Time to get rid of federal wardens?

The National Wildlife Refuge system has apparently fallen on hard times. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to cut staff and programs at refuges in Montana and seven other states.

According to the Ravalli Republic, wildlife refuges would also be lumped together in districts with shared staff.

There would be three districts in Montana.

• The Benton Lake district in western Montana.

• The Charles M. Russell district made up of the CMR, Hailstone, Grass Lake, Lake Mason, Warhorse and UL Bend.

• The Northern Great Plains district comprised of Bowdoin and Medicine Lake refuges.

No doubt a lot of time and thought went into this proposal. And who couldn’t see the advantage of sharing staff at Bowdoin and Medicine Lake? Those refuges are less than 200 miles apart, a mere three-hour drive.

Here’s another suggestion. If finances are so tight, why employ federal game wardens to monitor the relatively small acreage of the refuges? Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens patrol the whole state and do it for a lesser salary than federal wardens.

With a few exceptions, the rules concerning hunting and fishing on federal land are the same as they are anywhere else in the state.

Not that there’s any fishing on a lot of wildlife refuges including Bowdoin, but there is a federal warden stationed there year-round nonetheless.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to pay a federal warden an average of $13,000 more a year than an FWP warden receives to patrol a much smaller area and not even have any fishermen to check.

I’m no advocate of transferring federal land to the states, but the idea of using state game wardens to patrol federal wildlife refuges just makes sense. FWP wardens patrol the national forests. What’s the difference?

There are currently five maintenance workers at the four different refuges that make up the Benton Lake district. Under the new proposal there would be only one maintenance worker for the entire district.

Get rid of the federal wardens and use that money for maintenance. FWP wardens would fill the void if there even was one.

Or better yet, simply change the job description for federal wardens. Let them help out in other ways, pick up trash, run a shovel, clear a culvert.

It’s hard to believe that policing on refuges that may only see a handful of visitors a month is a full-time job.

Let’s not make it one.

Parker Heinlein is at

[email protected]