Take a Week to Celebrate America’s Most Outstanding Landscapes

The opening years of the 20th century were a hard time to be a bird. The Passenger Pigeon and Carolina Parakeet were already on a steep descent to extinction. Feathers, popular in the elaboration of women’s hats and other accessories, were worth their weight in gold, and hunters were decimating populations of egrets, herons and other wading birds to get them. 

In 1903, a German immigrant named Paul Kroegel decided he had enough. Armed with a rowboat, a shotgun, and determination, he paddled to a small island near his home on Florida’s Indian River Lagoon to protect nesting Brown Pelicans from plume hunters who were slaughtering birds for the hat trade.  

Word of his quiet vigil reached President Theodore Roosevelt, who shared Kroegel’s outrage. That same year, Roosevelt signed an executive order naming Pelican Island as the nation’s first federal refuge for birds. 

More than a century later, that idea — that wildlife deserves a place to exist — continues to blossom as the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System. Today, 573 refuges cover more than 95 million acres of land across the country: a vast, living network of wetlands, forests, deserts, grasslands, and coasts.  

These protected lands support more than 800 species of birds and provide essential habitat for fish, mammals, and plants. They also sustain people, generating $3.2 billion in annual economic activity and an estimated 41,000 jobs in rural communities. They are places where schoolchildren see their first Bald Eagle, where families watch Sandhill Cranes take off at sunrise, and where shorebirds pause to refuel on journeys that span hemispheres. 

The refuge system grew out of the same conservation movement that gave rise to the National Audubon Society. Women like Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall organized boycotts of plume-laden hats and lobbied for laws to protect birds. Their efforts led not only to Audubon, but to landmark legislation like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Audubon’s community-based movement worked hand in hand with elected leaders to prompt federal action. While advocates built public support and changed consumer behavior, Roosevelt and his successors set aside land — first Pelican Island, then dozens, and eventually hundreds of refuges — as sanctuaries where wildlife could thrive. And Paul Kroegel, the nation's first refuge system manager, was also an Audubon employee. 

Together with national parks and monuments, America’s system of wildlife refuges create a crown of gems that protects the nation’s most treasured landscapes. And while less renowned, refuges offer a different experience from national parks. Refuges provide a chance to experience nature on its own terms —such as listening to the din of thousands of Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese at New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache; kayaking through cypress-lined bayous in Georgia’s Okeefenokee; or watching migrating caribou at Alaska’s famed Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Many refuges also provide a nature experience for millions of Americans close to home, with over 100 national wildlife refuges located within 25 miles of major urban centers.  

Even as wildlife refuges safeguard some of the most critical ecosystems in North America, they face mounting challenges that test the limits of this century-old conservation success story. Across the entire system, more resources are needed to effectively steward these lands, keep pace with expanding responsibilities and opportunities to enhance visitor experience habitat restoration, invasive-species control, scientific monitoring, water management, public education, and even law enforcement. 

Yet despite these obstacles, refuge staff, volunteers, and partners continue to innovate and persevere. Creative water-sharing agreements with Tribes and irrigation districts, new infrastructure, and collaborative restoration projects are helping to stretch limited resources. These efforts prove that with investment, ingenuity, and public support, the refuge system can meet even the toughest challenges — and continue to provide safe havens for wildlife and people alike. 

Take time this week to visit a refuge, as there’s probably one near you. Listen to the call of a loon or osprey, watch a pelican dive for a fish, and know that you are celebrating one of America’s greatest conservation achievements. These are living landscapes— and with our care, they can continue to flourish for generations to come.