Management Activities

Refuge staff constantly work to improve the quality of wildlife habitat.  Management actions create, restore, and maintain diverse habitats to encourage use by many wildlife species.
Some habitat management activities at Rachel Carson Refuge include restoring salt marshes, prescribed burning and mowing of grasslands, planting native trees and shrubs, biological control of invasive plants, and fencing piping plover nesting areas.

The protection of coastal habitats, including salt marsh, tidal rivers, and beach-dune, is our top priority.  We seek to broaden our understanding and management of other critical habitats and species of concern that use these habitats. The refuge evaluates and uses the most cost-effective and environmentally sound techniques to manage habitats and conserve wildlife and plants. In addition, we strengthen our biological inventory and monitoring program to allow us to better evaluate our programs and make more informed decisions.

The refuge land acquisition and cooperativeland protection program encompases some 14,383 acres.   All of the proposed lands for acquisition support trust resources of concern in coastal Maine. In addition to Service acquisition, we work with our land conservation partners to support our collective efforts in watershed protection.

The approximately quarter-million refuge visitors are rewarded with opportunities for priority wildlife-dependent public uses, especially in wildlife observation and photography, environmental education, interpretation, fishing, and hunting in collaboration with partners.

Land Management Research and Demonstration Areas  are places where new habitat management techniques and approaches are developed, implemented and showcased – places where professional land managers and others come to learn about cutting edge habitat management techniques and technology and carry back with them the information and knowledge which allows them to better manage their own lands.Rachel Carson and Parker River NWRs are partners in a Land Management Research and Demonstration Area.  LMRDs serve as institutions of investigation, innovation and instruction in wildlife and habitat management.

Tidal salt marshes are found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Maine to Texas, extending over 1,000 coastal miles. They are among the most productive habitats on earth and home to a wealth of plant and wildlife species.  With over 90 percent of the salt marshes in the northeastern U.S. altered, these refuges provide a unique opportunity to advance the science and implementation of sustainable restoration of this imperiled habitat.