Bonners Ferry Local Guide including all of Boundary County Idaho

Refuge facing staffing cuts

Monday, November 27, 2006; DB

For U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees at the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge just west of downtown Bonners Ferry, this holiday season may feel as if the Grinch and Scrooge joined forces to sabotage it. They -- along with several other USFWS employees in eastern Washington -- learned that their jobs with the national wildlife refuges may be on the chopping block for the next fiscal year. "It couldn't come at a worse time," said Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge manager Dianna Ellis. "There's really never a good time for something like this, but having to think about preparing for employees cuts at the start of the holiday season isn't real cheerful news." The sweeping staff reduction -- about 20 percent through the next three years -- will most likely target three wildlife refuges in Region 1 that include the Turnbull and Little Pend Oreille national wildlife refuges in northeastern Washington as well the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge . Four of 18 combined employees in the three national refuges will most likely be eliminated. - Full Story