By Tim Eisele

    “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see. . . “ are words from a song by Bob Dylan and sung by many, including Peter, Paul and Mary.

If people who care about the environment and wildlife don’t stand up for public lands and the professionals working for us in natural resources, nobody else will!

    The chaos that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have created, under the guise of rooting out inefficiencies and reducing Federal paychecks, will come home to haunt Wisconsin’s natural resources programs.

    Federal offices are being closed, Federal employees are unsure whether they have jobs, and programs dependent on Federal grants are on hold.

    Employees are fearful of the next e-mail message, morale is down the tubes, and talented young recruits who would be tomorrow’s conservation leaders are looking elsewhere.

    This is no skillful cutting of “fat” with a surgical knife, but more like a chain saw.  The intent is to gut Federal government.

    In addition, the current system of natural resources management, (best described as the North American Model of Wildlife Management), involves a unique cooperative approach of state, county, and federal organizations, along with many non-governmental organizations.  

    Wisconsin works in coordination with employees of the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Cooperative Fisheries Research Unit, Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, USGS National Wildlife Health Laboratory, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Waterfowl Production Areas, Genoa and Iron River National Fish Hatcheries, USDA Wildlife Services, and Farm Services Agency.

    Those Federal employees are concerned about their future employment, and their agencies have given orders not to talk to the press.

    Some project and probationary employees who have already lost their jobs, after being accused without documentation of substandard work, have told their stories.

    A forestry source in northern Wisconsin confirmed that on Valentine’s Day, 12 probationary employees on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest were let go, along with another four from the Great Lakes Visitor Center in Ashland.

    The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported that “about a half-dozen scientists were fired last month from the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center” and these are people who work on invasive carp and ecosystem problems of the Upper Mississippi River.

    The Department of Governmental Efficiency, has closed a leased U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Madison.

    Many who are still working will not talk fearing retaliation and job loss.

    The Wisconsin Waterfowl Association reports that it has signed contracts to do wetland habitat restoration work based on Federal grants, but now it has a lack of confidence that those agreements will be honored and the funds will be made available to pay the contractors.

    Other non-government organizations get grants from FWS for wetland projects and restoration, and they are concerned about what might be cut or delayed.

    More reductions are coming, as outlined in Project 2025 that was drafted prior to the presidential election.  What is expected are efforts to open refuges to oil and gas drilling, sell off public lands, and shrinking the Federal workforce.

    A future possibility is that the Senior Executive leaders such as those with National Wildlife Refuges, could be moved to other locations to encourage people to retire or quit.

State retirees CAN talk

    Tom Hauge, retired director of Wildlife Management for the Wisconsin DNR, said that, “If I were in Eric Lobner’s shoes (the current DNR director of wildlife management) right now I’d be very concerned about what these impacts will be on wildlife conservation in Wisconsin.”

    Wisconsin relies on grants from the Federal government, and in the last biennium the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) received over $200-million from the Federal government.

    Hauge, who also co-chairs of the Wisconsin Green Fire Wildlife Working Group, said the same goes for the DNR’s Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation which receives State Wildlife grants from the Feds to help fund their work.

    “The first dismissals of folks on probationary status, which you might think of as young out-of-college folks, also includes people who were mid-career and changed from one job to another and were in that first year,” Hauge said.  

    Joshua Martinez is typical of a young person who lost his job after he had worked as a wildlife biologist for DNR and then took a new job with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  He “was fired for no reason of my own doing,” and is now trying to support his family of four.

    Hauge said that FWS distributes the excise tax reimbursements to the state, which in the last fiscal year was $27.7-million for wildlife, and for fisheries was $11.8-million.

    “A lot of that goes into habitat work, species monitoring, and staff positions,” he said. Whether those funds will be at risk is not known, but there has been a hold or slow-down on federal payments that is a concern, as the DNR spends the money first and then has to get reimbursed.

    Federal funds were used in many of the major wildlife programs, such as elk and wild turkey reintroductions.

    “This is part of the foundation of wildlife conservation in DNR,” Hauge said.

    The U.S.D.A. Aphis Wildlife Service is contracted by DNR to issue permits for landowners to deal with problem wildlife and if they don’t have the staff, it will take much longer to get permits for things like beaver control, bear trapping or Canada goose removal.

    Hauge said he heard this agency had lost 8 field positions, and wonders how this will affect service to landowners?

    The Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Services Administration works with private landowners on programs such as CRP and the voluntary public access program helping hunters access private land.

    There is concern about continued payments to landowners, but a spokesperson for NRCS said: “On February 20, Secretary Rollins instructed the Natural Resources Conservation Service to resume issuing payments to farmers and ranchers for three programs funded in part by the Inflation Reduction Act: the Environmental Quality Incentive Program, the Conservation Stewardship Program, and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.”

    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service makes aerial surveys of waterfowl breeding grounds to get information to set hunting seasons, and runs the bird banding lab to provide population data.  Migratory bird hunting seasons are closed unless the government has biological information to substantiate a hunting season can be opened.

    Wisconsin has benefitted from North American Wetland Conservation Act grants for large wetland restoration work.

    Under the U.S. Geological Survey, the National wildlife Health Center in Madison is instrumental in doing necropsies on wildlife, including research on Avian Flu that is a big concern now as well as chronic wasting disease (CWD) and white-nosed syndrome (WNS) in bats. It has been a leader in working with states on testing for CWD and WNS.

This spring more than 1,000 sandhill cranes enroute north died of the Avian Flu.

    The Center’s website said it was the first federal program devoted to addressing wildlife health issues, including responding to wildlife die-offs, providing technical assistance in the diagnosis, prevention and control of disease and conducting disease applied research.

    The lab’s work impacts not only wildlife, but farm animals and human health, yet the Lab lost three probationary employees with the first layoffs.  Since science is no longer a priority the conjecture is that the lab could be in for much larger layoffs if not closure.

    Hauge adds that the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit in Madison has been involved in CWD research and population monitoring, as well as helping to train students to become professional biologists.

    Its sister is the Cooperative Fisheries Research Unit which one source said was going to hire several project employees but no longer can. The U.S.G.S. Office of Communications official response to a request for status on the Coop Fisheries Unit responded that they are: “working with GSA to ensure facilities or alternative options will be available for the continued delivery of USGS services.” 

    At least it is a response, but it tells us they are scared and don’t want to irritate the wrecking crew by giving out its current budget and position status.

    The U.S. Forest Service works with wildlife on sharp-tailed grouse habitat work, and ruffed grouse surveys.  The Good Neighbor Program allows DNR to help with timber harvests and put revenue into helping the Young Forest Initiative to benefit grouse and woodcock.

    Similarly, Mike Staggs who served as director of Fisheries Management for DNR until retiring in 2015, said, “Sport Fish Restoration (SFR) was a critical part of the Fisheries Management budget which was used to supplement a range of activities related to sport fishing including stocking, fish surveys, aquatic education and outreach programs, and infrastructure.”

“We used significant SFR funds on the new Wild Rose Hatchery and in building the Lake Michigan research vessel Coregonus, and maintain boating access sites,” he added.

Staggs adds that DNR would have had serious issues if the SFR grant had been cut, suspended, or eliminated, resulting in downsizing the fisheries program, cutting staff and scaling back surveys.

Staggs said that DNR fisheries also worked closely with Federal fisheries personnel in Ashland and Green Bay on survey and restoration work on the Great Lakes, including all of the stocking of lake trout.

    “Wisconsin has been getting significant trout stream restoration funding from USDA NRCS grants in recent years.  Given NRCS seems to be a target for staff cuts, trout stream restoration programs in agricultural areas would take significant hits if that program was cut,” he said.

    “Federal funding and staff are integral partners to managing Wisconsin’s fisheries resources and there will be measurable impacts to cuts to those programs, Staggs said.

    Dennis Schenborn, retired DNR Fisheries Planning and Budget chief, says, “The story is a simple one: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provides money directly to state sport fish programs and takes on jobs too big for any one state to handle.”

    He cites the Federal funding being used to stock fish, restore fish habitat, build public boat ramps, and restore lake trout.

    “Federal staff aren’t a bunch of paper-pushers, but instead they are the employees in Wisconsin streams killing sea lampreys, on boats assessing alewife populations, and ensuring that Wisconsin gets its fair share of Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration funds,” Schenborn said.

    It appears the President is attempting to run the Federal government like a private corporation.  He expects the agencies to make profits by reducing employees and budgets, turning away from providing services for people and the environment.

    Lots of dedicated public servants will be hurt, and most likely public lands we mistakenly believed would be gems for eternity, will be diminished.