U.S. Fish and Wildlife chief wants more people of color enjoying the outdoors
Aurelia Skipwith wants the public to know that America’s public lands are open for business.
The director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service visited the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on Friday morning as part of a Washington state tour of facilities and lands her agency administers.
“These are lands for the American people, their public lands, and we’re going to leave our lands open,” Skipwith said Friday. She had just completed a tour of the refuge where she was impressed by enormous cottonwood trees.
“And then you probably walk maybe a quarter of a mile and then you get out to this open area,” she said of the refuge’s wetlands. “It’s like, are we at the same refuge?”
The refuge was established in 1974 to protect the Nisqually River delta and its fish and wildlife habitats. In 2009, dike removal reconnected 762 acres of the refuge with Puget Sound.
Skipwith called the Nisqually an urban refuge due to its proximity to Olympia and Tacoma. She said refuges are reopening under President Trump’s Opening Up America Again campaign and local guidelines.
“And there’s no better place to social distance than your local refuge,” she said.
While in Washington, she’s also touring the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge on the Columbia River near Washougal and the Little White Salmon National Fish Hatchery at Drano Lake.
The Indiana native doesn’t have a lot of experience in the western United States, she said. This is her second trip to Washington following a January trip to Seattle for a sportsman’s event.
Skipwith is the first African American director for Fish and Wildlife. She wants to see more people who look like her hunting, fishing and recreating on public lands.
“How do we address barriers that might be in existence to bringing in those folks, people of color, that are interested in the outdoors and maybe just didn’t realize that this refuge was for them?” she said.
She also wants to see more people of color working at the agency. They, in turn, can attract others to the outdoors.
The agency is not without its critics.
On Thursday, U.S. Fish and Wildlife announced that it would permanently alter the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, removing criminal penalties for any company or individual who accidentally kills birds. The move was supported by offshore wind energy groups but assailed by conservation groups, including the National Audubon Society.
“The Trump Administration’s Bird Killer Department, formerly known as the Department of the Interior, just gets crueler and more craven every day,” president David Yarnold said in January.
Skipwith pointed to the recent signing of the Great American Outdoors Act as proof that the administration is committed to the preservation of wild things and spaces. It enables her agency to address its $1.3 billion deferred maintenance backlog, she said. Of that amount, $1 billion is on the agency’s refuges.
“And that really just goes to the greater picture of the mission of the Fish and Wildlife Service,” Skipwith said. “We are building for the next generations and having that investment in our infrastructure to make sure that we’re able to protect and enhance fish, wildlife and their habitats for future generations.”
Washington residents spend $26.5 billion annually on outdoor activities and equipment, according to a report released Thursday by Earth Economics. But more of that money is being spent to enjoy wildlife, rather than hunt it, according to America’s Wildlife Values Report.
The report, administered in part by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, found there’s been a profound shift in public attitude regarding wildlife. The shift is away from hunting and toward enjoying wildlife in a recreational or natural setting.
Skipwith wants to slow that shift. Hunting, she said, is part of America.
“How do we invigorate the hunting community or others to attract them to the hunting community?” she said. The answer, in part she said, is access to public lands.
“President Trump and (Interior) Secretary (David) Bernhardt since Day 1 (said) public access is a No. 1 priority,” Skipwith said. “That’s my priority. It’s making our lands available for the public to use. And that happens in a variety of ways.”
The Trump administration has opened almost 4 million acres of public land to hunting and fishing, Skipwith said. There’s more to come. The administration is proposing to expand parts of the Willapa Bay National Wildlife Refuge to hunting and fishing on Washington’s coast. Parts of the Nisqually refuge already are open to waterfowl hunting during parts of the year.
“That just gives those opportunities in hunting and fishing as part of our American heritage,” she said.
Asked about proposed removals of gray wolves, Canada lynx, grizzly bears and other animals from the threatened and endangered species list, Skipwith deferred direct comment. She’s a biologist and a lawyer, she said, and bases her decisions on both science and the law.
“Does the science tell us that these species are biologically recovered?” Skipwith said. “And so that’s how we are making our decisions.”
She wants to make sure states have management plans in place for any animal that is taken off the list..
“Because our goal is not to to de-list and then all of a sudden, they’re back on the list.”
This story was originally published August 1, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
