Click the link to read the article on the Friends of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge website (Reprinted with permission):

March 2025

Recent freezing of federal budgets and layoffs of federal employees have had many effects on our public lands in New Mexico, including at Bosque del Apache (BdA). The impacts will continue to compound in time and will be felt by wildlife and the public alike, as community events, public lands access, and even local economies are affected.  

New Mexico is privileged to be home to a wide array of America’s precious public land sites, including nine Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Refuges and two National Fish Hatcheries, fifteen National Parks and Monuments, five National Forests, and thousands of Bureau of Land Management acres. Employee layoffs and budget freezes or cuts across these sectors will damage the New Mexico economy, which is heavily reliant upon tourism, especially in the state’s already struggling rural areas.

This comes on the heels of the last two decades, wherein steep budget cuts have meant that land management agencies have already been doing more with less and less each year. The workforce of the entire US Fish & Wildlife Service has now shrunk to just over 2,000 employees – down 30% from where they were fifteen years ago – to manage 95 million land acres and 750 million marine acres! Over the course of the last two decades, staffing levels at BdA, which manages 57,331 acres, have been cut in half from where they previously were. Refuge staff are critical for planning and implementing complex year-round habitat management prescriptions to serve wildlife and migrating flocks at this wetland refuge with steadily decreasing available water, as well as handling the flow of hundreds of thousands of annual visitors who come to the refuge each year seeking to enjoy the birds, wildlife, natural beauty, and other outdoor recreational opportunities. During recent years the refuge’s budget was further reduced from around $2 million to $1.6 million. But one thing that has not decreased in all of this time is the refuge staff’s passion to provide for wildlife. Another is the workload! Rather, because of the growing challenges presented by a river – the lifeblood of the refuge – that is increasingly more heavily-taxed by climatic and population growth factors, the work of maintaining this critical habitat is more important now than ever before.

Budgetary and staffing reductions at the refuge also put at risk the approximately $17 million positive economic impact created by BdA in Socorro County. This economic impact includes local jobs, hotel stays, gasoline, store, and restaurants purchases, etc., as noted in the May 2019 Banking on Nature report by US Fish & Wildlife Service. The report also states that there were 306,000 recreational visits to BdA in 2017 and expenditures from these visits totaled $15.8 million within Socorro County, with nonresidents accounting for $15.5 million or 98% of all expenditures. The contribution of recreational spending in local communities was associated with 181 jobs, $4 million in employment income, $2.4 million in total tax revenue, and $17.4 million in economic output. The impact on the local economy of BdA’s annual Festival of the Cranes alone has been as high as $3 million. How many other public investments provide an eight-fold economic benefit to the local community, as well as multiple recreation possibilities (including hiking, photography, hunting, fishing and birding opportunities, easy access to nature, environmental education, and more)? 

What won’t get done at Bosque del Apache as employees are fired? 

• Parts of refuge trails and the fourteen miles of driving loops may need to close due to lack of manpower to maintain, clean, and clear them, resulting in less access for the public.  
• Fields, trails and waterways/wetlands will become overgrown with invasive species (salt cedar, johnson grass, kochia, cocklebur, parrotfeather, etc.) when there is insufficient staff to control or eradicate them. Lack of trail maintenance (correcting erosion, clearing fallen trees) means trails will become unusable. All of this leads to less access for the public and a less desirable habitat for wildlife, leading to fewer visitors and ultimately undermining an already struggling economy.  
• Less food will be grown for migratory flocks (sandhill cranes, geese, ducks, etc.) due to lack of enough staff to run heavy equipment to disc, plant, mow, and manage water. This will create a domino effect on wildlife and the visitors who come to watch and photograph them. With BdA not producing the food it once did, although the Middle Rio Grande Valley flock appears to be stable, it is becoming more concentrated at Bernardo Wildlife Area to the north, with potential avian health problems that come with crowded conditions.  
• Insufficient visitor services at the Visitor Center – less help, and less events and educational talks for the public and children. Though we continue to utilize volunteer manpower to implement tours and environmental education, they must be onboarded, trained, and managed by staff. Visitor Center hours will be reduced, leading to less access for the public.  
• Bathrooms won’t be cleaned or stocked as often or as well for the public.  
• With no or fewer staff to stop people going into closed areas, wildlife will be disturbed and won’t be as protected. During periods of past government shutdowns, poaching has unfortunately even occurred on the refuge.  
• Environmental education programs for local school groups will be decreased and/or be halted with fewer staff to implement them.  
• Annual events, such as Festival of the Cranes and Spring Migration Celebration, will be impacted and potentially cancelled in the future if there are insufficient refuge staff to help plan and implement these events, creating a major impact to the local economy. (See financial data at the beginning of this article). Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Festival of the Cranes brought in 1,000+ participants and had an economic impact of nearly $3 million. Since Covid, these numbers have been steadily rebuilding, but that cannot be sustained without refuge staff support.  
• Partnerships with local universities will be affected. With reduced access to refuge trails and waterways, and less (or no) refuge staff and funding, researchers will not be able to consistently do their work, seriously hampering the future of ecological and environmental progress.  
• Summer internships will be curtailed if there is no staff to guide interns, affecting the training of the next generation of biologists and conservationists.  
• Innovative solutions for New Mexico’s challenges around water, such as Friends of Bosque del Apache’s Regenerative Agriculture Project and Pollinator Habitat Enhancement Project will be affected by lack of staff to assist with irrigating and keeping invasive plants managed on the refuge. These programs will be curtailed or have to be discontinued, stunting the future ability of the refuge to resourcefully meet the environmental challenges of these times, including decreased water and declining pollinator species. Note that pollinators are essential for growing food for people as well as wildlife. 

Up to this point, services have been maintained and some of the essential damages of decreased funding have been mitigated with the support of Friends of Bosque del Apache. For example, Friends covered costs for some of the fuel that runs critical equipment, much needed well and equipment maintenance and the projects described above, which are working toward solving water and pollinator problems. However, fully offsetting the extensive impacts of staffing and budget cuts is beyond what the Friends organization can manage. 

What can you do to help? 

If you care about supporting the local economy and conserving New Mexico’s precious wildlife and habitats, please take action to help us continue our mission of supporting this critical wetland habitat, among the last remaining 2% of wetlands in the Desert Southwest. 

• Your Voice Matters! – Contact your representatives and let them know how important America’s National Wildlife Refuges are. If you’ve never done this before and don’t know where to start, go to this website and enter your zip code. 
• Your Support Can Help Fill the Gap – Give a donation to help minimize interruptions to important refuge programs and projects. 
• Spread the Word – tell your friends and family about the importance of this critical wetland oasis in the desert, or better yet – invite them to join our mailing list so they will receive regular updates and newsletters. The more people who understand the importance of conservation, the bigger the impact we can have together! Also, bring them for a refuge visit so they can experience the magic of Bosque del Apache firsthand!