Refuge Cutbacks Mean Hard Lessons for WA Kids
Chris Thomas, News Director
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Lacey, WA – For the first time in five years, kids near the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge aren't going there to put their science knowledge to work. A program at Komachin Middle School is one of many that ended because there aren't enough refuge employees left to work with the students, and that's the result of federal budget cuts. Science teacher Raven Skydancer says his classes are proud of their efforts to replant a 100-acre area that had been clear-cut.
"For them to get out to the wildlife refuge and to get a taste, not only for helping restore what has been destroyed, but have a hand in the future restoration of a really critical area -- they'll remember that."
A new report by the group Defenders of Wildlife says the National Wildlife Refuge system is $2.5 billion short on operations and maintenance funds, and stands to lose at least 20 percent of its staff. Skydancer says the cutbacks have already been a lesson to his students -- that, in his view, federal priorities are skewed.
"The environment keeps us alive. If we keep ignoring it, and not taking care of it, and not educating how to take care of it, we're in for some serious reality checks."
There are 22 refuge sites in Washington, with about two million visitors every year.
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