Water connects everything. Water is at the forefront of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) mission to conserve and protect wildlife for the benefit of the American people, and it is essential to managing resilient habitats within the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS), at the landscape scale, and beyond. The transboundary influence of water connects refuges to state waterways, to family farms and ranches, to cities and towns, and to Tribal lands and communities. Diminishing freshwater supplies, emerging contaminants, elevated surface water temperatures, sea level rise, and the intensity and frequency of floods, droughts, and wildfires are leading to ever more complex and challenging water issues that put marginalized communities at disproportionate risk and restrict our ability to support aquatic connectivity, migratory corridors, biodiverse wetlands, the National Fish Hatchery (NFH) System, and other USFWS water-dependent assets.
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