The National Wildlife Refuge System is an incredible gift that the United States made 119 years ago today. There is no other system in the world quite like our national wildlife refuges. We have the only protected land base where wildlife is the primary beneficiary. As escalating impacts from climate change, habitat loss and human development put plants and animals increasingly at risk, these wildlife refuges serve an even more critical role in their survival– and the time is now for the Biden administration and Congress to step up to support and expand the system and prioritize conservation.

As a wildlife biologist and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), I have always cared deeply about the National Wildlife Refuge System. They are conservation jewels I have visited throughout my life,