The Fish and Wildlife Service has dropped its long-standing strategy on the growth of the National Wildlife Refuge System, alarming environmentalists and potentially leaving refuge managers without guidance on possible expansions.
In December, Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik rescinded the agency’s Refuge System Strategic Growth Policy that had been incorporated in the Fish and Wildlife Service Manual for more than a decade.
“Rescinding this chapter is necessary to ensure the Service is aligned with Administration priorities,” Nesvik wrote in a brief Dec. 17 internal directive viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News.
The Fish and Wildlife Service did not announce Nesvik’s action at the time, but a copy of the memo was obtained by the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife.
