Are refuges in trouble? There are 542 refuges in the United States, covering 95 million acres of protected land. Individual refuges serve a multitude of purposes, including protecting endangered plants and animals and their habitats, preserving wild areas, providing outdoor recreational and educational opportunities, and providing land and waters for traditional uses such as hunting and fishing. You would think that with blanket land ownership and the wonderful activities shelters offer, threatened or endangered animals would be totally protected. However, it takes a lot more than you might think to keep these shelters operational. The biggest problems facing our government are the lack of funds and qualified personnel. These two issues have led to various complications within the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) and the Department of the Interior. If money doesn't make you happy, it does make the world go round. Each branch of government receives a certain share of money, which is supposed to be enough to adequately fund everything to keep the agency operating. The problem is that the overall budget that the NWRS receives is very low. This alone creates many problems within an already fragile system. Government funding necessary to conduct research and management programs is inadequate for many species. This lack of funding often has life or death consequences for many species. However, public support for funding the protection of threatened and endangered species has increased in recent decades. Much of the funding for habitat restoration comes from nonprofit organizations and tax-exempt groups. These people raise a lot of funds and make donations of all kinds to keep wildlife refuges running. The NWRS calls these groups “Friends of the Refuge” and they are held in high esteem by many refuge employees (Wildlife Society, 2004). The general public also helps out by making numerous donations and providing other types of necessary services. Much of the manual labor done in shelters can be attributed to contractors or volunteers. Since the NWRS cannot afford to hire new staff, community volunteers are always a big help. Many volunteers will go to their local wildlife refuge and approach them with a plan of action that they have developed...... middle of paper ... with my own eyes. Lack of funding leads to cuts and problems as employees work in politically tense conditions. When someone says, "I'm only one person, what can I do?" ", my answer is: use all the power you have to donate your time to a cause that deserves help like the NWRS. Because knowledge is power and a biologically diverse environment is worth it.Bibliography• Williams, V. (nd). retrieved May 2, 2004 from http://www.rep.org.html.• The Wildlife Society, (nd). retrieved May 2, 2004 from http://www.wildlife.org. • , . (June 28, 2003). Stop hunting in wildlife refuges. Billings Gazette, p. .• (1999). Final Policy on the National Wildlife Refuge System and Compensatory Mitigation under the Section 10/404 Program. retrieved May 2, 2004 from www.epa.gov. • National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, (nd). retrieved May 3, 2004 from grant application website: http://www.nfwf.org.