A two year old organization named the "Blue Goose Alliance" (BGA) is petitioning for the designation of separate agency status for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Currently, the management of the Refuge System is just one of many functions of the Fish & Wildlife Service. Others include for example, protection of endangered species, fish hatcheries, and assistance to other nations in matters of wildlife protection.

The "Alliance" is comprised of well respected individuals, many from the Fish & Wildlife Service (past and present employees), representatives from several Friends groups, and from various agencies such as the National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and several other conservation organizations.

In presenting a case for a Refuge Service similar to the Forest and Park Services, the BGA has outlined its rationale on its new website, www.bluegoosealliance.org. Key issues preventing the refuge system from achieving its full potential, says BGA, are ineffective leadership (None of the 18 top officials in the Fish & Wildlife Service have field experience), continuing organizational instability, weak and inadequate advocacy, overshadowed public image, serious operational divergence, and chronic underfunding. 1

To fulfill its many responsibilities, the Service divides funding and leadership attention across a diverse set of programs. In practice, this limits the Service's ability to promote the Refuge System, and to provide adequate funding and leadership to refuges. To make the Refuge System better able to reach its full potential, BGA advocates that Congress should pass - and the administration should support - legislation that would create a bureau within the Department of the Interior that would have as its sole responsibility the promotion and administration of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

In addition, although there have been recent budget increases for the Refuge System, (too little and not often enough) the Service's ability to advocate for increased refuge funding is necessarily limited by its obligation to advocate increases for its other operating programs. In 1997, the managers of 125 refuges across the country voiced concerns about these problems in a note to the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, and called for an elevation of the status of refuges as the solution.

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