| Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge Comments on the Fish & Wildlife Service Comprehensive Conservation Plan
Comments submitted by Prince William Conservation Alliance, Northern Virginia Bird Club, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, Elizabeth Hartwell Environmental Education Fund, Audubon Naturalist Society: February 21, 2011 -- These comments on the Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge CCP are submitted on behalf of the Prince William Conservation Alliance, Northern Virginia Bird Club, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, Elizabeth Hartwell Environmental Education Fund and the Audubon Naturalist Society. We support the Preferred Alternative of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for the Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), as identified in the draft Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP). We have comments on three parts of the plan: 1. The Compatibility Determination resolves the key debate: opening the refuge to public access will not harm the wildlife resources. Featherstone NWR is not so sensitive that the land and water must be left undisturbed in order to protect its natural assets. That Compatibility Determination creates the opportunity to open the refuge to regular public use for the first time since land was acquired in 1979. The population boom in Northern Virginia over the last 50 years has eliminated most natural areas, replacing them with lawns and pavement. Unless we want to see the "last child in the woods" during our generation, we need to protect natural areas and allow people to have a personal experience with wild areas - woods with dead snags and woodpeckers, river shorelines without bulkheads and boardwalks, etc. Featherstone was not all that unique in 1979... but today, it offers a rare remnant of a natural area. Keeping the refuge closed has not protected the site. Instead, it has made the refuge a haven for squatters and trespassers, including those using motorized vehicles which are damaging the wetlands. Allowing legitimate public use will provide better security, providing more eyes and ears on the ground to monitor and report inappropriate uses. Opening this site to wildlife-dependent public uses would also help generate, as it has at the other Refuges, a sense of community stewardship, enhancing efforts to protect the quality of natural areas. The National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 makes clear that (a) wildlife-dependent recreational uses involving hunting, fishing, wildlife observation and photography, and environmental education and interpretation, when determined to be compatible, are legitimate and appropriate public uses of the Refuge System and (b) these compatible wildlife-dependent recreational uses are the priority general public uses of the Refuge System. In his February 16, 2011 remarks on the Great Outdoors Initiative, President Obama specifically prioritized increased public access to public lands, saying "To make it easier for families to spend time outside no matter where they live, we're going to work with cities and states to build and improve urban parks and waterways, and make it easier to access public lands." The criteria for opening the refuge to public access are stated on page 3-96 of the draft CCP: "We do not currently allow public access to the refuge because we are unable to provide parking and safe, legal access to the refuge." There is no reason to delay opening the refuge once those problems are solved – and they should be solved quickly. FWS should have the management capacity at the Potomac River National Wildlife Refuge Complex to allow public use now. With additional resources, the agency could offer enhanced public services at the refuge – but opening Featherstone to public use is a priority as identified in the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, and should not be delayed until the local refuge budget is increased. 2. We find the CCP comments regarding shoreline protection at Featherstone NWR to be unnecessarily vague. The topography at Featherstone is dramatically different from the Mason Neck NWR. Hardening the shoreline at Featherstone, rather than proposing a "Living Shoreline" comparable to what the Service has highlighted at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge, would be a direct invitation for every property owner in the Chesapeake Bay to build bulkheads. The FWS should set the example at Featherstone for a managed retreat, if sea level rises. 3. The FWS should make a clearer commitment in the CCP to work with partners to enhance the inventory data on species and communities at Featherstone NWR. The inadequacy of current data was demonstrated by the generic information published in the draft CCP. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft CCP for the Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge. Sincerely,
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