Today’s image shows members of the Youth Conservation Corps removing invasive water chestnuts from Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge.
Water chestnut is an aggressive invasive aquatic plant from Asia. One acre of water chestnut can produce enough seeds to cover 100 acres the following year. Their long spines are sharp enough to [...]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that they have awarded a $1.25 million contract for removal of invasive plants at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Florida under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The ARRA contract, awarded to Aquatic Vegetation Control, Inc., of West Palm Beach, Fla., will be used [...]

The Post-Standard in New York reports that staff and volunteers teamed up Tuesday July 7 at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in the Finger Lakes Region to eradicate the invasive weed frogbit out of Tschache Pool.
According to staff and volunteers at Montezuma NWR, the frogbit eradication is part of a new program called MARSH (Montezuma Alliance [...]

From June 19-21, more than 60 volunteers and approximately 10 personnel of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (from Sheldon and Hart Mountain refuges) teamed up to improve habitat for pronghorn antelope and other wildlife, as well as enhance the boundary of the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in northern Nevada.
Volunteers removed 10 miles of unnecessary [...]

According to the Winona Daily News in Minnesota, vandals have destroyed beetle cages at the Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin, causing thousands of dollars in damage and destroying an annual project in which students and volunteers devote hundreds of labor hours.
From the News:

For the past seven years, the refuge has raised Galerucella beetles, which [...]

On March 19, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar released the first ever comprehensive report on bird populations in the United States, showing that nearly a third of the nation’s 800 bird species are endangered, threatened or in significant decline due to habitat loss, invasive species, and other threats. The report was based on 40 [...]

Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, which is part of the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge Complex in New Jersey, is one of the many refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System that has been destaffed due to budget cuts in the federal government, and now those cuts are resulting in vandalism and neglect at this [...]

Today this blogger attended the 2009 National Wildlife Refuge System Friends Unite Conference, which was held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. The conference was designed to advance and strengthen Friends organizations through networking, skills-building and resource-sharing sessions. Over 500 volunteers (representing 161 Friends groups) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees [...]

On January 25, The Washington Post published an article that highlights the greatest threat to national wildlife refuges — climate change.

At the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, sea-level rise threatens to drown the brackish marsh on which migrating shorebirds depend. In Northern California, the shrinking snowpack has reduced stream flows that sustain [...]

A new report titled “Keeping Every Cog and Wheel: Reforming and Improving the National Wildlife Refuge System” has been released by the following groups: The Aldo Leopold Foundation, American Bird Conservancy, Defenders of Wildlife, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, National Wildlife Refuge Association, Trust for Public Land, and The Wilderness Society.
According to the report’s [...]

The Sun Sentinel in Florida reports that a pair of nesting bald eagles has been spotted at Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, in a portion of the Everglades that is off-limits to the public.
Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee NWR is located seven miles west of the city of Boynton Beach in Palm Beach County, [...]

Back on October 24, this blog reported on the passage of H.R. 767, also known as the Refuge Ecology Protection, Assistance, and Immediate Response (REPAIR) Act. This important bill now moves onto the Senate, and if it is passed and signed by President Bush, it will allow the government to begin awarding grants to fund [...]