Here is the latest edition of The Flyer, the newsletter of the National Wildlife Refuge Association.

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

Dear friends and supporters,

In October 2011, the USFWS released their bold new vision for the National Wildlife Refuge System called Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation. This new vision called upon all of us to accept the challenge to conserve America’s iconic National Wildlife Refuge System through optimism and innovation.

The Service has worked hard to meet this challenge even though declining budgets, a 2013 government shutdown and ongoing efforts by some in Congress to undermine the System’s integrity, has made it difficult. The National Wildlife Refuge System has made significant strides in landscape conservation, and with the expansions of Marine National Monuments by President Obama, now encompasses almost 1 billion acres of water and land, the largest system of public lands on planet Earth.

If the National Wildlife Refuge System was a country, it would be the 7^th largest country in the world!

The Refuge Association is proud to have supported the Service at every step of the way to help achieve success, and more than anyone, we have worked hard to beat back harmful proposals from Congress that threaten the System. We marvel at the dedication and passion of the 3000 employees of the Refuge System and we look forward to what we can do together in the next five years — and the next fifty years!

As the Refuge System continues to Conserve the Future, we will always be there, ensuring staff has the resources they need; that the American public has opportunities to experience meaningful wildlife dependent recreational pursuits, and that our shared wildlife heritage endures for the next generation of citizens.

My sincere gratitude to every Refuge System employee and advocate who has made the last five years such a success and I can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Sincerely,

David Houghton, President