Places of Refuge
By Eric Jay Dolin
Photographs by John and Karen Hollingsworth
It is hereby ordered
that Pelican Island in Indian River in section nine,
township thirty-one south, range thirty-nine east, State
of Florida, be, and it is hereby reserved and set apart
for the use of the Department of Agriculture as a preserve
and breeding ground for native birds.
—President Theodore Roosevelt, March 14, 1903
This simple, unremarkable declaration, a mere 48 words,
although heartily welcomed by many, was not a major
event at the time. The press did not trumpet the news.
There was no sense that this was the beginning of something
that would produce immeasurable benefits for generations
to come. Yet by affixing his signature, Roosevelt officially
launched the National Wildlife Refuge System, which
is the only network of federal lands dedicated to wildlife
conservation. The refuge system is truly an American
original. There is nothing else like it in the world.
And now, during the refuge system’s centennial
year, it is an especially fitting time for all Americans
to take advantage of the wonders that refuges can provide.
 |
| This
article is based on the Smithsonian
Book of National Wildlife Refuges, written
by Eric Jay Dolin and featuring the magnificent
images of John and Karen Hollingsworth. (Smithsonian
Press) |
Draped over the land like a vast strand of glittering jewels, the refuge system is one of the greatest of America’s natural treasures. Its 538 refuges and thousands of waterfowl-production areas contain 95 million acres, an area larger than the National Park System and about the same size as the state of Montana. There are refuges in every state and many U.S. territories and possessions, and they range in size from the diminutive 0.6-acre Mille Lacs National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), in Minnesota, to the enormous Arctic NWR, which extends over 19.6 million acres of the Alaskan landscape. The refuge system offers an impressive array of habitats—barrier islands, bogs, caves, coastal lagoons, coral reefs, deserts, estuaries, hardwood forests, islands, lakes, meadows, mountains, ponds, rocky coastlines, salt marshes, sand dunes, swamps, tall-grass prairies, and tundra. These habitats protect, nourish, replenish, and restore thousands of species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and plants, many of which are endangered and hanging on to survival by the weakest of threads.
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| Eggs of a least tern (Sterna antillarum) in a shallow nest at the Salt Plains NWR, Oklahoma. |
The refuge system is a priceless gift. It reflects the great diversity of the tapestry of life and the commitment of the United States to wildlife conservation. Wherever visitors go in the refuge system, they will experience a sense of wonder and the joy that comes from nature’s company. Each refuge has the power to fill up their senses and stir their souls through sights and sounds, beautiful and sublime. At Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, the earth trembles as a herd of buffalo thunders past. In the deep blue waters of the Crystal River NWR, in Florida, a manatee glides slowly through the water in search of plants to eat. The wild ponies graze near the shoreline at the Chincoteague NWR, in Virginia. And at the Hatchie NWR, in Tennessee, there are scarlet tanagers, yellow warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets, indigo buntings, goldfinches, and green-backed herons and an orchestra’s worth of songbird serenades.
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| A sandhill crane takes flight over the Bosque del Apache NWR, about 20 miles south of Socorro, New Mexico. |
The beauty and diversity of the refuge system is revealed in the names of refuges. Those honoring Native American Indians have a lyrical cadence and mystical quality that evoke some of the saddest passages in this country’s history—Mattamuskeet, Mashpee, Havasu, Iroquois, and Shiawassee. There are refuges named after famous Americans whose lives have enriched everyone’s—John James Audubon, Rachel Carson, Senator John H. Chafee, and Lewis and Clark. Others refuges are labeled more prosaically, highlighting geographic locations or particular species—Gray’s Harbor, Cape Romain, Three Arch Rocks, Oregon Islands, Attwater Prairie Chicken, Ozark Cavefish, Florida Panther, and the National Bison Range.
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Bison at home on
the Wichita Mountains NWR, Oklahoma. |
Whereas the creation of the Pelican Island Reservation on March 14, 1903, officially launched the refuge system, the latter’s true origins reach back to the colonial era and then follow the tendrils of history through the early 1900s. In that relatively short span of time, a mere blip in the history of the land, the colonists and their descendants transformed the New World and subdued nature to an astonishing degree. Wildlife once thought to be inexhaustible was pushed up to and sometimes over the brink of extinction. The notion of protecting and preserving wildlife from the ravages of civilization moved from the realm of isolated necessity to the point of being a widely accepted idea whose time had come.
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| The endangered manatee (Trichechus manatus) is at home in the clear waters of the Crystal River NWR, Florida. (Francois Fournier/USFWS) |
The history of the so-called Age of Extermination is full of stories in which species of wildlife were eliminated from vast expanses of their historical ranges, killed in enormous numbers, or completely annihilated. For example, great auks, large flightless birds that had summered in the millions along the northeastern coast of the United States, were mercilessly killed for their feathers, oil, and flesh by hunters, skin collectors, and fishermen who cut up the birds for cod bait. Unable to outrun their pursuers, the auks were easily dispatched with a swing of a club to the head. In early June 1844, the last two birds of this species ever seen were killed on a volcanic outcropping near the coast of Iceland, their skins sold to a Danish collector for £9. Elk and wild turkey, once plentiful in New York, had by the mid-1800s disappeared due to hunting pressures. And during this period of time, it was not unusual for gunners on the Chesapeake Bay to kill upward of 15,000 ducks in a single day.
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| A skimmer dragonfly perches at the Santa Ana NWR, Texas. |
The most dramatic and oft-told stories of wildlife destruction in America involve the passenger pigeon and the bison. Better examples of humankind’s ability to decimate wildlife are hard to find. Billions of passenger pigeons once blanketed the sky over North America in flocks so densely packed that observers claimed that the birds blotted out the midday sun. But by the beginning of the 20th century, relentless hunting had erased this species from the Earth. The bison almost shared the same fate. When the conquistadors were exploring the Great Plains, and even before the English had set foot on the eastern shores, there might have been up to one hundred million bison roaming the continent; by the late 1800s only a couple of hundred remained.
The increasingly desperate situation of wildlife toward the end of the 19th century spawned private efforts that would lead to the creation of the refuge system. The American Ornithologists Union, the Audubon Societies, Forest and Stream, the Boone and Crockett Club, and other likeminded organizations and individuals combined to raise the cause of wildlife protection to that of a national crusade. This concern was reflected in state and federal laws aimed at limiting the killing of wildlife, but by the beginning of the 20th century many believed that it was as important to set aside habitat to sustain wildlife populations and allow them to grow.
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| Though elusive, black bears are still common throughout much of North America. This one lives in the Pocosin NWR, North Carolina. |
The need for habitat was particularly critical in Florida. Years of market hunting had decimated the populations of many birds whose plumage was used extensively in the millinery trade. The American Ornithologists Union was especially interested in protecting Pelican Island, a five-acre piece of land located on the east coast of Florida, across from the small village of Sebastian, about 135 miles north of Miami. Pelican Island played host to between 2,000 and 3,000 brown pelicans and was well known as the only breeding site of these birds on the Atlantic coast. When it was suggested to President Theodore Roosevelt that he set aside the island to protect the birds, he reportedly asked one of his assistants, “Is there any law that will prevent me from declaring Pelican Island a federal bird reservation?” Upon hearing that there was not, Roosevelt said, “Very well, then I so declare it,” and on March 14, 1903, he signed the executive order creating the Pelican Island Reservation, the first of all the refuges established in what was to ultimately become the National Wildlife Refuge System.
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| The Sachuest Point NWR, Rhode Island (red fox). |
Theodore Roosevelt’s concern for the pelicans and his establishment of the Pelican Island Reservation were not the least bit surprising. The man who would earn the moniker of “the Conservation President” had loved nature and wildlife for most of his life. Over the remainder of his presidency, Roosevelt repeatedly used his executive powers to set aside bird refuges, ultimately creating 51. And Roosevelt wasn’t concerned only about birds. His intimate connection with big game led him to wield his powers for their protection, as well, by establishing the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and National Bison Range, both of which played an important role in bringing bison back from the brink of extinction.
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| A snowy owl (Nyctea scadiaca) at the Sachuest Point NWR, Rhode Island. |
The history of the refuge system, which is administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish & Wildlife Service, mirrors this country’s fascinating, colorful, dramatic, at times disastrous, and often inspirational relationship with wildlife. The refuge system has grown more opportunistically than strategically. Decade after decade, a combination of executive orders, statutes, direct purchases, and donations have added refuges and acreage to the refuge system. All the while, this amazing network of lands has been buffeted by conflicting imperatives, budgetary and natural droughts, management problems, organizational changes, and the mounting pressures of protecting itself from the increasingly potent threats posed by population growth and development.
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| Prairie dogs are an important species, as they are the sole prey of the endangered black-footed ferret, the UL Bend NWR, Montana. |
The refuge system has succeeded, first and foremost, because of the amazing and too often unheralded dedication and hard work of its employees, those whom the American people have, in effect, hired to be caretakers of a significant part of the country’s wildlife heritage. The refuge system is also indebted to untold thousands of other government employees, politicians, nonprofit organizations, and volunteers who not only believed in it but also fought to make it work by turning obstacles into opportunities. The fruits of their labors are on view every day.
The numbers of migratory waterfowl that rest, feed, and breed on refuges have swelled to all-time highs from all-time lows. Large game, such as bison, elk, and pronghorn antelope, are prospering on refuges in the American West. Tens of millions of acres in the refuge system are designated as wilderness, places where human impact is vanishingly small, and nature approaches its original state. Through active management, marginal refuge lands have been transformed into productive areas that benefit all the species that live in or migrate through them. Scores of refuges are providing habitat necessary for endangered species to survive and thrive. And on virtually every refuge in the country, any time of year, the magnificent rhythms of nature are played out with heartening regularity: a mouse digging a burrow, a jellyfish undulating through sun-flecked water, a swan alighting on a still lake, a mother bear protectively watching over its cubs, and a mighty tree swaying in the breeze before a coming storm. These are simple events, perhaps, but ones as important as the greatest works of humanity.
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| A pronghorn antelope on the National Bison Range NWR, Montana. |
The refuge system places wildlife first. According to the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, “The mission of the System is to administer a national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management, and, where appropriate, restoration of the fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitat for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans.” Although wildlife comes first on refuges, they are also the people’s lands, intended for the recreation and enjoyment of all. Visitors may see binoculars raised in unison as a group of patient birders spies a rare species on a distant branch. A boy and his father cast into the deep waters of a cold lake creating memories and hoping for a fish to bite. Hikers in a wilderness area stand on the spine of an exposed ridge and see nothing but the natural landscape in every direction. Schoolchildren listen in rapt attention as a refuge volunteer talks about the species they are likely to see on their nature walk. A photographer zooms in on a hillside and with a quick press of a button captures forever the image of a bighorn sheep bounding across rough terrain. And, on the edge of a marsh, two hunters wait silently in a blind for geese to arrive.
Every year, nearly 40 million people visit refuges for a special experience. But humanity’s interactions with the refuge system are often less personal. Oil and gas drilling, mining, farming, grazing, timbering, and military exercises are also acceptable activities on refuge lands, as long as they don’t interfere with the purposes for which the refuge was established. The varied use of refuges is a strength as well as a weakness. The refuge system provides numerous benefits but is often stressed and strained in doing so. This is part of the dynamic tension that makes managing the refuge system such a challenging task.
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| The red wolf is making a come back on the Alligator River NWR, North Carolina. |
Deciding what types of activities are acceptable on refuges is often extremely difficult and contentious. Nowhere is this more evident than in the ongoing debate over whether to allow oil drilling in the Arctic NWR. It is not surprising that the numerous studies and reports that have dealt with this issue have done little to temper the debate. The gulf separating the two sides is as much a function of values as it is of facts, especially when the latter are often the subject of disagreement. How, for example, can one bridge the gap between people who view the Arctic refuge as simply a desert with snow and those who agree with former Supreme Court chief justice Douglas, who pronounced many years ago that “this last American living wilderness must remain sacrosanct.” Like the epic battle over the Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite National Park, led by John Muir around the turn of the 19th century, the battle over the fate of the coastal plain has become a national cause célèbre, in which both sides have staked their claims and are willing to use all the resources at their command to prevail. There have been many attempts to pass bills that would allow for oil leasing, but none has passed. And the battle shows no sign of ending. Like other extremely emotional, complex, contentious, and values-laden public issues, drilling in the Arctic refuge will probably remain a major part of the U.S. political landscape for years to come.
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| J. Clark Salyer NWR, North Dakota. |
As the refuge system heads into its second century, its future looks bright. The goals of the refuge system are clear—wildlife comes first and other uses are allowed only when the well-being of wildlife will not be compromised. Recent budget increases, if built upon in the future, hold out the prospect of someday paring away and, hopefully, eliminating the massive backlog of operational and maintenance needs that are weighing down the refuge system and keeping it from fully achieving its potential. And the centennial celebrations already underway will energize the process of introducing and reintroducing Americans to this wondrous network of protected lands that they all own in common.
Steering the refuge system over the next 100 years will not be easy. Managing wildlife is hard work, made more difficult by the complex makeup of the refuge system and its many, at times competing, constituencies. Public and economic uses of refuges must be carefully designed and implemented to ensure that they are compatible with wildlife management goals. The spread of development and the corresponding decrease in the country’s reserves of wild and open spaces will place added pressures on the refuge system as people, weary of manufactured landscapes, seek out the pleasures that nature provides. While the refuge system should welcome more visitors, it must guard against the dangers of being loved too much. Also, as the refuge system adds more units, its need for funding will grow. Thus, even if efforts to fully fund existing operational and maintenance needs are successful, there will still be other financial battles to be fought in the future.
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| Ghost crab on the beach at the St. Vincent NWR, Florida. |
The United States made an unparalleled commitment to protecting and preserving wildlife through the creation and growth of a refuge system that is not only one of this country’s greatest conservation success stories but also an important part of the American experience. Strangely, for lands that have provided so many benefits for so long, the refuge system is relatively unknown to many Americans. It is largely a hidden treasure, but it shouldn’t be. The refuge system is arguably the best way to ensure that current and future generations have an opportunity to appreciate the glory of wild America. This archipelago of diverse habitats is an integral part of this country’s intimate connection to wildlife and wild places. It helps to define the character and values of the United States, and it deserves respect, support, and admiration.
—Eric Jay Dolin is a writer living in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and is the author of the Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges, upon which this article is based. This September, Smithsonian Books also published another of Dolin’s books entitled Snakehead: A Fish Out of Water. To purchase either book, please visit www.sipress.si.edu.
—John and Karen Hollinsworth
are wildlife photographers; their work is featured in
the Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges.
They have photographed extensively the National Wildlife
Refuge System for the Fish & Wildlife Service and
can be reached by email at: karen@threeblackducks.com
ZooGoer 32(3)
2003. Copyright 2003 Friends of the National Zoo.
All rights reserved.
