the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System), to the State of Idaho. The trouble, initiated by the Idaho State Legislature, threatens to dismantle almost 90 years of conservation progress and opens the door to promoting off nationwide wildlife refuges and America’s different public lands to the best bidder.
“Camas Nationwide Wildlife Refuge is an emblem of what this nation can do once we put money into wildlife, group, and restoration,” mentioned Desirée Sorenson-Groves, President & CEO of the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge Affiliation. “This proposal is a betrayal of the American individuals who constructed the Refuge System— who cleaned up undesirable lands, restored habitats, and handed down a conservation legacy for future generations. And now one way or the other federal administration is a 4 letter phrase – it’s outrageous.”
Established in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Camas NWR spans over 10,000 acres of wetlands, sagebrush steppe, and riparian woodlands in southeastern Idaho. It’s a important stopover alongside the Pacific Flyway for greater than 300 species of migratory birds, together with tundra and trumpeter swans, long-billed curlews, short-eared owls, and the enduring higher sage-grouse— a keystone species in western ecosystems. The refuge additionally attracts the general public for birdwatching and environmental training, together with seasonal occasions just like the Come to Roost occasion to look at bald eagles return to their roosts, and the beloved annual Birds, Bugles, and Brunch celebration of fall migration and elk bugling.
The proposal— Senate Joint Memorial 104, sponsored by Idaho State Senator Van Burtenshaw— handed the Idaho Senate final week and the Home in the present day. The proposal requests federal motion to switch the refuge to state management. The Refuge Affiliation is elevating pink flags on a number of fronts however maybe crucial is that it’s going to now not be a nationwide wildlife refuge and managed for wildlife and biodiversity. It additionally received’t be managed as a part of a System – will probably be a lone space with no relationship to the opposite refuges within the Refuge System, one thing Congress mandated within the 1997 Refuge Enchancment Act.
“What we’re seeing isn’t neglect— it’s a results of an absence of funding and assets,” mentioned Sorenson-Groves. “Congressional appropriations have fallen behind what is required for refuge administration for years, and now the state of Idaho desires to make use of that to declare its administration a failure and provides it away. What is basically wanted is for everybody to return collectively and fund the Refuge System at a stage that may enable refuges to be managed as they need to.”
The Refuge Affiliation urges the general public and policymakers to reject this try to unload America’s conservation legacy. Camas NWR, like all nationwide wildlife refuges, was constructed with public funding for the advantage of all— not as a handout to personal pursuits.
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Because the impartial voice advocating on behalf of the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System, the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge Affiliation protects, promotes, and enhances America’s wildlife heritage via strategic applications that serve the System and wildlife past its boundaries. The group addresses Refuge System funding, administration, and strategic development, whereas additionally selling applications that maximize the system’s conservation influence.
For all media inquiries and questions, please contact Eden Taylor, Director of Communications & Advertising at etaylor@refugeassociation.org.
