Is Your Local Wildlife Refuge a Refuge No More?

Hunters at the Clarks River National Wildlife Refuge in western Kentucky. The Trump administration has now opened 92 million acres in 32 states to hunting and fishing. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Michael Johnson via Flickr Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0).

TipSheet: Is Your Local Wildlife Refuge a Refuge No More?

By Joseph A. Davis

Once again, it’s hunting season. But what’s new this year is that Donald Trump has made hunting legal in hundreds of new wildlife refuges. That could be a local story for many environmental journalists. There’s probably one near you.

Actually, some hunting has been allowed in some refuges for a good while. The Trump administration, however, in what might be read as a gesture of disdain for wildlife conservation, has opened many more.

Why it matters

Many of us love our ducks and geese, even if we don’t shoot and eat them. Hunters do too. In fact, historically, hunters have been some of the strongest, most consistent and wisest advocates for wildlife conservation in the United States.

 

There have been multiple layers

of protection to ensure there is

enough wildlife to enrich our

outdoor spaces year after year.

 

But there have been multiple layers of protection to ensure there is enough wildlife to enrich our outdoor spaces year after year — and in perpetuity. The question now is whether Trump is treating these refuges as if they were the equivalent of Venezuela, taking over their resources.

The backstory

This goes way back. Native Americans, frontiersmen and mountain men hunted for sustenance. In the era of Buffalo Bill, the piles of buffalo bones mounted ever higher as wanton slaughter and exploitation prevailed. The bison nearly went extinct. 

But by the time of Teddy Roosevelt, a consciousness of the need to preserve our natural heritage had begun to grow (although Teddy himself liked to hunt).

In that era, Gifford Pinchot invented the term “conservation.” The history of fish and wildlife conservation in the U.S. is too extensive to elaborate here, but you can find lots more. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in the form we know it today, was established in 1956. Today, the USFWS oversees a network of something like 573 refuges — but it’s actually much more when you count all the other conservation categories. The USFWS also oversees a network of fish hatcheries (congressmembers seek them as a kind of environmental pork). 

What Trump just did

In August, though, the Interior Department announced they were opening some 95% of all U.S. refuges and hatcheries to hunting and fishing. The release was out and proud. It called the action “the largest expansion of hunting and sport fishing opportunities in the history of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.” 

 

The release failed to mention

any studies that might have

been performed as to the

action’s environmental impacts.

 

The release failed to mention any studies that might have been performed as to the action’s environmental impacts. It did, however, cite Trump’s January 2025 executive order declaring the deregulation of, well, almost everything. 

The release said the action applied to some 92 million acres of federal land. Interior said it was creating “1,488 new hunting and sport fishing opportunities across 32 states.” 

The release added, “The final rule will increase access at 111 field stations, including 107 national wildlife refuges and four national fish hatcheries. It also includes first-ever hunting or sport fishing opportunities at 14 refuges and three hatcheries, reflecting continued progress toward maximizing access where compatible with conservation goals.”

Story ideas

There’s really only one story idea here (unless you have multiple refuges in your area). 

The question is: How will this affect wildlife in your area? 

Talk to conservationists, state officials, university professors and researchers, hunters and fishers, sporting goods stores and anyone involved with wildlife. 

Go to the refuge in season and see for yourself. Wear orange.

Reporting resources

• Ducks Unlimited: A membership-based national nonprofit focused on duck hunting, with lots of local chapters. One of its main concerns is wetlands conservation (wildlife refuges are often established around wetlands).
• Trout Unlimited: Fly-fishing for trout is a special kind of angling that involves remote, unspoiled streams. Some join this chapter-based nonprofit just to find them. Don’t tell.
• Izaak Walton League: A membership-based national nonprofit focused on fishing. It has lots of local chapters, especially in the Midwest. 
• Local refuge staff: Not all refuges are staffed full time. One way to find the available staff is to visit your local refuge. Start with this list/directory.
• State wildlife agencies: Most states have some kind of fish and wildlife agency, although names and organizational niches vary. State refuges are not affected by Trump’s order, but may offer insight. 
• Center for Biological Diversity: This nonprofit advocates for wildlife conservation, mostly by litigation against government agencies and land developers. It is media-friendly.

[Editor’s Note: Get more background about changes in hunting and fishing of national refuges in these TipSheets from the first Trump administration. We’ve got more on recreational fishing, and issues like chronic wasting disease in deer and the problems of lead ammo and tackle. Plus, get the bigger picture with this Backgrounder on our national park system.]

Joseph A. Davis is a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. who has been writing about the environment since 1976. He writes SEJournal Online's TipSheet, Reporter's Toolbox and Issue Backgrounder, and curates SEJ's weekday news headlines service EJToday and @EJTodayNews. Davis also directs SEJ's Freedom of Information Project and writes the WatchDog opinion column.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 11, No. 36. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.