FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 24, 2010

Contacts:
Desiree Sorenson-Groves, NWRA, (202) 290-5593, dgroves@refugeassociation.org
Kathy Westra, (301) 754-0711 or westrake@rcn.com

Diverse Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Coalition Applauds Senate’s Recognition of National Wildlife Refuges & Their Economic and Recreation Value

Washington, DC–For the first time ever, the U.S. Senate has passed a resolution designating the week of October 10-16 as National Wildlife Refuge Week. While the week has been celebrated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service every October since 1995, and President Bill Clinton issued a proclamation in 1996, the resolution (SR 644) passed today by unanimous consent, marks the first time that Congress has officially recognized Refuge Week. The resolution recognizes the importance of America’s 552 National Wildlife Refuges to wildlife and habitat conservation, recreation, and the economy, and affirms the Senate’s intent to manage refuges and the wildlife they protect for future generations. The Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE), a coalition of  hunting, fishing, conservation, and scientific organizations that advocates for the National Wildlife Refuge System, praised the Senate action and the bill’s sponsors.

“At a time when the Refuge System faces serious funding and staffing shortfalls, we’re grateful to Senators Kaufman, Cardin and Crapo for leading a bipartisan group of colleagues to call attention to the importance of America’s National Wildlife Refuges,” said Evan Hirsche, President of the National Wildlife Refuge Association and Chair of the CARE coalition. “America’s refuges are the world’s premier system of lands and waters protected to conserve wildlife and habitat. But they are so much more. Refuges are a sound taxpayer investment, returning an average of four dollars to local economies for every dollar spent. In addition, our Refuge System provides incomparable recreation opportunities for millions of visitors, including more than 2.5 million hunters, 7 million anglers, and millions of wildlife watchers as well as boaters and photographers.”

The bill’s cosponsors are a bipartisan group. They include the original sponsors—Ted Kaufman (D-DE), Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD)—and 21 cosponsors: Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Roland Burris (D-IL), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Robert Casey (D-PA), Bob Corker (R-TN), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Dan Inouye (D-HI), John Kerry (D-MA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Carl Levin (D-MI), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Mark Udall (D-CO), and Tom Udall (D-NM), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

The Senate resolution highlights:

• The broad scope of the 150-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which includes 552 refuges and 38 wetland management districts, found in every state and territory of the U.S.;
• The economic contributions of refuges, whose 41 million annual visitors contribute nearly $1.7 billion to local economies and support tens of thousands of local jobs;
• The ecological and wildlife diversity found in the Refuge System, which protects temperate, tropical, and boreal forests, wetlands, deserts, grasslands, arctic tundras, and remote islands, and provide habitat for more than 700 species of birds, 220 species of mammals, 250 species of reptiles and amphibians, and more than 1,000 species of fish;
• The importance of refuge volunteers and more than 220 refuge Friends groups, who contribute 1.4 million volunteer hours the equivalent of 665 full-time employees—to the Refuge System each year.

Read the full text here: http://www.refugeassociation.org/new-pdf-files/2010/SR644-NWRS-Resolution.pdf

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