Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus

Is your Congressional representative doing everything possible to support national wildlife refuges? Has she or he joined the Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus?

Four lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives created the caucus earlier this month: Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Jim Saxton (R-N.J.), Michael Castle (R-Del.) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.). The co-chairs, Kind and Saxton, have asked their peers to join the caucus, yet only the four above names appear on the list of the 109th Congress Congressional Member Organizations.

The caucus plans to
- increase awareness of the National Wildlife Refuge System
- strongly represent the refuge system in Congress
- support adequate funding for the refuge system
- support the six activities outlined in the Refuge Improvement Act of 1997: hunting, fishing, wildlife observation, wildlife photography, environmental education, environmental interpretation
- encourage growth of the refuge system

If you support those goals, please ask your representative to join the caucus. You'll find your lawmaker's contact information here.

If we don't hold our elected officials responsible for accurately representing our interests, then we don't have a legitimate basis for complaint.