in this issue

(click on a title to read that story)

A Year After Hurricane Rita, Sabine Refuge Cleanup
Cleanup and restoration at Sabine National Wildlife Refuge are on track with plans to have all hazardous materials removed by year’s end....

Plant’s Reappearance Prompts Germination Effort
A wildlife biologist at Willapa National Wildlife Refuge in Washington is collecting seeds for propagation from pink sand verbena, an endangered native plant that was once widespread on the Pacific coast....

Other Islands Eyed for Endangered Laysan Ducks
One of the world’s most endangered waterfowl, the Laysan duck has so surpassed survival expectations on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in Hawaii that wildlife biologists are evaluating other sites suitable for launching new populations of the birds....

Masked Bobwhite
Funding awarded this year has enabled Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona to hire for the first time a wildlife biologist to track recovery of the masked bobwhite in Mexico, where scientists believe most of the birds live. The masked bobwhite was believed extinct until its rediscovery in the 1960s....

Rat Prevention on Alaska Maritime Refuge
Known as the Galapagos of the North, Alaska’s Pribilof Islands are home to 3 million seabirds and nearly a million fur seals.  What they don’t have are rats....

Sudden Wetland Dieback
Researchers are investigating whether a pathogenic fungus may be partly responsible for the rapid death of wetland grasses in New England....

Festivals Round-Up
As 2006 winds down, national wildlife refuges are gearing up for some of the finest and most popular nature-based festivals that welcome outdoor enthusiasts and families to learn more about their outdoor and community heritage....

Christmas Bird Count
National Wildlife Refuges from the Florida tropics to the snowy Midwest will be participating in this year’s Christmas Bird Count, which the National Audubon Society, local Audubon chapters and other birding groups use to track changes in the numbers and varieties of birds around the country....