The Peninsula Daily News in Washington state reports that wildlife refuge advocate Eleanor Stopps — who along with Zella Schultz was instrumental in the creation of Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge — has been moved to a care facility as she loses her battle with pancreatic cancer.

Approximately 70 percent of the nesting seabird population of Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca nest on Protection Island, which includes one of the largest nesting colonies of rhinoceros auklets in the world and the largest nesting colony of glaucous-winged gulls in Washington. The island contains one of the last two nesting colonies of tufted puffins in the Puget Sound area. About 1,000 harbor seals depend upon the island for a pupping and rest area.

The Port Townsend Marine Science Center website explains Eleanor Stopps efforts in the creation of Protection Island NWR :

Two women, Zella Schultz and Eleanor Stopps, are responsible for the exciting and inspiring climax to the story of the island’s protected status. Zella was an artist and wildlife biologist who had studied its colony of glaucous-winged gulls, making detailed observations of their daily life. Eleanor joined Zella on the bird-banding expeditions, learning about the gulls and the other avian inhabitants of the island, and sharing Zella’s goal of seeing the island protected. Zella died of complications from a childhood disease in 1974 and her best friend Eleanor vowed to continue the work.

But not until construction bulldozers started destroying auklet burrows was any action taken. The month Zella died, the Nature Conservancy bought the western end of the island from the developer and re-sold it to the Washington State Game Department, making it the state’s first non-game sanctuary. The 48-acre sanctuary was named The Zella M. Schultz Seabird Sanctuary.

Eleanor moved from Seattle to Mats Mats Bay, to be closer to the sea and the birds she had grown to love. With the money raised from selling Zella’s prints, she published her book on gulls, On the Wings of the Wild Winds. Soon after, Eleanor founded a chapter of the Audubon Society in Port Townsend and started an “Adopt a Seabird” program, raising $50,000 - enough money to buy 23 lots on Protection Island. At the same time, she got the local Audubon group and Nature Conservancy to start pressuring county, state and national groups, agencies and politicians to take action.

Finally on October 15, 1982, after years of patient lobbying, letter writing and gathering support from a large, diverse constituency, Protection Island was made a National Wildlife Refuge, the first and only such legislation passed during Ronald Reagan’s term of office.

Eleanor Stopps received the Nature Conservancy’s Oak Leaf, its highest award, in 1992, the Citizen Appreciation Award by the U.S. Wildlife Service and the Jefferson County Citizen of the Century award for her wisdom, foresight and determination in the service of both people and nature.

The Refuge System and America need more people like Zella Schultz and Eleanor Stopps.

The Wichita Eagle reports that two tornadoes hit Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Kansas. The tornadoes created paths up to a half-mile wide through the refuge. The refuge staff report that many roads are blocked on the 22,000-acre refuge due to fallen trees and power lines.

It also appears that the only bald eagle nest at the refuge may have lost its chick(s). Only one adult has been seen at the nest and feeding behavior is no longer being observed.

Wildlife populations are currently fairly low, too. All of the endangered whooping cranes that used the refuge during this spring’s migrations had already gone north.

And the scores of huge cottonwoods destroyed are not a loss since the refuge has been working to remove trees and restore prairie to most of the area.

“There’s never a good time for something like this,” [deputy refuge manager Steve] Karel said, “but the timing is better now than it probably ever could have been.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is slowly rolling out their new website template for the National Wildlife Refuge System websites. The new “look and feel” offers an attractive new design that provides a consistent online look for the many refuges in the System. The new template also makes better use of multimedia and social media content, and helps visitors — such as birders, hunters, and photographers — to find the resources they need before visiting.

Visit the Montezuma NWR website to see the new look.

Savannah Now reports that the Honey Prairie Fire, which was ignited by lightning on April 28, 2011, and burned about 483 square miles at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, is finally out. It was the largest fire in the refuge’s 75-year history.

The fire did not cause any serious injuries or deaths, but rebuilding still remains to be done, including rebuilding the main boardwalk on Chesser Island. Refuge Manager Curt McCasland stated:

“I am confident we can completely rebuild the boardwalk but we will be implementing changes that will ensure we can efficiently and safely protect the boardwalk from future fires. This includes the use of fire resistant pilings to minimize the cost to repair from future fire damage. The well near the entrance to the boardwalk will also be refurbished or a new well drilled and the boardwalk will be plumbed to provide sufficient water and pressure to irrigate around the boardwalk during fires.”

The Chattanoogan reports that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says over 10,000 birds have died at Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge in California/Oregon, and the death toll may be closer to 20,000 birds.

Due to drought conditions, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation hasn’t allowed water into the refuge since December, and the refuge may dry up in a few months if it is not given its far share of water. Due to the water shortage, birds are being forced into more crowded areas, which is encouraging the spread of fatal avian cholera among the birds.

“The consequences to shutting off water to the Lower Klamath Refuge are enormous and unacceptable. We cannot continue to place wildlife at the bottom of the pecking order for so many things and not expect that at some point, we won’t face dire repercussions. Federal, state, and local officials need to come up with a plan that divides the water shortage compromises up more equitably,” said Dr. George Fenwick, president of American Bird Conservancy.

In the Klamath Basin, less than 25% of the historic wetlands remain, and the national wildlife refuges that comprise the Klamath Basin NWR Complex are vital to protecting this important wetland habitat, which has been called the “Everglades of the West.”

On March 14, 1903, without fanfare, President Roosevelt signed an executive order establishing
Pelican Island as a federal bird reservation — the forerunner to the National Wildlife Refuge System.
This was the first time that the federal government set aside land for the sake of wildlife. Paul
Kroegel was hired as the first national wildlife refuge manager. He was paid $1 a month by the
Florida Audubon Society, as Congress had not set aside funds for this executively created refuge.
With a badge, a gun and a boat, Kroegel stood watch over Pelican Island until 1926.

After setting aside Pelican Island, President Roosevelt would go on to establish an additional 54 national wildlife refuges during his two terms as President. Happy Anniversary to the Refuge System!

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For anyone who has followed bird art produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the name Bob Hines should be familiar.

Robert W. (Bob) Hines (1912-1994) was born in Columbus, Ohio, and though he had no formal training in art or in wildlife science, by the age of twenty-seven he was working as staff artist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife, and he accepted a similar position with the USFWS. He illustrated many works for the USFWS, including Ducks at a Distance, Migration of Birds, Fifty Birds of Town and City, Wildlife Portrait Series (including Song Birds and Alaska). His illustrations were also used in such works as Wildlife in America by Peter Matthiessen, and in Rachel Carson’s Under the Sea Wind and The Edge of the Sea. In fact, he was a good friend of Carson’s throughout her life.

Hines was also known for designing the 1946 Federal Duck Stamp and managing the competition for over thirty years, earning him the nickname of “Mr. Duck Stamp Contest.”

Beaver’s Pond Press has just released the new Bob Hines: National Wildlife Artist by John D. Juriga, MD. Juriga was guest curator for two major exhibits at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury, Maryland: “Witness for Nature: The World of Rachel Carson” (1999), and “Bob Hines: National Wildlife Artist” (2003). In 2009, the Heritage Committee of the USFWS presented its Heritage Award to Dr. Juriga for his scholarship on Bob Hines.

Rachel Carson biographer Linda Lear says, “Bob Hines was one of the best wildlife artists of the twentieth century. In elegant prose and with discerning compassion, John Juriga has rescued him from the obscurity of federal employment. . . . Hines’s public and private works deserve to stand on their own as noteworthy contributions to the incipient environmental movement. Juriga has revealed the man and his uncommon gifts. This book is an important treasure.”

EurekAlert reports that the Marine Conservation Institute filed a formal petition to the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce, asking them to prohibit commercial fishing in the Pacific Remote Island Marine National Monument.

In 2009, President George W. Bush created the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument in American Samoa, and the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, and commercial fishing was to be banned because it was hurting the sensitive ecosystem. Now enforcement of that ban is lacking.

William Chandler, Vice President for Government Affairs at Marine Conservation Institute, said, “When President Bush designated these magnificent areas for preservation, he specifically directed that commercial fishing be prohibited in them immediately. But now, over three years later, the fishing ban and associated penalties for illegal fishing within the monuments have yet to be put into place. As a result, and despite evidence of illegal fishing in the monuments, the Coast Guard won’t enforce the ban. This is inexplicable. We’re just trying to get the Administration to do what the presidential designation documents say. There is simply no justification for delay.”

Chandler said, “It is hard to believe a clear directive of the president has gone unimplemented for so long. The responsible federal agencies have had three years to establish fishing rules that ban commercial fishing and leave recreational and indigenous intact, but they have not yet delivered. Without such a ban, these unique ecosystems with their sensitive populations could be damaged by fishermen or their vessels. The world’s largest population of giant clams, nesting sea turtles, and areas of tremendous biological diversity are all at risk.”

Presidential Proclamation 8336, which established the monument, gave the Secretary of the Interior management responsibility for the monument, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce. The Secretary of Defense continues to manage Wake Island under a 1972 agreement with the Department of the Interior until the agreement is terminated. Similarly, the Department of Defense continues to manage the terrestrial portions of Johnston Atoll until jurisdiction is returned to the Department of the Interior. The Proclamation prohibits commercial fishing within the monument, but gives the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, primary responsibility for managing fishery-related activities from 12 to 50 nautical miles from the islands.

On January 16, 2009, the Secretary of the Interior delegated his management responsibilities for the monument to the Fish and Wildlife Service through Secretary’s Order 3284. Through this order, the Secretary extended the boundaries of Howland Island, Baker Island, Jarvis Island, and Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuges to 12 nautical miles from the mean low water line of each island. He also established a Wake Island Unit of the monument to be managed as a unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System out to 12 nautical miles from the mean low water line of the islands, with the Department of the Air Force continuing to manage the emergent lands as described above.

Many were surprised when President Bush — who spent 8 years weakening environmental protection in the U.S. — created the monuments, but perhaps he knew that the federal agencies would not actually enforce his fishing ban, and thus the act was not so high-minded and green after all.

The full text of the Marine Conservation Institute petition to the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce is available at: www.marine-conservation.org.

The Anahuac Progress in Texas recently published an article on the annual meeting of the Friends of Anahuac Refuge.

The Friends of Anahuac Refuge held their annual meeting a couple weeks ago at the new visitor’s center on FM 563. There was a good sized crowd of interested persons attending the meeting, who were served a luncheon of barbecue brisket and chicken along with a wide range of side dishes and dessert…

[ANWR Manager Jimmy] Laurent ended by thanking the 120 volunteers that put in 11,000 volunteer hours in 2011, which comes to a saving of $230,000 to Refuge management. “We appreciate our volunteers and how vital they are to the management of the Anahuac Refuge,” said Laurent.

Among the Friends’ accomplishments:

• supporting the grand opening of the Visitor Center
• the Volunteer-for-a-day program put in over 600 volunteer hours planting hundreds of trees and bushes, work done in the Butterfly garden
• planted 2,000 native forbs as apart of the prairie restoration project
• received a $5,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for Habitat for the Adopt-a-tree program along with another $4,444 received in donations
• celebrated the opening of the nature store at the Visitor Center
• supported or participated in a reading program for 5th graders in Mont Belvieu and Anahuac, family fishing day, Gatorfest, Rice Festival, butterfly garden maintenance, yellow rail walks (a world famous birding activity), hunter chili day, Christmas bird counts, working in the visitor information station and nature stores

Just another example of one of the many dynamic Friends groups around the nation who are doing so much for our public land system.

As this blog reported in July 2010, Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia is under attack as Republican Representative Jack Kingston and an organization called the Harris Neck Land Trust are attempting to remove the refuge from the National Wildlife Refuge System so it can be turned over to descendants of former land owners and developed for economic gain.

Representative Jack Kingston, who has one of the worst environmental voting records in all of Congress, has been promoting the case of the Harris Neck Land Trust and others interested in capitalizing on the attractiveness of the Harris Neck natural environment, with proposals for building a convention center on the land, among other types of development.

On December 15, Dorothy Bambach (of the Friends of Savannah Coastal Wildlife Refuges) testified before the House Natural Resources Committee in support of Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. From the National Wildlife Refuge Association website:

“Losing Harris Neck NWR to development would be an economic, cultural and environmental tragedy” said Bambach in her prepared statement. “It would establish a troubling precedent regarding the sanctity of federal lands held in trust for the millions of citizens who use and enjoy them.”

Harris Neck NWR is located on the Georgia coast, about 20 miles south of Savannah. The refuge is home to bobcat, white-tailed deer, bald eagle, wood stork, painted bunting and swallowtail butterfly. It is designated as an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society and is a site on Georgia’s Colonial Coast Birding Trail.

The December 15th hearing was held to shed light on a longstanding dispute between the Federal Government and descendents of former landowners who claim that land now part of the refuge was unfairly acquired by the government during World War II for use as an airfield. After the war, the land was transferred to McIntosh County before being acquired by the Department of the Interior in 1962 to be managed as a unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Following the hearing, questions about the circumstances surrounding the original transfer of the land and payment on the part of the military remained, leaving the issue unresolved. The Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that all laws were followed to their knowledge, and currently doesn’t have the authority to divest the biologically important wildlife refuge.

Bambach’s testimony reiterated the important economic role the refuge plays in the local community. The 2,700-acre wildlife refuge sees between 85,000 – 90,000 visitors each year.

Read the full testimony here, and learn more about the Friends of Savannah Coastal Refuges here: http://www.coastalrefuges.org/

It’s not surprising for the House GOP and Tea Party to be interested in a case where they could actually remove protected conservation land from a federal government land system and turn it over to developers, but the danger of this type of action cannot be overstated. It poses a threat not only to refuges but also to national parks, and must be defeated.

Who is Chandler Robbins? He is legendary among birders for his knowledge, dedication and friendliness. He began birding at age 12 near his home in Belmont, MA, and counts among his mentors and colleagues Roger Tory Peterson, Rachel Carson, Ira Gabrielson and Aldo Leopold. He knew Carson not as a scientist but as the best technical editor he ever had, especially for his manuscripts about the effect of DDT on birds.

Hired in 1945 as a junior biologist in the bird banding office at Patuxent Research Refuge, Robbins in 1965 initiated the North American Breeding Bird Survey, one of the world’s most influential science-based surveys of bird populations. Robbins says his wife, Eleanor, was convinced the survey wouldn’t work because “you can’t regiment people to the point of telling them they could only count for so many minutes and then they have to stop and go do the same thing at another spot.” Now, nearly 6,000 volunteers do just that, collecting data every summer along more than 3,000 routes in North America.

Robbins participated in the survey until 2008, when hearing loss forced him to stop. “I’m distorting the truth by not hearing all the high-pitched songs,” he says. He has participated in 346 Christmas Bird Counts – far more than anyone ever.

In addition to writing more than 500 professional publications, Robbins wrote A Guide to Field Identification of the Birds of North America with Bertel Bruun and Herbert Zim – but only after he was sure it would be different from Peterson’s guides.

Robbins takes his greatest pride, though, in his work on the impact of forest fragmentation: “Maryland is the only state that is protecting wildlife habitat species for forest interior species by following my recommendations on the sizes of forests that are too large to be disturbed.”

Officially retired in 2005 after 60 years of government service, Robbins remains intrigued by migrating birds. “Imagine birds from here going back to the tropics, to the same place where they wintered the winter before,” he says. “I can get lost in the woods at Patuxent.”

[This article courtesy of the Friends NewsWire]

The National Wildlife Refuge Association and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently announced the winners of the 2012 National Wildlife Refuge System Awards:

Being honored this year are:

Charles A. Pelizza has been selected as the recipient of the Paul Kroegel Award for Refuge Manager of the Year for his leadership, professionalism and advocate of conservation leading to the creation of the Everglades Headwaters NWR and Conservation Area earlier this year. Charlie’s 32-year career with the NWRS sets a standard for other staff and managers to follow. As the refuge manager for the Pelican Island NWR Complex, his conservation vision attracted the attention of the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation and led to Charlie receiving the “Champion of the Everglades” Award in 2011.

Kathleen “Kate” O’Brien will receive the Employee of the Year Award. Kate is the wildlife biologist at the Rachel Carson NWR in Maine where her tireless work with the endangered New England cottontail rabbit and her work globally with the rare saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrows is unparalleled. Kate is a leader and a biologist to the core and is considered an expert in migratory bird research and management by her peers.

David Govatski will receive the Volunteer of the Year Award. David has committed himself to a lifetime of public service including more than 25 years with the United States military where he retied as a master sergeant with the Vermont Army National Guard. He concurrently served for 30 years as a forester and fire and aviation manager officer for the U.S. Forest Service. He volunteers at the Silvio O. Conte NF&WR and also volunteers his time at the White Mountain national Forest.

The Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society is being honored as the Friends Group of the Year. This group works closely with refuge staff at the Alligator River and Pea Island NWRs in North Carolina, and is actively involved in engaging current and future wildlife enthusiasts of all ages. The CWRS was a founding partner in the annual Wings over Water Festival, which helps coordinate programs on two national seashores, four national wildlife refuges, and two state parks, and is in its 15th year running. Proceeds from the event support a transportation grant program that pays for school buses and drivers to bring students to local national wildlife refuges. The group also sponsors wildlife clubs for hundreds of elementary, middle, and high school students.

For additional information about this award and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, please visit: http://refugeassociation.org/people/awards/

For additional information about the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation visit: http://www.nfwf.org