July 2nd, 2020
In a stunning move, the House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee voted yesterday to approve an amendment that gives away nearly a million acres of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge in southern Nevada to the military. This vote is a huge setback for our efforts to protect the Desert NWR and for the Refuge System.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association has been fighting for years to keep the proposed wilderness of this pristine desert refuge in the hands of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while the U.S. Air Force has sought to expand their presence in this incredibly diverse wildlife habitat of unmatched importance.
Currently controlling primary access to 112,000 acres, and with conditional secondary access to another nearly 738,000 acres, the Air Force has pushed an outrageous proposal that would grant them exclusive access to 1.1 million acres of the refuge. What the House did yesterday comes close to granting the Air Force everything they wanted.
At 1.6 million acres, the Desert NWR is the largest in the Lower 48 states. Created for the protection of the Desert bighorn sheep in 1936, this refuge is also home to a number of other important desert species, such as the endangered Desert tortoise. The majority of the bighorn habitat is in the western half of the refuge, also known as the “joint use area”, and it is included in the area voted on yesterday.
“I’m appalled that the House Armed Services Committee has effectively voted to remove over half of the Desert Refuge from the Refuge System,” said Geoffrey L. Haskett, President of the National Wildlife Refuge Association. “As the largest refuge in the contiguous United States, the Desert Refuge is critical habitat for a vast number of desert wildlife species. The House must reverse this decision immediately.”
It is clear that the House amendment goes against all previous Congressional efforts to protect wildlife refuges, and the Desert NWR in particular. It changes the management of the western half (850,000 acres) at Desert from the primary jurisdiction of the USFWS to the joint management of the USFWS and Air Force. However, later in the amendment, it slides in language that defaults any disagreement to the Air Force, thus completely cutting the USFWS out of any management decisions.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association calls on the House Armed Services Committee to reverse this inexcusable error and vote to restore the wildlife value of the Desert NWR and the integrity of the National Wildlife Refuge System.