A new direction for the US 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 execut ive and legislative actions that set aside a diverse group of lands dedicat ed to the conservation of specific wildlife populations or habitat. Congres s added to this diversity with a series of statutes opening refuges to a va riety of nonwildlife uses. In October 1997 the President of the United Stat es signed the National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act into law. We reviewe d the major provisions of this new statute to gauge their effect on future refuge management. The statute has three significant components: (1) it est ablishes an explicit mission for the Refuge System: the conservation, manag ement, and restoration of a national network of habitats; (2) it prohibits refuge managers from permitting nonwildlife uses of refuges that are not co mpatible with the mission of the refuge and the Refuge System; and (3) it r equires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop comprehensive conserv ation plans for units in the system. The Refuge Improvement Act marks a sig nificant 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 statuto ry mandate in its regulations implementing the Act. The initial indications are that the agency is seizing the opportunity presented by the Refuge Imp rovement Act to redefine the role of the Refuge System.