In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt established Pelican Island as the first national wildlife refuge. Its creation was a response to a growing problem in North America: the reckless destruction of migratory birds.
As more Americans became aware of the rapid decline of many bird species, conservationists took action. In 1886, the first Audubon Society was organized by George Bird Grinnell to advocate for the protection of birds — especially species like the egret, which relentlessly poached so its feathers could be used as fashionable adornments on hats.
As the 20th century progressed, more wildlife refuges were created to protect dwindling populations of American wildlife. The largest expansion of the system occurred when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed John Salyer in 1934 as chief of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Afraid to fly in an airplane, Salyer took off on a cross-country auto tour, personally identifying fragments of habitat to be established as wildlife sanctuaries.
Under Salyer, a refuge was created in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to save a surprising species: the Canada goose. Today, this species is so common that many Americans regard it as a pest. In the 1930s, it was a threatened species — and it might not be around anymore if it hadn’t been for the Seney National Wildlife Refuge.
A sanctuary in the Seney Swamp
In 1935, the Seney National Wildlife Refuge was formed out of forsaken farmland in Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula. In an effort to reclaim the Great Manistique Swamp between 1880-1910, the landscape was logged, burned, and drained. It proved to be terrible farmland, resulting in farmers abandoning their acreage. Left responsible for the tax-reverted properties, the State of Michigan recommended that the Federal government establish a wildlife refuge in the Seney Swamp.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt happily obliged, creating a 95,238 acre refuge by executive order under the Migratory Bird Conservation Act. The refuge was created for a specific purpose and a specific species — to be an “inviolate sanctuary” for the Canada goose.
Like many migratory birds in the early 20th century, the Canadian goose was in peril. Polluted waterways and drained marshlands reduced their habitat, limiting nesting grounds and migration stopovers. More significantly, hunters and poachers blasted geese out the sky during all months of the year, taking them at a faster rate than they could reproduce. With the northern Michigan wetlands established as a protected breeding ground and habitat for the Canada goose, it was hoped they could be returned to a healthy population.
Saving the Canada goose
To meet these ends, three hundred geese were delivered to the refuge in 1936. Penned in and wings clipped, the refuge would be their permanent home — though ideally not the home of their offspring. Refuge planners hoped that this original pinioned population of geese would raise goslings that would leave the refuge but return to the safe haven of Seney during their future annual migrations.
Though not certain at first, this program would ultimately prove successful. A decade after the Seney NWR was established, its first manager published a report describing the results:
“The success of the experiment seemed assured in the spring of 1945, when only 45 of the original flock were left to nest; but Canada geese then were common on all water areas of the refuge and on many nearby marshes of the Upper Peninsula.”
Public land historian Douglas Brinkley writes that “Seney National Wildlife Refuge’s Canada goose project is considered to have been one of the key programs in re-establishing the Canada goose as a major wetland bird of North America.”
Today, the Canada goose has made a full recovery. Audubon estimates their population at 7.1 million — enough birds that it is hard to take a walk in a local municipal park without being hissed at.
A symbol of the National Wildlife Refuge System
Since Pelican Island was established in 1903, the National Wildlife Refuge System has been a crucial tool for conserving North American wildlife. From the Aleutian Islands to Jackson Hole, refuges are one of few places left in this country where wildlife comes first. Whether for a species as charismatic as polar bears or innocuous as the Canada goose, they are a symbol of the value America has placed on protecting plants, animals, and insects — and one that will hopefully continue into the future.
You must be logged in to post a comment.