June 30, 2003

100 Years Of National Wildlife Refuges
by James L. Cummins

What started in 1903 with one, small, four-acre bird sanctuary off the coast of Florida has since grown to the world's largest network of lands managed for wildlife. The National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) System contains 540 refuges and 95 million acres. These NWRs are very diverse and include lands from the Florida Keys to the frozen tundra of Alaska. They range in size from the 0.6-acre Mille Lacs NWR in Minnesota to the 19.2 million acre Arctic NWR in Alaska.

It was President Theodore Roosevelt who, with 48 words, created what would be the nation's first NWR, Pelican Island, a small bird sanctuary in Florida. Pelican Island was the first of 51 Executive Orders that President Roosevelt would sign during his Presidency establishing 25 NWRs in 17 States and Territories. On one day, February 25, 1909, President Roosevelt would create 17 different NWRs throughout the West including 13 on one Executive Order.

With the end of President Roosevelt's tenure, the growth of the NWR System slowed. It was not until 1916 with the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty with Great Britain did the conservation of lands for wildlife improve. However, our nation was consumed with fighting World War I in Europe, so conservation, specifically the purchase of lands for refuges, would have to take a back seat.

Eventually, in 1924, Congress would take monumental steps forward in the creation of a NWR System by appropriating funds for the purchase of bottomlands along the Upper Mississippi River. This marked the first time in history that Congress expressly set aside money for the purchase of land for wildlife refuges.

In 1929, Congress created the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, which Senator Thad Cochran is one of two Senate members. For the next years, our Nation coped with the Great Depression and funds for conservation, especially money to buy land for refuges, were almost nonexistent. After the Depression, lands for waterfowl were purchased. This helped revitalize the NWR System which lasted until the beginning of World War II.

In 1956, a monumental step was taken by the Refuge System with the passage of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act. The Act authorized the purchase of lands for the conservation and protection of many species of wildlife. Later, in 1966, The Endangered Species Preservation Act authorized the establishment of refuges for the protection of threatened and endangered species.

The last quarter century has seen the most change in the NWR System. Most notably was the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980. With the passage of this one act alone, more than 53 million acres were added to the NWR System and created the two largest refuges in the system, the Arctic NWR with 19.5 million acres and the Yukon Delta NWR with 19.1 million acres.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi