For hundreds of species of migratory birds heading south this fall and winter, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge is the last place they can fill up on food and water before making the 600-mile trek across the Gulf of Mexico.
They may not be able to do that this year, after Hurricane Ike decimated the refuge known by bird-watchers around the country for the array of migratory and coastal birds that pass through it...
Ike's impact is financially devastating for the refuges, says Desiree Sorenson-Groves, vice president for government affairs of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, which advocates for the nation's 548 refuges.
Ike caused an estimated $260 million in damage, she says. That brings the total damage to the nation's refuges this year from natural disasters to about $300 million.
The total is almost three-quarters of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's $434 million budget for the year, Sorenson-Groves says. "Unless Congress does a supplemental appropriation, there is no way they will recover," she says.
Hmmmm...anyone think Congress has any money leftover for this?
