Wildlife Refuge Hero Near the End of Her Life
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.







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