The Examiner reports that the House Committee on Natural Resources recently passed H.R. 1300, which would reauthorize volunteer programs and community partnerships for national wildlife refuges through 2017, and H.R. 1384 - the Wildlife Refuge System Conservation Semipostal Stamp Act of 2013 - which would raise money to address the maintenance backlog and operational shortfall of the Refuge System.

Both bills now go to the full House for a vote.

The Orlando Sentinel recently reported on the brewing battle between SpaceX — a California company owned by billionaire Elon Musk — and those looking to protect refuge habitat.

SpaceX wants 150 acres in an area known as Shiloh, which is surrounded by the healthiest part of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. SpaceX continues to perform commercial launches on traditional sites, such as Kennedy Space Center, but the company believes that by getting land outside the federal complexes, they can avoid “bureaucratic” inconveniences.

The Volusia County Council recently voted 6-1 to support the spaceport.

The lone “no” vote was Patricia Northey, who said the project would harm the refuge and the eco-tourism that has bloomed around it. “You wouldn’t put a spaceport in the middle of the Grand Canyon,” she said. “This is our Grand Canyon.”

While it’s true that NASA launches have operated in relative harmony with Merritt Island NWR in the past, the land that SpaceX wants will likely impede the use of controlled burns, which help wildlife and habitat at the refuge, and might also close down areas to tourism.

Environmentalists also fear the public-closure zone for launches would be enormous, covering even the Intracoastal Waterway, the primary close-to-shore channel for commercial and recreational boats.

The Florida Natural Areas Inventory describes the 40 miles of coastline bordering the refuge and the national seashore as the longest non-urbanized stretch of Atlantic beach in Florida. “This is the last bastion of pristine coastline,” said Dan Daniels, a United Waterfowlers of Florida board member. “This is stuff that there isn’t any more of.”

Ted Forsgren, advocacy adviser for the Coastal Conservation Association, said “the refuge is a big money maker for the county now. You’re going to lose a lot of jobs if that lagoon is messed up.”

If SpaceX doesn’t get the Merritt Island NWR land they want, their next choice is a piece of property near Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. According to ABC 13:

The Florida refuge encompasses 140,000 acres. The Texas refuge is a mostly narrow string of more than 100 separate tracts that have been pieced together to create a wildlife corridor along the final 275 miles of the Rio Grande. There are about 5,700 refuge acres within three miles of the launch site.

“Probably the biggest thing that all refugees are fighting is habitat loss and fragmentation,” said Robert Jess, a project leader for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who oversees the refuge. “Boca Chica is an anchor point of a wildlife corridor that extends into the Texas ranchlands to the north and then south into Mexico. It kind of ensures our connectivity and genetic exchange for ocelot populations.”

A draft environmental impact statement by the FAA:

acknowledged the project likely will “adversely affect” some endangered species, including the piping plover, northern aplomado falcon, jaguarundi, ocelot, and sea turtles

Ironically, SpaceX is owned by Elon Musk, who was just in the headlines for quitting Mark Zuckerberg’s political action committee after it ran ads supporting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Musk is known as being pro-environment and opposed the ads. But does he oppose damaging national wildlife refuges just so he can avoid “bureaucratic red tape” for his rocket ventures.

According to the Orlando Sentinel:

SpaceX founder and billionaire Elon Musk told the Texas House Appropriations Committee last Friday that the Lone Star state is now the front-runner as he and his company seek a site for operating a more-bureaucratic-free facility for launching commercial rockets into orbit.

“Right now, Texas is in the lead,” Musk told the Texas lawmakers, according to the San Antonio Express News.

“It concerns us greatly,” said Jerry Sansom, chairman of the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority, which operates Space Coast Regional. “When you look at the Texas legislature, they’re taking him very serious that they’re going to do everything they can to sweeten the pot.”

So does sweetening the pot include ignoring the environmental impact of a spaceport in or near prime wildlife habitat? It remains to be seen what will play out in Texas, but in Florida, Clay Henderson, an Audubon activist and founder of the Friends of Canaveral wants the U.S. Interior Department “to take a formal role in the Shiloh assessment and not leave that task to the FAA only.”

“We have no confidence FAA will address any environmental concerns,” Henderson said. “They never met a bird they didn’t want to kill.”

The Montana Standard recently published an article that highlights the many problems that the sequester is having — and will have — for the National Wildlife Refuge System, which is a land system already cut to the bone and heavily reliant on volunteers to get much of the work done. The article focused on how the sequester cuts are impacting Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge in Montana.

On the same week that Congress passed legislation to end furloughs of air traffic controllers after being deluged by complaints, [Refuge Manager Tom] Reed was creatively trying to come up with plans to retain a Youth Conservation Corps crew and find a way to retain scheduled public events without offering his employees any additional pay for hosting them…

The Bitterroot Valley refuge’s budget took a 6.2 percent cut as a result. But the cuts don’t stop there. “Agencies are holding monies back right now because of the unclarity of the situation,” he said. “Right now, our budget has been cut by 10 percent.”

Region wide, Reed said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently has 37 vacant positions that can’t be filled because of a hiring freeze. On top of that, seasonal positions aren’t being filled.

That means Reed can’t hire a YCC [Youth Conservation Corps] crew coordinator at this point.

“I’m trying to get creative and maybe find a student intern to fill that position,” he said. “I’m looking at a number of options right now.”

Many refuges rely on the Youth Conservation Corps to perform vital seasonal work at refuges around the country, but now the sequester is impacting those jobs as well.

Wendy Wigert of the Montana Youth Conservation Corps said that organization is dealing with a good deal of uncertainty about what sequestration will mean over the long run…

“We’re probably worried more about next year,” she said. “The 10-year impacts could be devastating for us.”

“The biggest issue that people are bringing up right now is they just don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.

The Courier Post reports that Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J. and other congressional representatives have been promoting a bill that would allow the volunteer program in the National Wildlife Refuge System to continue.

Authorization for volunteer programs at national wildlife refuges expires at the end of fiscal 2014. Runyan’s bill, which he described as a “common-sense bipartisan piece of legislation,” would extend the programs through fiscal 2018.

Volunteerism in the nation’s wildlife refuge system has soared from 4,251 people in 1982 to more than 56,000 people working 2.15 million hours in 2012.

That’s roughly equivalent to more than 1,000 full-time employees — or $47 million in wages.

It’s hard to imagine even Tea Party Republicans having a problem with a bill that gives the federal government free labor to the tune of 1,000 full-time federal employees.

Friends groups and volunteers in the Refuge System help run nature programs, maintain land and water trails, run gift shops, manage hunting and fishing programs, work in Visitor Centers, operate wildlife web cams, lead bus tours, and provide clean-up and maintenance services — all for free, because they value the National Wildlife Refuge System.

It’s time for Congress to recognize this massive citizen commitment to the Refuge System and 1) reauthorize the volunteer program and 2) stop cutting the Refuge System budget, which is clearly a land system that is already cut to the bone, or it wouldn’t be relying on volunteers to do almost 20% of the labor on refuge lands.

The Pacific News Center reports that due to sequester cuts, the Guam National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center will now be closed Monday through Friday, beginning May 1.

Access to the Refuge’s self-guided Nature Trails, beach, picnic and fishing spots will remain open to the public during regular operation hours from 7:30 – 4:00 p.m. daily.

The refuge is composed of 1,203 acres (371 acres of coral reefs and 832 acres of terrestrial habitat) owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and 22,456 acres (mostly forest) of refuge overlay owned by the Department of Defense in Air Force and Navy installations. The Ritidian Unit, which is owned by the Fish and Wildlife Service, was created from a small decommissioned, specialized naval installation.

The refuge receives over 90,000 visits a year from island residents and tourists.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation recently posted a nice look at the newish Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitor Center on Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This visitor center represents eleven national wildlife refuges that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages along the North Carolina coast.

This long-planned visitor center is a beautiful facility that offers many hands-on exhibits and activities for both young and old alike.

“Can You Find Me?” features a falsified natural habitat containing mounted turtles, birds, deer, bears, a wild turkey, snakes, a squirrel and a raccoon, to name a few. We saw 3-D molds of bear scat and deer droppings, and felt the furs of a bear, deer and the surprisingly soft river otter.

We pushed buttons to light up migration ranges for several bird species on a map. We moved our heads to view from different angles an optical-illusion map, which showed northeastern North Carolina’s current sea level and what one-, two- and three-foot sea rises would look like…

A walk-through exhibit on flooding and draining refuges featured mounted ducks, one frozen in mid-underwater dive, loving the plentiful water on the “fall” flooded side. The opposite display had mounted rabbits, turtles and wading birds enjoying the low water level of spring.

Intermittent howling from the far corner punctuated the factual narrators’ voices on various displays and led us to the mounted red wolves exhibit. My daughter’s favorite part was the button that lit up an underground den, revealing two wolf pups at play.

The pups were adorable, even though the adults exuded more menacing looks. Still, their authoritative body positions commanded respect.

In addition the visitor center also has a Cessna airplane where visitors may “fly over” the eleven national wildlife refuges represented at the Center, and the “Wild Things” Book/Gift Shop where visitors may purchase refuge items and a wide assortment of books and other educational merchandise.

Mother Jones magazine reports that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has confirmed the presence of white-nose syndrome at Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama — reportedly one of the most spectacular caves in the country and a prime habitat for bats.

This cave provides winter hibernation space for several bat species, including the largest documented wintering colony of endangered gray bats. More than a million individuals of this federally listed and IUCN listed species nest at Fern Cave.

“With over a million hibernating gray bats, Fern Cave is undoubtedly the single most significant hibernaculum for the species,” says Paul McKenzie, Endangered Species Coordinator for USFWS. “Although mass mortality of gray bats has not yet been confirmed from any WNS infected caves in which the species hibernates, the documentation of the disease from Fern Cave is extremely alarming and could be catastrophic.”

More information can be found on the White-Nose Syndrome.org website.

Yesterday the U.S. Senate confirmed Sally Jewell as the new Secretary of the Interior with a vote of 87-11. She succeeds Ken Salazar, who is retiring.

Reaction from the National Wildlife Refuge Association:

The National Wildlife Refuge Association today expressed its strong support for Sally Jewell as the next Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior following the Senate’s confirmation of her nomination last night. Jewell’s appreciation for the outdoors and wildlife as well as her extensive knowledge of the economic benefits of our natural resources will bring a unique perspective in the President’s cabinet.

“We are extremely pleased by the Senate’s confirmation of Sally Jewell to be the 51st Secretary of the Interior and look forward to working closely with her to grow our nation’s commitment to wildlife conservation at a landscape level, in places such as the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area in Florida, the Silvio Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge in the Connecticut River watershed and Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas.” said David Houghton, President of the National Wildlife Refuge Association. “She will undoubtedly be an excellent spokesperson for the President’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative and will continue to bring attention to our nation’s great public lands.”

Jewell has earned national recognition for her management skills of the nearly $2 billion outdoor equipment company, REI. This expertise makes her uniquely qualified to lead an agency with hundreds of millions of acres of lands where Americans go to enjoy outdoor recreation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System is a haven for outdoor enthusiasts. The sun literally never sets on its 150 million acres spanning 560 units from Guam to Puerto Rico. Over 40 million annual visitors contribute over $4.2 billion in economic output and over 34,000 jobs from recreation-related spending. National wildlife refuges and their recreational opportunities is part of a growing industry in the United States. Jewell’s leadership at the helm of the Department of Interior comes at a crucial time.

“Sally Jewell has been a leader in the outdoor recreation industry using innovative strategies to protect and restore wildlife habitat throughout the Pacific Northwest and across the country; as Secretary of the Interior, she will have an opportunity to articulate and implement a larger conservation vision for the nation.” said Houghton. “We look forward to working with her to further the goals and mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Wildlife Refuge System.”

Five months of work have gone into restoring Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge after the damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy, and finally the refuge is getting back on its feet.

NBC40 in New Jersey has a report and video on the recovery.

The refuge reports as of April 4: The Wildlife Drive, the Songbird Trail, Jen’s Trail, and the road to Gull Pond Tower, all in Galloway, will be OPEN ON WEEKENDS ONLY from sunrise to sunset beginning Saturday, April 6. The Wildlife Drive, the Songbird Trail, Jen’s Trail, and the road to Gull Pond Tower will continue to be closed on weekdays due to reconstruction activities from hurricane damage. Other hiking trails in Galloway are open from sunrise to sunset daily, including the Akers Woodland Trail and the Leed’s Eco-trail. The Visitor Information Center’s hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends. All fees have been temporarily waived. Scott’s Landing Boat Launch is open. Barnegat Observation Platform is open. The deCamp Wildlife Trail in Brick Township is open for the first 2000 feet. Holgate remains closed.

Also, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey has placed a high resolution camera at the refuge to capture the events at an osprey nest. The Osprey Cam can be viewed on the Conserve Wildlife NJ website and also on the Friends of Forsythe website.

WTVR in Virginia reports that the bacteria levels in Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge near Virginia Beach have been a growing concern for 40 years, and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has finally announced it will conduct a study this year to identify the source of the bacteria.

The refuge was established in 1938 and contains over 9,250 acres within the Back Bay Watershed. Thousands of tundra swans, snow and Canada geese and a large variety of ducks visit the refuge during the fall-winter migration. The refuge also provides habitat for other wildlife, including such threatened and endangered species as the loggerhead sea turtle, piping plover and recently recovered species like the brown pelican and bald eagle. Back Bay NWR also provides over eight miles of scenic trails, a visitor contact station, and interpretive programming.

As the ongoing sequester threatens to close down visitor programs at refuges around the country, it’s important to consider what we could be losing.

The Winona Daily News recently published a profile on Ranger Ed at the Winona district of the Upper Mississippi Natural Wildlife and Fish Refuge in Minnesota.

[Ed] Lagace took his job with the Fish and Wildlife Service six years ago, and since has worked tirelessly to engage children and adults in the Winona area with the environment that surrounds them. In his presentations, he particularly works to encourage children less familiar with the outdoors.

“I enjoy the experience with young people because they are sponges,” Lagace said.

Lagace said he regularly encounters kids he speaks to in classrooms who don’t know a lot about the river and haven’t even been on it.

“If our future generations don’t have a connection to the outside world, they won’t make sound decisions about it for future generations after them,” he said.

So Lagace creates partnerships and networks with area schools and hosts events on the river, like canoeing adventures. This year he’s planning seven trips at different parts of the Mississippi River starting in May. Examples include a trip on birding, and one on invasive plants and species.

The trips are free —attendees are just required to bring water and food.

“My strongest stories involve showing a child nature and seeing the recognition that you’ve lit their soul,” Lagace said.

Outdoor News posted details about the 100,000-gallon sewage leak into Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in February.

The leak occurred when a blockage in a pipe caused sewage to back up and overflow into the refuge. The sewage leaked for at least two days, possibly longer.

While much of the solid waste will have been removed, it’s likely liquids seeped into refuge waters, according to Holler (deputy refuge manager). What might be the results? Among the possibilities, she said, are fish kills and increased algae blooms. The possible effects on waterfowl are unknown.

Outcomes are somewhat unpredictable, Holler said, considering “all the things people put in the toilet.”

Holler said Burnsville crews initially removed about six cubic yards of waste from the area – by scraping solids off the ice and snow – and considered the cleanup complete. However, refuge officials inspected the site and decided more could be done. “It’s federal property, and you have to (clean up) to our satisfaction,” she said. “They thought they’d done all they could, and we thought they could do more.”

Refuge officials will continue to monitor the effects of the sewage as the spring and summer progress, Holler said. And they’ll add to their refuge plan how to react should a similar leak occur in the future.