The Refuge System Improvement Act directs the Secretary of the Interior to acquire, under state law, water rights that are needed for the purposes of wildlife refuges. Ensuring adequate water quantity for conservation purposes is essential, and will become increasingly challenging as the nation’s population grows and the impacts of accelerating climate change are felt. The Refuge System has recently initiated an assessment of its water needs, and the results will be used to prioritize and direct action in order to meet the long-term water quantity needs. Given regional differences in U.S. water laws, a range of actions could include purchase of additional water rights in some western states, while working within state water-appropriation processes in other parts of the country.
The Refuge System’s efforts to secure sufficient water quantity and quality must also include actions to improve overall health and resiliency of all aquatic resources within national wildlife refuges. This effort should enlist the support and expertise of Service fisheries biologists, hydrologists and other experts and partners to assess the condition of wildlife refuge water bodies and identify existing limitations and future problems. The results will be included in the second round of system-wide comprehensive conservation planning. The comprehensive effort should address critical issues, including: adequate groundwater and instream flows; instream passage barriers to native species; restoration of extirpated or reduced native aquatic species; and exclusion, elimination, or control of harmful invasive species.
Recommendation: Complete a thorough assessment of water quantity needs and use the information to determine and prioritize appropriate actions to meet those needs.
Recommendation: Assess water quality conditions and use the information to determine and prioritize appropriate actions to increase aquatic ecosystem health and resiliency.
Comment below and/or move on to next sub-section of Chapter 2 - Working Beyond Wildlife Refuge Boundaries
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Water quality in the Upper Midwest is as important to Refuge System lands as water quantity is to Refuges in our western States. Recent water quality/quantity studies conducted at Agassiz and Horicon NWR’s documented significant sediment and nutrient loads being deposited on Refuge System lands. Refuges and/or Wetland Management Districts located in watersheds where agricultural drainage systems (i.e. surface ditches, sub-surface tile lines), are commonplace typically act as sedimentation basins/nutrient traps for that part of the watershed lying upstream from Refuge System lands. The sediment/nutrient load originating from off-Refuge upstream sources is typically transported via agricultural drainage systems to some surface water system (i.e. stream, river), and eventually deposited on Refuge System lands. This sediment/nutrient deposition is having a significant adverse impact on the biological productivity and integrity of our acquatic resources.
THis subject, considering it critical place in future refuge success, should perhaps play a more key role in determining what refuges of the future look like. The comment on sediment/nutrient deposition, for example, should be key in determining how or if a refuge is going to function into the future if those issue outside of refuge boundaries are not addressed.
I suggest this section include a recognition of the need to better understand the impact of Personal Care Products and other emerging contaminants on aquatic wildlife. Also, we need to be prepared to address the impact of groundwater withdrawals for municipal water supplies and industrial parks on adjacent refuge wetlands. Water quality and quantity is a very big issue in many northeastern refuges and we are ill prepared to address these pressing concerns.
The water supply, quality and functioning aquatic systems are and will continue to be issues and concerns for all resource managers. Addressing these issues in the next round of CCPs is good, but this effort should also be a part of the land protection/conservation strategies beyond NWR boundaries. A watershed approach to collaborative conservation should be a model that will help engage local communities in terms of these and related issues.
While I am not certain where/what Wildlife refuges this applies to, this is a very big concern in the Western states and, in particular, the Northern Rockies. For example: when I did a presentation regarding the Salmon/Steelhead populations in the Snake River Basin in 2000, then current research predicted that, if nothing was done, some native species of Salmon would be considered functionally extinct by 2017. I have not heard updated figures. Considering the drought conditions in the mid-2000′s, this may be a bigger deal now, though. And, generally, it shows that future considerations must be made given how short-term climate changes could potentially have an accelerating affect.