The next federal spending bill is in jeopardy as Democrats and a few Republicans are now balking at renewing funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the wake of the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota.
Should the funding bill pass in its current form, it would have significant effects on other federal programs, including a $5 million cut to the budget for the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The system is overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the numbers show that previous budget cuts have already kneecapped operations.
There are 10 refuges across Hawaiʻi, including James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on Oʻahu, Keālia Pond on Maui, and Hakalau Forest on the Big Island.
Nathan Marcy, the senior federal lands policy analyst for the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife, spoke with The Conversation about where Hawaiʻi falls in the mix.
Interview highlights
On the National Wildlife Refuge System
NATHAN MARCY: Funding levels for the National Wildlife Refuge System have been stagnant or declining now for a number of years, really. They peaked in 2010, and since then, even when there's been a year to year increase in funding levels, those increases have not kept up with inflation. And there have been other increasing costs, increased visitation, so the effective funding levels for their purchasing power has just declined steadily since then. And as a result of that, there had been a 30% decrease in staffing throughout the refuge system. And then when you come to last year, at the start of the Trump administration, as a result of the deferred resignation and early retirement programs that DOGE kicked off, you had an additional 25% roughly, loss of staff. But that was on top of this long term 30% decline. So the two things have combined to leave the refuge system now in a very precarious spot.
MARCY: Collectively, the refuge system nationwide is actually the world's largest network of protected lands and waters for conservation, and among the other federal land systems, national parks and forest service and things like that. The refuge system is the only one of those land systems that is dedicated to wildlife. It is the only one of those systems that has a statutory mission that puts wildlife first. You have refuges in at least one in every state and territory of the United States. They're in every ecosystem type, from swamps to prairies to mountains, tropical forests, such as in Hawaiʻi, tundra in Alaska, and they've played a very crucial role in the protection and recovery of threatened and endangered species, which is important in many places.
On staffing data at refuges across the country
MARCY: The data that we have came from an internal review that the leadership of the refuge system did last year, in which they assessed the sort of staffing adequacy at all of those 573 refuges across the country, and they categorized them all into these four categories. The first one being refuges that have all those staff and resources they need. And spoiler alert, there are none of those. The next one would be refuges that have limited resources, that they're still able to meet some of their management goals, but not all. And then the third are those with insufficient resources that are not able to meet their management goals because they lack necessary staff. And then there's a fourth category of refuges, which they call shuttered, which may or may not actually be closed, but they may simply not have any staff on site. And so nationwide, as of July of last year, like I said, there are no refuges with full staff levels. 59% were categorized as having insufficient resources. And then, just to bring it back to Hawaiʻi, there are 10 refuges in Hawaiʻi. Eight of those 10, 80%, have insufficient resources. So Hawaiʻi is definitely worse off even than the nation as a whole.
On how cuts will impact refuges
MARCY: One of the first things that often seems to be lost are the biological programs, the things that are most important to us, of course, as Defenders of Wildlife, so things like the monitoring of threatened and endangered species. That is often one of the first things to go, followed by habitat management programs, but also, maybe most visibly, would be the impacts to visitor services. We're hearing oftentimes the visitor centers at refuges are either closed outright or their hours have been reduced greatly. They may only be open one or two days a week, also just the maintenance of facilities, of roads, of buildings that is suffering, and even public safety and the safety of wildlife is put at risk when refuges lose their law enforcement staff.
On additional challenges facing the refuge system
MARCY: The refuge system is facing a number of challenges. I think that arguably, this lack of funding, lack of staffing and other resources, is the single greatest challenge that refuges are facing. But it is not the only one. Other ones that we're tracking include things like land exchanges. … They're actually proposing to give away pieces of refuge land to companies or private interests, which is certainly of concern to us. And another thing that has come to light recently is that the new incoming director of the [U.S.] Fish and Wildlife Service is kicking off a review of the refuge system, which remains to be seen what the consequences of that are going to be. Perhaps some good things will come out of that. But that's definitely something to keep our eyes on, rather than seeing these staffing numbers and realizing, well, the refuge system is not living up to its obligations. It needs more resources and more staff. There's concern that perhaps they could look at that and say, ‘Well, there are too many refuges.’ The refuge system is not living within its means, and perhaps they might look at things like land exchanges or other things of that nature to even shrink the refuge system, which, of course, would not be a good outcome for wildlife.
This story aired on The Conversation on Jan. 27, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
