The partial shutdown affecting various federal agencies has also impacted some wildlife areas in this part of the state. Among them, theIroquois National Wildlife Refuge, which is located in parts of Genesee and Orleans Counties.
Celeste Morien is president of a non-profit group that assists the staffers at that facility, called Friends of Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.
Morien says her group helps supplement the programs run by the four, federal workers who are usually on the job at that refuge.
“Conservation management, any kind of restoration activities that are going, we simply can’t help them when they’re not employed, so hopefully the shutdown will be resolved soon,” Morien told WXXI News.
Morien says the government shutdown means that some of the birding and other programs the organization is involved with cannot happen right now. She says the shutdown is also going to delay planning for some of their spring events.
The shutdown is also affecting some activities at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, which is located in parts of Seneca, Cayuga and Wayne Counties.
