March 14 marks the 107th anniversary of the beginning of the National Wildlife Refuge System, which started with tiny Pelican Island NWR near Sebastian, Florida. And this photo captures the essence of the challenge for so many refuges — protecting habitat in the midst of development.

The Palm Beach Post is reporting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is developing plans for a new national wildlife refuge in Florida, north of Lake Okeechobee. The refuge could be 100,000 acres or more in size and would help reduce pollution flowing into the Everglades, as well as give climate-impacted species a haven [...]

Tired of snow and ready for spring? Then visit the Red Wolf Howling Safari schedule and plan to attend one of these fun events in North Carolina this summer.
Join Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge staff on a Howling Safari for an unforgettable evening where you can learn about endangered red wolves, found only in the [...]

Volkswagen is working with CarbonFund.org to plant a forest that will offset CO2 emissions released by cars. The VW forest will be located in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley in northeast Louisiana, and will be planted on a 1,100-acre piece of land, which will eventually expand the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge.
Volkswagen says the [...]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reporting that the heater that warms the space shuttle when it lands at Kennedy Space Center has been warming cold–stunned sea turtles at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which shares land with the Space Center in Florida.
From January 4 to 14, 2,148 sea turtles were rescued from Mosquito [...]

On Monday, the Miami Herald ran a story about the retirement of Jim Burkhart — a man who has been the refuge ranger at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia/Florida for 31 years. From the Herald:

Burkhart, 64, was hired as the supervisory visitor services specialist in 1978 after a year as an outdoor recreation planner [...]

The World Wide Web has served as a wonderful tool for promoting the value and beauty of national wildlife refuges, and one of the most useful ways it has contributed to the cause of conservation is through online photography. Online galleries, slideshows and photo blogs not only promote the diversity and richness of refuges, they [...]

St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge is in Franklin County, Florida, and is an undeveloped barrier island just offshore from the mouth of the Apalachicola River in the Gulf of Mexico. The island is a haven for endangered and threatened species, including bald eagles, sea turtles, indigo snakes, gopher tortoises, and wood storks. In addition, the [...]

The Florida panther is one of the most critically endangered large mammals in the United States with about 100 cats remaining.
According to the Friends of the Florida Panther Refuge:

Although we call them Florida panthers, these shy cats once roamed throughout the entire Southeast from east Texas to the Atlantic and north to parts of Tennessee. [...]

The Outer Banks Sentinel in North Carolina recently ran a story about the ongoing debate regarding where the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge headquarters should be located now that Tropical Storm Ida has made the old one an unsafe place to be.
Discussions currently center around whether staff and volunteers should be headquarterd on Pea Island [...]

The Charlton County Herald reports that Jim Burkhart — Supervisory Visitor Services Specialist at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge — was chosen as the recipient of the 2009 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Sense of Wonder award. Only one person in the USFWS wins the award each year, which recognizes “excellence in interpretation and environmental [...]

The News-Star in Louisiana reports that researchers from the University of Louisiana at Monroe have found flamed tigersnails at Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge, despite the fact that they were reported to exist only as fossils in the state:

ULM biology graduate students Erin Basiger and Casey Nolan, under the guidance of their faculty adviser, [...]