On February 28, U.S. House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) warned that over 2 million feet of office space used by the Department of the Interior would be shuttered. Consolidation into other locations is not likely. There are none. Eviction will therefore have the same effect as firings and withholding of funds both of which are taking place.
“The federal government exists to serve the people—not abandon them. But Trump and Musk are taking a wrecking ball to our country—slashing staff, cutting vital funding, and creating widespread chaos and economic devastation. Shuttering these physical locations goes hand in glove with DOGE’s ‘destroy the government’ approach, and it will make their illegal cuts even more challenging to reverse. The economic fallout will ripple across America, hitting small towns and cities where federal offices are many communities’ only lifelines,” said Huffman.
Particularly hard hit is the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Animus toward USFWS derives from President Nixon’s Endangered Species Act and is especially evident in western states and in Alaska where land area under restriction is greatest and impacts are perceived as intrusive. That sentiment is acute among oil and gas interests, logging, factory and industrial farming, and cattle raising enterprises, this despite the many subsidies these groups enjoy. While the closings are widespread, the Northeast seems to be a particular target.
House member Jim McGovern’s district with 93,000 square feet slated for abandonment, is particularly hard hit. Almost all of it, more than 70,000 square feet, belongs to the USFWS Northeast Regional HQ in Hadley, Massachusetts. That closure slated for August this year, has profound implications for the National Wildlife Refuges which the Hadley office governs. Pitching it as cost saving is a stretch. The building was built for USFWS. Electricity and heat cannot be turned off and these systems will have to be maintained, likewise security. What will be absent are the people who worked there, including those responsible for the management of every coastal NWR from Maine to Virginia as well as inland NWRs in those states and in Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Washington D.C. Included are Maine Coastal Islands NWR known for its large population of Atlantic puffin, Cape May NWR which is one of the most famous locations for migratory birds in the United States, and Connecticut’s Stewart B. McKinney NWR which includes 11 islands, marshes, riverine ecosystems and covers almost the entire Connecticut coastline. In these refuges and their riparian areas are striped bass and spawning grounds for menhaden and blue crab, herds of white-tailed deer, river otter, nesting great blue heron, huge numbers of ducks including mallard, teal, eider, scaup and also loons. Worth pointing out, the McKinney despite its size is managed by only 5 fulltime staff when it could use at least twice that number. Considering that every dollar spent in funding NWRs returns $5 to local economies, closures and cuts seem all the more purposeful and vindictive.
Federal judges have in a number of instances ruled against the Trump Administration and Elon Musk who is spearheading much of the so-called cost cutting. Ultimately the courts are likely to be ignored. Vice President J. D. Vance has stated directly that President Donald Trump is in essence above the law and not in any way obligated to obey any ruling from the bench. For the opposition, this leaves budget negotiations as the last card in the deck.
The deadline for a continuing resolution to fund the Federal Government through September is March 14, 2025. Given the level of what Democrats perceive as ongoing damage and lock-step refusal to reign in Elon Musk by both Speaker Johnson and House Appropriations chair Tom Cole, a growing number of Democrats appear to be considering a government shutdown. It may be their last stand and it has precedent. Bill Clinton shut the government down rather than allow drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been relatively non-committal. At least some of his members have not. Connecticut Representative and House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro stands in open opposition and seems to be leaning towards a government shutdown. “This continuing resolution is a blank check for Elon Musk and creates more flexibility for him to steal from the middle class, seniors, veterans, working people, small businesses, and farmers to pay for tax breaks for billionaires,” said DeLauro in her March 8 post at House.gov.
A diametrically opposed assessment comes from James Carville, a consultant and Democratic National Committee insider, who wants his party to do nothing and wait for the Trump Administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE to collapse from within. But at what cost? President Trump’s executive order, innocuously entitled, “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” is a carte blanche for the firing of any federal employee the Office of Personnel Management wants to dismiss. Given the pace at which things are proceeding it is hard to see time as a friend.
According to Desirée Sorenson-Groves, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, there have been more people fired in ecological services than anywhere else. This she sees as only the beginning. “In my opinion the further consequences of deaccession – first it will start with oil and gas leases on all public lands – and I mean all – national parks, the national wildlife refuges, national forests, probably more on Bureau of Land Management than exists already.” She sees the reconciliation process as particularly dangerous in this regard. “You’d have to go through Congress to formally defund. If you look at it through reconciliation – Reconciliation can only be on budget, that’s all it can take into account. Is this (line item) a revenue generator or a revenue loss is the only question allowed in that setting. But who wants to go to Arcadia and see oil wells?”
Cheryl Hart, President of the Coalition of Refuge Friends and Advocates suspects the ultimate justification will be an ex post facto claim of returning public lands to the states. “They will destroy the public lands system and then say, let’s return it to the states – but where is money going to come from?”
Sorenson-Groves goes on to point out that between 2010 and 2024, across the administrations of Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden, the National Wildlife Refuge System lost 30% of its staff. As of September 2024 there were only 2353 full time employees to manage 95 million land acres and 760 million acres of marine reserves, taken together, the largest single wildlife conservation system in the world. Now, another 10%, 250 people, have been forced out.
The only real compensation for years of service in the refuges where pay scale is thin at best, is an anticipated pension. Yet older employees are leaving whether vested in their pensions or not. The reason, according to Sorenson-Groves is a heroic level of dedication. “The way the NWRS retirees looks at it, they are retiring because they love this system, truly patriotic people who truly believe in it and are sacrificing their careers to keep younger employees on, in the hope that the organization can be rebuilt over the next 10 years.”
In its statement of purpose, the United States Fish and Wildlife services says, Working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. Sorenson-Groves picks up that thread.
“As a nation we need to stand up for our public lands. Many of us came from Europe where if you fished or hunted on the King’s land you would be killed. We as Americans decided public lands are a core value of our nation. It does not matter what political stripe you are. We are not going to lose our public lands. We’re not.”
—
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story erroneously included the Wilderness Society and the National Rifle Association in the Coalition of Refuge Friends and Advocates