Interior Orders Refuge System Overhaul After Review Finds Field Staff Down 25 Percent

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed Secretary’s Order 3455 on November 6, 2026, directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to move staff and money from headquarters to the 573 national wildlife refuges, restore grazing, logging, prescribed fire and predator control as habitat tools, and expand hunting and fishing access. A six-month review released the same day found field staffing down 25 percent since 2013 while headquarters staffing grew 43 percent.

The review, titled Rooted in Purpose, ran from December 16, 2025 to May 15, 2026 under Director’s Order 230, issued by Service Director Brian Nesvik. Reviewers made 41 in-person refuge visits, 118 virtual visits and four regional office visits, and two internal surveys drew more than 1,000 responses with more than 2,000 to an external survey, the department said in its release. The report’s 29 recommendations fall under four themes. Burgum and Nesvik announced them at Audubon National Wildlife Refuge north of Bismarck, North Dakota, the Wild Sheep Foundation said in a statement.

Permanent full-time staffing outside fire and law enforcement fell about 17 percent between 2013 and 2025, the report says. Field positions dropped from 2,212 to 1,661, while regional offices grew 9 percent to 489 and headquarters went from 111 to 159. Alaska lost 38 percent of its field staff and the Southeast region 34 percent. Refuge law enforcement declined about 22 percent over the same years, and seven states have no full-time field officers while thirteen have one. The system runs one supervisor for every 2.9 employees against a target of one for every eight.

Of the 621 units that reported for fiscal 2025, 444 are open to hunting and 379 to fishing. Units with hunting access grew 26 percent from 2005 to 2025 and units with fishing access 10 percent. The report calls for field-based regional hunting and fishing coordinators and a national sportsman’s access coordinator on leadership teams, present for any decision on hunting, fishing or trapping access, and a partnership coordinator in each of the 50 states to align refuge rules with state regulations where the law allows. It also asks for more hunting and shooting sports recruitment training for employees. So far 148 have completed the Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow course, and Nesvik has set a target of 100 more in the 2026-2027 cycle.

On habitat, grazing takes place on about 18 percent of units, farming on 16 percent and timber harvest on 4 percent, and the report asks the Service to rewrite its manual chapters so grazing becomes a core management tool. It recommends revoking the Urban Wildlife Conservation Program Policy and redirecting that discretionary funding to the conservation mission. Of 616 units with a comprehensive conservation plan status as of April 27, 2026, only 113 hold a current plan, 435 have one more than 15 years old and 68 have none. It sets an 18-month target for full compliance. The order cites a deferred maintenance backlog above $2.8 billion, and the report says $486.8 million in Great American Outdoors Act money has cut that backlog by $450.3 million.

The order gives Nesvik 90 days to send an implementation plan to the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks and 180 days after that to issue the policies carrying it out. Refuge managers must act on compatibility determinations for permits within 180 days of a complete application and on easements within 270 days, and any finding that a use is not compatible goes to the Director before it is final. The order took effect on signature and creates no right enforceable in court.

“Conservation happens on the ground, led by the people closest to our lands and wildlife who know them best,” Burgum said in the release. Nesvik said refuge employees “know what the land needs and what it takes to get the work done.” Boone and Crockett Club president Mary Webster said in the club’s statement that “habitat must be actively managed to provide the diverse requirements for the many fish and wildlife species that depend on our wildlife refuges.” Club member Brandon Maddox, the chief executive of Silencer Central, joined Burgum and Nesvik at the North Dakota announcement. The implementation plan is due by early February 2027, 90 days from the November 6 order.