Speech: Steven Williams Remarks for The Florida Chapter of The Wildlife Society Vero Beach Inn, Vero Beach, Florida

March 13, 2003

Thank you. It is an honor to be here with you today to celebrate the 100the anniversary of our National Wildlife Refuges! Not only does the Centennial mark a milestone for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Refuge System; it marks a milestone for countless friends and partners who have helped make the Refuge System such a success.

In fact, the refuge system owes its existence to the responsibility and commitment of people much like you — people genuinely concerned about the wildlife resources in their own backyards.

Before the refuge system was established, conservationists Paul Kroegel of the Florida Audubon Society and Frank Chapman of the Ornithological Union were concerned about the market hunting of water birds here in Florida to meet the fashion industry’s demand for feathers. That sense of local obligation triggered the start of the national conservation legacy that we now celebrate.

On March 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt established Pelican Island as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds, and the National Wildlife Refuge System was born. From that small island situated just down the coast from here, the National Wildlife Refuge System has grown to encompass 95 million acres on 540 different refuges. There are now refuges in all fifty states and in many U.S. territories.

The Centennial is a good time to reflect on the achievements of our predecessors. It also presents an opportunity to consider the conservation challenges that lie ahead. I’d like to talk about three things I see as pertinent to the future success of refuges: people, partnerships, and planning.

First, in order to sustain interest in conservation, there is a growing need to educate and expose people to their local resources. It is not by accident that we like to boast that there are refuges within an hour’s drive of most cities. As our communities become increasingly urbanized, it becomes more important to keep people linked to the natural heritage of the country. With about 35 million visitors each year, the National Wildlife Refuge System is helping to fill this need.

As the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director, one of my primary goals is to increase awareness of the many opportunities that refuges offer to the public. I believe that putting people in direct contact with nature is fundamental to the future of conservation. That said, refuges will continue to provide many such outdoor opportunities, including birdwatching, wildlife observation, nature photography, and hiking.

It is also my firm belief that hunting and fishing will continue to be a key to the success of conservation. Hunters and anglers have been the backbone of wildlife conservation from the beginning. Their chosen recreation will continue to instill the kind of lasting respect for nature and wildlife on which wildlife conservation was founded. Both activities were identified as priorities under the Refuge Improvement Act. More than half of our national wildlife refuges offer opportunities for hunting and fishing, and where it is possible, the Service will expand fishing and hunting opportunities on refuges.

The refuge system is an evolving network of lands managed to meet the conservation needs of an ever-changing world. What will remain constant is the need to stimulate local interest in the importance of conservation. Another priority I have is to nurture existing and potential partnerships, especially with groups like yours.

Paul Kroegel and Frank Chapman may have never imagined the consequences of their concerns about the water birds here in Florida; nevertheless, the largest strides in conservation begin with the smallest steps taken closest to home. I cannot overemphasize the importance of groups such as yours who actively stimulate concern for local resources.
Partnerships have always been, and will always remain, the cornerstone of fish and wildlife conservation; and partners like you will play increasingly crucial roles in the success of the refuge system as it continues evolving over the next 100 years.

This brings me to the last thing I’d like to discuss: planning.

Together, the entire conservation community must stick together and use its collective knowledge to anticipate the needs of the future. Spurred on by concerns about regional wildlife resources, Theodore Roosevelt was able to anticipate the need for a nationwide system of lands set aside for the benefit of wildlife. During his presidency, he established 51 bird reservations and 4 game ranges, from Florida to Wyoming, and Puerto Rico to Alaska.

Roosevelt wrote: “Wild beasts and birds are by right not the property of the people who are alive today, but the property of unknown generations, whose belongings we have no right to squander.”

That philosophy is at the heart of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Market hunting posed the biggest conservation challenge of last century. Today, the biggest conservation challenge is developing and maintaining large areas of quality habitat for wildlife.

The threats to habitat range widely and Florida knows its fair share of them: from invasive species to coastal and inland development and the increasing demand for water. Florida has unique and wonderful habitats and species, and I’m proud to say that our National Wildlife Refuges are helping to preserve some of those for the future.

The Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge was established specifically for the protection of habitat for this remarkable species. The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville provides the most important nesting area for loggerhead sea turtles in the western hemisphere, and the second most important nesting beach in the world. The National Key Deer Refuge offers habitat to the endangered key deer, and 22 federally listed endangered and threatened species of plants and animals, five of which are found nowhere else in the world. The Chassahowitzka (Chass-a-witz-ka) National Wildlife Refuge is now playing a key role in recovery efforts for the whooping crane. I know that the manatee has been subject of recent news these days, and I also know that habitat for 25 percent of the nation’s Florida manatees are found on the islands of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge.

Although the National Wildlife Refuge System began as a small island, refuges cannot just be isolated islands surrounded by a sea of development. We need to make sure that refuges do not become mere museums of natural history, snapshots of what good habitat once was. While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working closely to acquire inholdings on refuges and lands directly surrounding previously established units, we must all weave the refuge philosophy – that our resources are not really ours to squander – into the fabric of our growing communities.

We must work with private landowners, rural farmers, and ranchers who are themselves often under great economic strain. Also, we must reach out to city dwellers whose lives, though they may not know it, depend as much as anyone else’s on the health of natural resources. As the pressure on these resources grows along with our population, so does the need to keep people connected to nature.

I mentioned earlier that one of my goals is to increase awareness of the many opportunities that refuges have to offer for people. There are certainly many more ways to bring the refuge philosophy into people’s hearts, but planning is crucial. One great example of planning for the future is evident in the Refuge Centennial itself. A great deal of planning by a great number of people, past and present, brings us to this point.

Now, the Centennial offers us a great opportunity to put – and keep – the spotlight on the National Wildlife Refuge System, and the conservation needs it represents so widely across the land. The spotlight on conservation will not shut off on March 15. Through people, partners, and planning, the National Wildlife Refuge System is a living legacy that will continue shining a light on our nation’s changing conservation needs.

As we look back on the last century and start planning for the next, let us focus on what has essentially enabled the success of the National Wildlife Refuge System: a deep concern for wildlife; friends with like interests; and, the guiding light — a sense of responsibility for the future.

Thank you.