The year 1972 was big for many reasons--the first e-mail program, the classic film "The Godfather", and Don McLean's "American Pie". And, perhaps most importantly, a groundbreaking piece of conservation legislation known as the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).

Together with the National Marine Fisheries Service, we work to conserve the world's marine mammals and their ocean ecosystems. Over the course of this year, we'll bring you stories from across the country that show how we're putting the MMPA into action to save polar bears, walruses, otters, manatees, and dugongs. (What's a dugong, you ask? Stay tuned this year and you just might find out!)

We usually think of Florida as a great escape from northern winters. But for animals like endangered West Indian manatees, even the Gulf waters off the Florida coast can be deadly cold, chilling to a hypothermia-inducing 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit. That's why each winter they flock to Kings Bay.

Aerial survey of Kings Bay manatees from January 2010. Photo by Joyce Kleen/USFWS

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Every year International Migratory Bird Day celebrates and brings attention to one of the most important and spectacular events in the Americas - bird migration. 

Clark's grebes perform a splashy courtship dance called rushing. Photo: Dave Menke/USFWS

This year International Migratory Bird Day will celebrate its 20th anniversary. 

As part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, the annual bird conservation theme focuses on 20 ways people can help birds every day.  With the help of biologists, educators, conservationists, birdwatchers, and bird enthusiasts, 20 issues and simple solutions are presented in the hope of connecting people to bird conservation and engaging people in actions that help birds. 

Some of the ways you can help birds include:

-Purchasing a Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp. These stamps contribute to habitat which benefits all birds and the Junior Duck stamps help connect children to birds through art.

-Talk to your friends about birds and start a club in your community to teach people about the challenges birds face. Get outdoors and enjoy nature!  

-Go somewhere for a walk with a friend or just stroll around your neighbor hood. You can even be a citizen scientist! Many projects need helpers to gather data on birds and their habitats. Contact your local National Wildlife Refuge or Nature Center to volunteer.  

Over 500 sites throughout the Western Hemisphere reach hundreds of thousands of youth and adults.  Over 150 National Wildlife Refuges are hosting events to celebrate birds this year.  Visit our International Migratory Bird Day website for all 20 ways you can help birds.  

International Migratory Bird Day is an invitation to everyone to celebrate and support migratory bird conservation!

Don't ask the Refuge System to name the 10 best wildlife refuges to see wildlife. We don't write up those kinds of list. We love all the 556 units--from the smallest (Mille Lacs Refuge in Minnesota, two islands with about 0.57 acres), to the largest (Arctic Refuge in Alaska, about 19.3 million acres).

So it was fascinating to see what SmarterTravel picked after the website talked to us, looked at our website, asked about the world-class recreation we offer, thought about geographic distribution and then found some great pictures.

Visit a National Wildlife Refuge and you may see desert bighorn sheep. Photo by Gary M. Stolz/USFWS

You can read the whole list online, so we won't spoil the fun. There are a few places on the list you might not have considered--like Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, near Yuma, Arizona, home to more than 400 bighorn sheep.

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What do drawing and painting have to do with learning about wetlands and waterfowl? Plenty! For two decades, the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Program has been helping kids to learn about ducks, geese and swans--and about wetlands, the places they live, eat and play--through a unique and fun combination of science and the arts.

Checking out the artwork during the 2009 Jr. Duck Stamp contest. USFWS photo

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Storytelling is critical to our ultimate success in the conservation field.

That's why we've joined with the Friends of the National Conservation Training Center to bring you America's WILD READ: an online book discussion forum for sharing some of our nation's greatest conservation stories.

What does it mean to be an urban naturalist? Is it possible to connect to nature in a meaningful way while living the city life? Just how much of a challenge is it to live a lifestyle that integrates the natural and built environments?

Urban wildife in downtown Washington, DC. Photo by Terry Cacek/USFWS

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Bob Sallinger, Conservation Director, Audubon Society of Portland. Photo courtesy of the Audubon Society of Portland

Two native Oregonians and one Boston transplant have asked themselves these same questions, having dedicated all or part of their careers to bringing the answers to light. Leveraging their first-hand knowledge of efforts in Portland, Oregon to create a balance between the natural and built environments, the moderators April’s WILD READ will lead readers on an exploration of the city’s green spaces beginning April 15. M.J. Cody and Mike Houck, editors of "Wild in the City, Exploring The Intertwine" (OSU Press, 2011) will share insights into how this remarkable city can serve as a national model. Bob Sallinger, who directs the Audubon Society of Portland’s conservation work when not climbing into peregrine falcon nests on Portland's bridges, will highlight how to creatively co-exist with urban wildlife.

"Wild in the City" becomes the sixth book featured as part of the America's WILD READ online discussion group, a project of the National Conservation Training Center's (NCTC) conservation library. It is hosted by the Friends of the NCTC, and has emerged as one of the Internet's liveliest opportunities for book lovers and authors to meet over conversation about conservation.

Awesome news for the United Women Artisans’ Association of Los Limites, aka ASOARTESANAS.  They won the 2012 United Nations Equator Prize! Working with Fundacion Proyecto Titi, these community artisans are helping to save cotton top tamarins in Los Limites, Columbia.

Cotton top tamarins are small, elusive monkeys that live in vanishing habitat in the tropical forests of northwestern Columbia. They’re one of the most endangered primates in the world. To save these animals from extinction, Fundacion Proyecto Titi and ASOARTESANAS are working to stop deforestation, hunting, and the capture of tamarins for the illegal pet trade.

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Did you find the ten critters hidden in the Wild Easter Egg Hunt we posted last weekend?

You can see the solution larger here.

The ten critters you were looking for were: a toad, beetle, owl, lizard, fish, turtle, pelican, wolf, and snake.

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama.  Photo: USFWS

Everybody likes a good easter egg hunt. So we here at Open Spaces created a wildlife version for you to enjoy!

To view it full size, follow this link.  Or print it as an activity for the kiddos!

And if you can't get enough of gazing down this sun-dappled path through Alabama's Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, this photo makes great wallpaper for your computer desktop. Use it to remind you to plan your visit there! 

If you take up our Wild Easter Egg Hunt challenge, you're looking for ten critters lurking in the woods, including a fish out of water.  On Monday, we'll post the solutions.  

Happy searching!

A child leaving home is always a big deal to the parents, but in this case it’s a big deal to an entire species.

The species in question is the tiny endangered Hawaiian songbird known as the “Millerbird.” And the “big deal”? The fledgling of a Millerbird on Laysan Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

You see, until this past September, no one had seen a Millerbird on Laysan Island in almost a century. Rabbits and other introduced grazing animals had devastated the island’s vegetation, destroying Millerbird habitat and by 1923 effectively wiping out the Millerbird population.

A millerbird looks at home on Laysan Island. Photo: R. Kohley/American Bird Conservancy & USFWS

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You've been reading his series, "The Fish & Wildlife Service You Don't Know."

But who is David Klinger?  Anita Noguera set out to answer that question.

For the past several years, David Klinger has been putting the “people” back into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The NCTC writer-editor, a veteran of 34 years with the agency, has been ferreting out some of the untold stories of the wildlife agency in a running feature called, “The Fish and Wildlife Service You Don’t Know,” that appears in Fish and Wildlife News and other publications.  “They’re a cross between in-house chatter and ‘urban legend’ – all true, most largely unremarked and unacknowledged, every one of them fascinating,” says Klinger.

“It’s been my good fortune over the course of a career to be an observer on the periphery of some fascinating wildlife stories, from California condors to sea otters, from spotted owls to peregrine falcons.  Absorbing as these stories have been, I find my attention increasingly turning to those more exotic of creatures, the men and women of the Fish and Wildlife Service, whose pursuits take them around the globe and into interesting endeavors.  Their stories read better than novels.”

David Klinger with his dog Jackson

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