Maine’s national wildlife refuges have gotten used to a lack of money for biological studies, maintenance and other projects.

Now they’re dealing with staffing cuts so deep that wildlife advocates warn that the refuges are in as much peril as some of the animal and plant species they’re supposed to protect.

At the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in Wells, for example, the staff has been reduced from eight people to five in the past year and a half. It’s even more severe at Sunkhaze Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Milford, where the sole remaining position – manager – was eliminated earlier this year.

The nation’s 548 refuges, including 10 in Maine, are a last bastion for plant and animal species that are losing habitat to sprawl, pollution, invasive species or other forces. Refuges help sustain healthy wildlife populations and restore struggling ones.

Rachel Carson, for example, is a leader in efforts to save the piping plover and the least tern, two endangered shorebirds. The refuge also is helping restore the New England cottontail, an endangered rabbit species, said Ward Feurt, Rachel Carson’s manager.

Refuges also provide opportunities for recreation and education. Nearly 400,000 people visit Maine refuges each year to hike, watch birds, photograph wildlife or study nature, according to the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement, a national advocacy group.

The alliance released a report this month calling for a renewed commitment to the refuge system started by President Theodore Roosevelt 105 years ago.

“Refuges have been so woefully underfunded. What’s happening in Maine is indicative of what’s happening nationwide,” said Desiree Sorenson-Groves, vice president of government affairs for the National Wildlife Refuge Association. A $3.5 billion maintenance backlog and an ongoing 20 percent workforce reduction are leaving wildlife refuges vulnerable and making them less visitor-friendly, she said.

Maine’s refuges face a $25.9 million shortfall for conservation projects and deferred maintenance, according to the report.

The elimination of all employees at Sunkhaze Meadows, which had four staff positions five years ago, means that refuge will be managed from an office in Rockport, although it remains open to visitors.

Rachel Carson, Maine’s southernmost refuge, includes salt marshes and estuaries scattered along 50 miles of coastline between Kittery and Cape Elizabeth. It protects prime habitat for migratory birds and gets about 250,000 human visits a year, Feurt said.

In the past year and a half, the refuge has lost its deputy manager, an administrative employee and the staff member who patrolled the refuge and managed the prescribed fires that are used to maintain natural habitats. The refuge now brings a fire crew down from Moosehorn Refuge in far northern Maine.

Some of the money from those salaries will be available to help manage the refuge, he said. But the loss of more than a third of the staff will have impacts, he said. “I’m of the opinion you get things done with people,” Feurt said.

Refuges nationwide actually got a funding increase in the current fiscal year, in part because of protests from advocates, said Janet Kennedy, federal refuge supervisor for northern New England. But, she said, “Up until this year, we’ve had basically level budgets and increased costs of operations.”

The staffing cuts, in fact, are intended to free up more money to catch up on deferred maintenance and other projects, she said. “It’s a solution for us to live within our means.”

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