Archive for the 'Pacific Region' Category

Apr 18, 2008

Wildlife Center at Tualatin River NWR Opens

Back in December 2007, this blog reported on the new Wildlife Center that was scheduled to open in March 2008 at Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, which is located on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon.
On April 17, The Oregonian printed a report from Norman Penner — president of the refuge support group called Friends of [...]

Dec 24, 2007

Highly Endangered Duck Making a Comeback

The U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently reported that the most highly endangered duck species — the Laysan duck or Laysan teal — is making a comeback on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, which is near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago.
According to the USGS:

In 2004 and 2005, 42 wild, [...]

Dec 09, 2007

Friends Group Helps Tualatin River NWR

The Tigard Times in Oregon recently ran a story about the upcoming opening of the new visitor center at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, which is located on the outskirts of Portland and is one of only a handful of urban national wildlife refuges in the country.
The article does a good job of highlighting [...]

Dec 01, 2007

Farallon NWR Birds Victims of Oil Spill

Back on November 9, I highlighted a newspaper article that discussed the San Francisco oil spill and its impact on birds near the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, which is a group of islands located 28 miles west of San Francisco.
On Thursday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that state and federal wildlife officials have decided not [...]

Nov 17, 2007

Marine Debris Threatens Wildlife

Marine debris is a deadly problem for wildlife all around the world. An estimated 6.4 million tons of marine debris pollutes our oceans and coastlines, and more than 1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals die each year due to entanglement or ingestion of marine debris.
On the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge — which is [...]

Nov 09, 2007

San Francisco Oil Spill Hits Refuge Wildlife

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that part of the recent oil spill in San Francisco Bay has started affecting birds at the Farallon Islands (see oil spill gallery).
Farallon National Wildlife Refuge is a group of islands located 28 miles west of San Francisco. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it sustains [...]

Nov 08, 2007

Update on Condors and CA Fires

As I reported back on October 25, the staff at the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in California had to evacuate during the recent California wild fires and leave behind three endangered California condor chicks in their remote nest sites. The chicks were equipped with radio transmitters, and the transmission signals indicated that two chicks [...]

Nov 02, 2007

Nutria Invasion

The Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon recently published an article on one of the most problematic invasive species in the National Wildlife Refuge System — the non-native nutria.
Nutria are South American aquatic mammals that were originally introduced into North America for the fur-farming industry. When it became clear the market for their fur was [...]

Oct 28, 2007

Natural Disasters Hit Refuges

In the last few months, two natural disasters have hit several national wildlife refuges hard. The August flooding in the Midwest has had a costly impact on the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. The Associated Press reports:
Days of flash flooding in August along the Minnesota-Wisconsin line left parts of the refuge scarred and [...]

Oct 25, 2007

California Fires and Refuges

According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service press release issued on October 24, the fires in California have destroyed thousands of acres of habitat at Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge and San Diego National Wildlife Refuge. More than 70% of the vegetation at Hopper Mountain NWR was burned by the Ranch Fire (Hopper is [...]