Thoughts from a Refuge Visitor

Seeking Refuge

-By Susan Setterberg, Friends Ridgefield National Wildlife Member

I love our National Wildlife Refuges.  Fifty years ago this April I started birding for the first time. I went back to my old undergraduate college and took the Ornithology class. There were a lot of field trips. I pulled out my journal from that class and looked at the list of places I had visited. Among them was the Oliver Brothers Salt Company on the east side of San Francisco Bay. The area had a long history of salt production, 50 or 60 years preceding my visit in modern times, but also salt harvesting through evaporation was practiced there by the Ohlone Indians before European settlement. What I saw was a patchwork of evaporation ponds and sewage “treatment” from local jurisdictions along the edges of San Francisco Bay. My notebook comments about habitat quality included “disturbances by active work done in the salt ponds and aeration with possible chemical treatment for the sewage being processed before dumping into the bay.” This was the 1970s. A year later, I participated in a Golden Gate Audubon walk through the same area, by then a proposed national wildlife refuge, led by Dr. Howard Cogswell my previous ornithology class professor and stellar

supporter of conserving lands for wildlife.   It was the starting point for Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, a place I would come to love for birding.  There is a series of federal, state and locally managed lands along the bay that have been, over the last 50 years, preserved and returned to viable wetlands providing nesting and feeding areas for birds and other wildlife. In the salt company days, there was little access to the bay. Now there are extensive bay and wetlands walking trails for fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing. I moved out of the Bay Area in 1982, but I never failed to visit Don Edwards NWR whenever “home” to see family.  Each visit showed improvements in habitat richness and variety until recently.

That ornithology class was my spark moment for birding.  I didn’t really have a “spark bird” as many say, it was more a dazzle of birds.  I have never stopped birding.  I have 31 notebooks of varying quality that document my sightings.  So many of those sightings have been on National Wildlife Refuges.  I have driven across country three times.  Each route a little different. Each route winding through a few National Wildlife Refuges.  Each refuge showcasing different habitats and different species of concern or special interest. Each refuge always in process of habitat improvement and reclamation.

On my 2002 cross country drive I had two wonderful stops.  Loess Bluff NWR, near Mound City, MO was first.  There I met 80-year-old volunteer Helen who told me how to find the Yellow-headed Blackbirds.  That’s when I decided I wanted to be like Helen when I retired.  I was going to live next to a NWR and volunteer.  (And, that is why I am living in Ridgefield next to the Wildlife Refuge now.)  At Helen’s suggestion, I drove west to Colorado to find the Pawnee Grasslands NWR.  The next morning, I headed out the back of a sleepy Sunday town going due west toward the Rockies. About 60 miles later,

on the two-lane road, I made a right turn at a spot called Briggsdale, that’s all it was, a right turn off a two-lane road in the middle of the prairie. Never actually saw Briggsdale.  Following the road as instructed, I turned left opposite the big white fence gate a couple of miles north of the “town”.  I was in the rolling hills of short grass prairie via gravel and dirt roads. I was immediately distracted by the birds and that was what it was like for the next five hours. Other than running into a group of hang gliders, I was on my own.  It was vast, singularly colored, and surprising for its numbers of birds and lovely pronghorns.

I have had the good fortune to see several of our 573 National Wildlife Refuges in pursuit of my birding hobby.  I’ve been to the well-known Ding Darling NWR on Sanibel Island in Florida, created in 1945, 6,470+ acres of mangrove forest, submerged seagrass beds, cordgrass marshes, and sub-tropical hardwood. Amazing place to see birds up close and personal.  Living in New Jersey for almost 17 years,

the Brigantine unit of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR was my go-to refuge.  More than 48,000 acres of Atlantic coastal habitats, 82 % of which is wetlands, the majority being salt marsh, interspersed with shallow coves and bays. Being along the Atlantic Flyway’s most active flight path makes it great for bird migration watching.  An hour from my home, after a stressful week of work as a federal civil servant, I would visit my refuge to unwind. Like the dedicated people who work on our refuges, I was often working long, unpaid hours to fulfill the mission of my agency.  Yes, I am not happy with the disparaging narrative of the current administration who have zero appreciation for the work that federal employees accomplish.  Certainly, FWS staff are among those. Not only did I find peace and relaxation on those trips to my refuge, but over the many years I visited, I learned so much about migration, habitats and habits of all the wildlife that visited or lived there.

In 2010, along with three friends, we headed to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.  My goal was to find life birds and tip my 598 North American Species list into the 600s.  That choice was a no-brainer because Laguna Atascosa NWR is known for the biggest bird list of any national wildlife refuge. Not far away we also visited Santa Ana NWR.  Being along the central flyway and adjacent to the border with Mexico has its perks.  Many species seen in Mexico and farther south, find their way to favorable habitat across the river into the US.  Fortunately, the birds could still fly over the border walls back then. We know there are some issues impacting animal movement and degrading habitat there now.  I did get the needed birds and ended that trip at 616 ABA species on my life list.  I couldn’t have done that anywhere else in the US in the six days we were there.

In 2023, I took an organized birding trip to the prairies of North Dakota and Montana.  Among our stops were Des Lacs, Medicine Lake, Lostwood, Bowdoin and Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuges.  I am hard pressed to say I had a favorite. What sticks in my mind is the breathtaking views of the Missouri Breaks from a high point at the Russell NWR. It’s not just about the birds for me.  To be able to stand in the middle of these open spaces, be they small like our local 392-acre Pierce NWR or as huge as the 1.1-million-acre Charles M Russell and its encompassed UL Bend NWR in Montana, is soul strengthening.  Close your eyes, listen only to wildlife. Take a breath and smell the essence of the plants, the decay and regeneration around you.  Feel the warmth, cold, damp and dry air upon your skin in our deserts, mountains, and tundra or along our lakes, streams and coastal marine refuges. Yes, OUR lands.  The National Wildlife Refuges, like National Parks, are ours.

The formation of the National Wildlife Refuge System has been complicated.  The origins of thoughtful people who recognized the need to save and set aside lands for species such as the American Bison go back into the mid-1800s.  You could say the current system is 150 years of a work in progress.  It has grown out of initial executive orders and eventually congressional legislation which included most recently the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 and then the 1997, National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act. The latest legislation provided a new statutory mission statement and directed the management of the refuges as a national system of lands and waters devoted to conserving wildlife and maintaining biological integrity of ecosystems.

Yes, I love our National Wildlife Refuges.  I am thrilled to visit a new one anytime I travel, but like Don Edwards, Brigantine and our own Ridgefield NWR, I love getting to know a place. The return of the Yellow-headed Blackbirds in March (they were late this year, but they are back now), waiting for the Sandhill Cranes to come in October, watching coyote pups try to catch field mice and voles, seeing ice covering tree branches in winter are all anticipated annual events I look forward to.  After 12 years of visits and volunteering, I know our Refuge well like an old friend.

But yes, I am worried about the refuges.  All 573 of them. I learned more about the current state of our refuges during a National Wildlife Refuge Association April webinar with guest speaker Cynthia Martinez, Chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System.  The situation is dire and has been for a while as FWS continues to adjust in a variety of ways to budget and staffing shortfalls while trying to maintain an outdated infrastructure, with growing environmental pressures.  And, they still don’t know what will happen after they have been completely “doged”.  (My word for the current government downsizing actions.)

Some facts from the webinar about the state of the refuge system:

• In FY2010, the budget for FWS was just under $503 million; today, 15 years later, it is $527 million with added refuges.
• There are 95 million land acres in the system requiring care.
• Refuges protect 760 million acres of marine environments with 181 coastal refuges
• 3 million acres of service lands are infested with non-native species, a 30% increase since 2005. Currently available resources only allow successful control of 7% of these lands. 
• 350 refuges provide habitat for threatened and endangered species. Only 27% of T&E species can be monitored on refuges at this time. How will we know if they can survive.
• There is at least one refuge in every state and territory.
• 491 refuges welcome 70 million recreation visits a year. (Some refuges, such as our Pierce and Franz Lake, are not open to visitors, which enables them to be focused on recovery or stabilization of plant or wildlife populations.)
• NONE of the 573 refuges are considered sufficient to have full staffing and full funding to achieve mission goals and provide permitted compatible uses by visitors. That is worth repeating….
• 57% of the refuges have limited resources – usually where the office is in a complex as is Ridgefield. They are operating with only a portion of their needed staff and funding, only partially achieving goals, so public access becomes contingent on available staffing and safety.  They are heavily supported by volunteers.
• 35% are considered insufficient – staffing limitations are such that they receive varying levels of attention with little or no maintenance or management.
• Finally, 8% are labelled shuttered. They lack staff or funding to achieve any goals. Public access previously compatible is no longer possible.   

If you love them too, keep the National Wildlife Refuges in your sights.  Tell your friends about what refuges mean to you and can do for them.  Write to your newspapers, congressional representatives and the White House.  Make noise for what you love.  I know there is so much need developing for actions or lack of proper actions from our government on many fronts right now.  We have much to keep an eye on.  Make National Wildlife Refuges, our Refuges, one of those places to continue as a wonderful work in progress for us and future generations. 

-images by Susan Setterberg