Is providing staff to manage National Wildlife Refuges an example of wasteful spending by our federal government? Most citizens, if asked this question directly, would have no trouble disagreeing. We know better. The good things that make refuges work often take people to make them happen. At Malheur NWR this involves everything from managing the refuge’s complex irrigation system, to critical actions like issuing grazing permits and controlling the spread of invasive species that damage critical habitat for migrating birds. By law, these duties, and many more, must be carried out by the refuge’s small federal staff.

Yet, our Congress continues, year after year, to act as if wildlife refuges (and other public lands like national forests and national parks) don’t need the people who make them work. I’m bringing this up because I’ve just reviewed the proposed budget for the operation of the National Wildlife Refuge System for fiscal year 2026 that has just been approved by the House Appropriations Committee. At first glance, the sum approved does not seem completely unreasonable. The House Report proposes reducing the operations budget by 4%, from $527 million in FY 2025 to $505.7 million in FY 2026.

Certainly, in a time when we are concerned about federal spending, a 4% cut seems survivable. But what’s missing in this assertion is the context.

Here’s what you need to know. If we look at the refuge system’s operations budget from fifteen years ago and adjust it for inflation, we find that the proposed funding level for the coming year is over 30% lower than the support received in 2010.

This latest reduction, to be clear, is just the latest in a long string of cuts. This cumulative reduction has been achieved through one “reasonable cut” after another. The patterns is not the fault of a single president or a single political party. It is, however, a clear statement of how our political system perceives the value of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The great majority of the money we’re talking about here – well over 80% — goes to pay the people who protect and manage the refuges. The same is true of our national forest and national park budgets. These continuing cuts are severely sapping the ability of the land management agencies to sustain the places we all care about. The Senate has yet to address next year’s funding, but it is unlikely that the Senate will make major upward changes to the House’s proposed funding package.

It appears that FY 2026 is going to be yet another year in which the ability of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do its job is cut yet again.

None of this is good news, but as someone who cares about Malheur NWR, you need to know what’s going on. Now you do.

– W. Tweed