On the eve of an election that will likely see the Republicans (a more conservative strain of Republicans) take over the House and make inroads in the Senate, we naturally wonder what this will mean for the National Wildlife Refuge System. In short, nothing good.

Increases in budgets for the Refuge System will become increasingly hard [...]

This amazing photo shows a large congregation of spectacled eiders wintering in polynyas in the
Bering Sea south of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Polynyas are areas of open water surrounded by sea ice.
Spectacled eiders, which are threatened throughout their range, are large diving sea ducks that spend most of the year in marine waters where they [...]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just announced the establishment of Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge as America’s 553rd national wildlife refuge. The refuge will conserve nationally significant wildlife areas, including habitat for threatened and endangered species and a major corridor for migratory birds and bats. Located only 75 miles from New York City and [...]

Photographer Jeff Jones and author Laurie Hoyle have released “Arctic Sanctuary: Images of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” in honor of the refuge’s 50th anniversary this year.
KTUU.com in Alaska has a video interview with Jeff Jones on their website, where he talks about making the book:

Over the last 28 years, Jones has made more [...]

Friend of the District awarded to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge

Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge installing art along trail

Record numbers of whooping cranes coming

State eases environmental impact of I-69 footprint

Editorial: Fledgling refuge merits our continued support

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has posted the Fall 2010 edition of their “Friends Forward” newsletter, with news related to refuge Friends groups around the country.
Topics include:
Upcoming Vision Conference and new “Conserving the Future” website
USFWS Climate Strategy
Friend to Friend News
New Refuge System Leaders
White-Nose Syndrome in Caves
First Service Honor Guard
Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System, Friends Forward [...]

This beautiful fall photo was taken at Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge, which was established to conserve the abundance and diversity of native plants and animals and their habitats in the 7.2 million acre Connecticut River watershed in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The National Wildlife Refuge Association has announced their 2010 Refuge Photo Contest winners.
From the NWRA press release:

A stunning close-up of a green tree frog sitting atop an echinacea blossom at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Florida is the top prizewinner in the 2010 Refuge Photography Contest sponsored by the National Wildlife Refuge [...]

Southwest Airlines announced that the airline reached its goal of donating $100,000 to the National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA) as a result of its “Help Us Help Them” giving program in which Southwest donated $1 for every EarlyBird Check-In™ purchased from Sept. 21, 2010 through Oct. 4, 2010.
With the donation from Southwest Airlines, the [...]

James Hautman,an artist from Chaska, Minnesota, has been named the winner of the 2010 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest. The announcement was made at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, Calif., during the annual competition hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hautman has previously won the Duck Stamp three times, in [...]

Today is Blog Action Day 2010, and the theme this year is water.
Water is a vital resource for wildlife on lands within the National Wildlife Refuge System, and a large portion of that water is part of the Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
Wild and Scenic designations are made by Congress upon recommendation from the [...]

This photo, from the Facebook page for the National Wildlife Refuge System, shows the handsome emperor goose. The world’s largest bed of aquatic eelgrass attracts the entire world population of black brants and virtually all of the world’s emperor goose population to the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, on the southern end of the Alaska peninsula. [...]