A New Direction for the U.S. National Wildlife Refuges: the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997

The U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System began as a series of ad hoc executive and legislative actions that set aside a diverse group of lands dedicated to the conservation of specific wildlife populations or habitat. Congress added to this diversity with a series of statutes opening refuges to a variety of nonwildlife uses. In October 1997 the President of the United States signed the National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act into law. We reviewed the major provisions of this new statute to gauge their effect on future refuge management. The statute has three significant components: (1) it establishes an explicit mission for the Refuge System: the conservation, management, and restoration of a national network of habitats; (2) it prohibits refuge managers from permitting nonwildlife uses of refuges that are not compatible with the mission of the refuge and the Refuge System; and (3) it requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop comprehensive conservation plans for units in the system. The Refuge Improvement Act marks a significant shift in the management standards for the Refuge System. However, given the breadth of the discretion accorded the Fish and Wildlife Service by the Act, much will depend upon how the agency delimits the broad statutory mandate in its regulations implementing the Act. The initial indications are that the agency is seizing the opportunity presented by the Refuge Improvement Act to redefine the role of the Refuge System.