25,000 geese.

birds per year.

With effective management nesting should produce as many as 7,000 Water levels will be controlled with structures developed by the Bureau of Reclamation. Funds are required for staff salaries, seasonal help, supplies, materials, etc.

Hobe Sound, Florida

$35,000.

This is a small refuge located on the inland side

of Hobe Sound in eastern Florida. It consists of a dune-woodland-water habitat where such unusual wildlife species as great white heron, southern bald eagle, brown pelican, osprey, scrub jay, and Florida manatee may be found. The area contains a natural estuary containing unique species of plants which should be protected from despoilation. The refuge staff will consist of one professional employee engaged primarily to undertake biological investigations, conduct wildlife censuses, maintain the improvements, and protect the wildlife populations.

Wassaw Island, Georgia - $56,000. This is a 12,000-acre refuge off the coast of Georgia, located 15 miles southeast of Savannah. It is an excellent natural area, unspoiled by development and over-populated conditions. Numerous forms of wildlife are found on the island. Management will be concerned with wildlife population balance and control. The island has been donated by The Nature Conservancy for use as a national wildlife refuge. Posting of the boundary, establishment of an access point, and purchase of a boat and other equipment needed in biological investigations will consume most of the funds and manpower authorized during the first year of operation. One full-time employee is needed to implement the operation and maintenance program.

Wolf Island, Georgia

$10,000. This 4,218-acre refuge lies off the coast of Georgia, a few miles east of Darien. While the refuge has been under Bureau control for many years, funding has been deferred consistently, due to fiscal constraints. The island is important to brown pelicans and several species of shore birds. Funds are required for posting and equipment purchases, as well as to engage part time employees for operation and maintenance work.

Optima, Oklahoma $60,000. This is a 3,355-acre Corps of Engineers reservoir project in Texas County, located on Cold Water Creek, just above the confluence with the Canadian River. A formal agreement has been prepared covering management of the area by this Bureau and execution is anticipated prior to FY 1971. Once the agreement has been signed, it will be necessary to move in with personnel and equipment and initiate management work. An administrative headquarters will be established in a nearby town, motor vehicles and farming equipment will be purchased, posting of 15 miles of boundary initiated and cropland management and related programs undertaken. Four full-time emplovees will be needed to execute the operation and maintenance program. Active management is expected to provide 22,000 man-days of waterfowl hunting annually in the vicinity of the refuge. is also estimated that visitor days will reach 35,000 annually.

It

Erie (Seneca addition), Pennsylvania $19.777. Located about 25 miles south of Erie in Crawford County, this 4,600-acre addition to Erie Refuge has a potential to accommodate a million waterfowl use-days annually. Containing flat bottom-land, the area is strategically located on major migration routes of both Atlantic and Mississippi Flyway populations. Upon development, it will provide undisturbed feeding and resting habitat during the fall and spring migration periods. It is essential that funding and staffing be authorized in FY 1971.

Fishermen Island, Virginia - $30,000. This 800-acre island located in the Chesapeake Bay, about 15 miles north of Norfolk, was obtained by permit from the U.S. Navy in September 1968. It is an important shore bird nesting and resting area, with some waterfowl use. In view of the proximity of the island to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and tunnel and nearby boat traffic, it is anticipated that substantial public use activities will evolve during peak nesting periods. Funds and staffing are required for posting, protection, surveys and censuses, wildlife interpretatation and visitor control.

Mason Neck, Virginia - $41,000. This refuge is located in Fairfax County, just a

few miles south of Washington. 7.C.

Comcation ma

water along the Potomac River, this P-acre tract was purchased from The lecture Conservancy. The area provides excellent tanta for acering, and vacTE 1 DE Of particular importance is the scant r come wa tier score testing THCtat for bald eagles. Funds and staff are essence a effective management. One full-time et Love se mener to coNCE TALE investigations, provide intervretive services, auf vance general mention ar maintenance work. Purchase of enviament and and LICNET DE sensima. TeLT K necessary during the early period of metacame.

Seedskadee, Wyoming - $55.000. The Seanskatee latina #iddle lefume lished on November 30, 1965, for management in compunction en metaccam of the Fontenella Dam on the Green River in Sweetwater Councy, WOWOTE The D and flood control project was authorized to the Colorado em formams Act of 1956. Funds for development and operation for FI 1966 Chequer ? 15′′ member for inter the Upper Colorado River Storage Project autoon atom and the bureau of teclatetion. In FY 1971, the funding for this refure has been stifter from the bureau SÉ Reclamation appropriation to the Management and Cover com of hesources alorspriation of this Bureau.

The refuge contains 22,000 acres of land and water, storiting excellent tarttet for big game, waterfowl and urland game. A hunting program is underver and Cher public use activities are important to the gru. The funds and positions requested will permit continued operation of this important wildlife project.

(6) Shift in financing, $600,000 and six positions. Pursuant to the Refuge levenue-Sharing Act, an adjustment of real property cost figures will increase revenuesharing payments to counties in FY 1971 by approximately $500,000. This amount will be taken from the National Wildlife Refuge Funds and will here the effect of reducing funds anticipated for the refuge operation and maintenance program by the same amount. An increase of $600,000 is requested to restore this anticipated payment from the National Wildlife Refuge Fund

(7) Standby duty, $400,000. Of the 327 units in the National Wildlife Refore System, 177 are staffed with small numbers of permanent full-time employees. A number of employees are required as a condition of employment, to live on the refuge.

Whether employees occupy Government quarters or reside off the station, many refuge employees are required to remain at their station for longer than their normal tour of duty of 40 hours per week. A substantial amount of the extended period of official duty is in a standy status in readiness to perform their regular duties as the occasion arises. This is necessary to provide adequate fire protection, game law enforcement, deter vandalism, poaching, and theft of Government property, insure that pumps operate normally to regulate water flow, in some instances, to insure protection of confined wildlife, and to oversee and regulate high visitor use in the public interest.

Growing human populations, increased public use of Bureau facilities, increased incidents of vandalism, theft, game law violations, etc., require almost round-theclock surveillance of facilities. This factor, coupled with tight restrictions on employment, are major factors in converting to standby duty as a means of coping with manpower shortages and resolving problems of effectively managing the refuge programs. With an average of 2 or 3 emplovees per refuge, it is not possible to meet these problems through staggered tours for official duty at night, on Sundays, and holidays.

Legal authority for premium pay for regularly scheduled standby duty is in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 5545. The additional annual cost to compensate employees is $400,000.

(8) Employees' compensation payments, $41,089. An increase of $41,089 is needed to meet the increased cost of employees' compensation payments.

Program of Work: As of July 1, 1969, there were 327 units in the National Wildlife Refuge System, comprising about 30.8 million acres. There are refuges in every State but four. The system also includes more than 800,000 acres of waterfowl production areas, small but excellent duck producing wetlands in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Montana. Approximately 210,000 acres is owned in fee and the remainder is covered by protective easements.

About 260 of the refuges are primarily migratory waterfowl habitat. The objective of waterfowl refuges is to provide a balanced network of habitat to care for nesting, feeding and resting needs of the waterfowl population. Although managed primarily for the protection and perpetuation of the migratory waterfowl resource as subjects of hunting and as objects of great public interest, management also takes into account that the refuges should be a "wildlife display."

Twenty-one wildlife species that are threatened with extinction are found on national wildlife refuges. These are the': Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel, red wolf, timber wolf, key deer, Sonoran pronghorn, Aleutian Canada goose, Tule whitefronted goose, Laysan duck, Mexican duck, Florida everglade kite, southern bald eagle, peregrine falcon, whooping crane, Yuma clapper rail, red cockaded woodpecker, Nihoa millerbird, Laysan finch, Nihoa finch, dusky seaside sparrow, American alligator, and Florida manatee.

Six of the national wildlife refuges have been set aside from the public domain as game ranges under joint-jurisdiction of Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. Originally set aside to benefit particular species of big game, they also constitue uniquely valuable habitat for other wildlife species.

This habi

Habitat Management. One of the major functions of the National Wildlife Refuge
System is managing and improving the habitat for all forms of wildlife.
tat includes croplands, grasslands, marsh and water, and woodlands.

Over 155,000 acres will be under cultivation in FY 1971. This program is accomplished primarily through share cropping by farming permittees. About 1,000 permittees farm some 110,000 acres of land. The remaining 45,000 acres is cultivated by refuge personnel. This program provides feeding areas for waterfowl and other wildlife. Waterfowl depredation problems are reduced through this program. Direct farming operations conducted by refuge personnel are practiced in those instances where cooperative farmers are not available or where not enough food can be provided through the cooperative crop sharing program.

Approximately 1,500,000 acres will be grazed under about 950 permits in 1971. This carefully planned management of refuge lands provides improved nesting conditions for waterfowl and in addition provides food for both waterfowl and other wildlife.

The refuge woodlands program is designed for the maximum economic return and maximum benefits for wildlife. Through proper management, optimum timber product values are attained.

The habitat management program also includes manipulation of marsh and water systems to provide maximum benefits to the wildlife resources.

Included in this program is drawdown of marsh areas for the planting of wildlife food crops and control of undesirable vegetation.

Wildlife Population Management. This program is the process through which wildlife populations and habitat carrying capacity are evaluated and kept in balance. It involves refuge objectives that complement international, National, and State goals to maintain optimum wildlife populations and their distribution for public benefits. This program includes such activities as banding and marking of wildlife, control of animal species, surveys and censuses, public hunting, trapping and transplanting, disease control, population concentration control, crop depredations control, and

protection of the wildlife resource. Due to the large concentrations of wildlife on our national wildlife refuges, opportunities are provided for banding and marking of large numbers of animals at relatively low cost.

This program provides much needed management information regarding the wildlife resources using refuges. Periodic population surveys are essential to evaluate and employ proper management techniques for wildlife and funds are provided for such censuses. Wildlife on refuges must be protected through the enforcement of the Federal conservation laws and the regulations. Population losses is disease Buch as botulism are reduced by treatment of infected species and minimizing, wildlife use of infected areas. Over-concentrations of wildlife species that cause crop and property damage, and poor distribution of public use benefits are also reduced through population management.

Public Use Management. Programs on refuges entail interpretive programs, visitor protection, and visitor services. The interpretation program provides for wildlife trails, observation towers, wildlife interpretive centers (visitor centers), signs, conservation education programs, and refuge tours. The visitor services program includes the operation and maintenance of boat launching ramps, picnic sites and other recreational developments. Requirements for the management and operation of the refuge public use program increase from year to wear as the visitor use increases. The number of visits to the Refuge System is expected to reach 17,000,000 during FY 1970.

Planning. The orderly development of the National W1811fe Refuge System is depeDdent upon a proper program of planning. The request will provide for the study of alternative means of achieving refuge objectives, the appraisal of future management and development needs, and the charting of a strategic course of management and development action. Master planning is a continuous process, involving completing plans started in previous years, updating the planning of refuges underway, and initiating planning activities on new refuges.

Wilderness Planning. The Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577) of September 3, 1964, directs the Secretary of the Interior to review every roadless area of 5,000 acres or more and every roadless island within the National Wildlife Refuge System and to report to the President by September 3, 1974 his recommendation on the suitability or non-suitability of each such island or area as wilderness. Recommendations must be made on not less than one-third of the areas and islands within three years after enactment of the Act, not less than two-thirds within seven years and the remainder within ten years of enactment of the Act.

The majority of the refuges remaining to be studied are highly complex land masses requiring field investigations covering the biological, ecological, economic, and social aspects of each refuge. This detailed information is required in order to make decisions leading to a recommendation to the President. To many instances, several years of intensive study is required to complete reviews, especially the vast acreage involved in the large wildlife ranges in the West and Alaska. These studies are a prerequisite to public hearings, since firm recommendations must be presented to those attending.

A functional breakdown of the total programs, including refuge receipts is as follows:

Examples of Recent Accomplishments:

Established and nurtured by conservation crisis and need, the National Wildlife Refuge System mission is to provide, manage and safeguard a national network of lands and waters sufficient in size, diversity and location to meet people's need for areas where the entire spectrum of human benefits associated with migratory birds, all other wild creatures and wildlands are enhanced and made available.

Waterfowl use of the National Wildlife Refuge System. About 250 of the refuges and all waterfowl production areas were established primarily as migratory waterfowl habitat. During calendar year 1968 they accommodated about 1.5 billion waterfowluse-days. (A use-day represents the use of a refuge for one dav by one swan, goose, duck, or coot.) Also, breeding waterfowl on these areas produced an estimated 1,000,000 young birds.

Endangered species. Twenty-one wildlife forms listed in the Federal Register as threatened with extinction are found on refuges. The number of whooping cranes returning to the Aransas Refuge, Texas, during the winter of 1969-70 was an alltime high, 55 birds. The Federal Government began protecting the whoopers, North America's tallest birds, at Aransas when the refuge was opened in 1937. The first accurate census, taken in 1941, revealed only 15 of these majestic cranes on the grounds, but since then the population has been steadily increasing. It exceeded 30 in 1947, topped 40 in 1964 and reached 50 last year.

Refuge management studies. Refuges are valuable for evaluation of wildlife management practices to determine the best ways to apply research findings to future field operations. An up-dated summary ending in 1969, lists 137 studies designed to produce wildlife and habitat benefits. College students carried out 54 of these studies. Their efforts not only produced the required thesis for advanced degrees, but also provided management information on waterfowl, sandhill cranes, big game, small mammals, reptiles, insects, public use programs, and marsh, estuarine, grassland, and timberland ecology.

Refuge publications. Nearly 165 visitor leaflets describing individual refuges are now available, describing the refuge and what visitors may see and do on it. Bird lists are available for 140 refuges, and mammal lists for 30, telling visitors what birds and mammals they can expect to see at any given time of the year.