Air Resources Information System (ARIS)
Breton National Wildlife Refuge

Overview

Highlights Overview AQRVs Monitoring       Additional Information Regional Air Quality Information Breton NWR Website Breton WA 300km Radius Map (PDF 655KB)

 
Breton National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1904. The Refuge is in the Gulf of Mexico and is composed of the Chandeleur Islands and North and South Breton Islands. These islands provide habitat for colonies of nesting and wading birds, seabirds, as well as wintering shorebirds and waterfowl and the shallow bay waters around the islands provide excellent habitat for many species of fish. Twenty-three species of seabirds, shorebirds and waterfowl use the refuge extensively and include the brown pelican, laughing gull, royal, Caspian, sandwich terns, redhead and lesser scaup. Other wildlife found on the refuge includes nutria, rabbits, raccoons, and loggerhead sea turtles. Endangered or threatened species include the brown pelican, least tern, and piping plover.

• In 1975, Congress designated most of Breton National Wildlife Refuge as a wilderness area, declaring that the area should remain undeveloped and "unimpaired" for future generations. In 1977, Congress acknowledged the uniqueness of the Breton Wilderness Area by designating it a Class I air quality area, affording it special protection under the Clean Air Act. Congress gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), as the Federal Land Manager of the Breton Wilderness Area, the responsibility to protect the air quality and natural resources, including visibility, of the area from manmade air pollution. Despite this protection, air pollution is harming Breton Wilderness Area. The air pollution comes from many sources: onshore industry, power plants, car emissions, offshore oil and gas development, and marine traffic.

• FWS is working cooperatively with the States of Louisiana, Mississippi , Alabama , the Minerals Management Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and onshore and offshore industry to reduce air pollution emissions and protect the air quality and Air Quality Related Values (AQRVs) of Breton NWR. FWS monitors visibility conditions at Breton in partnership with the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) program, which measures fine airborne particles responsible for visibility impairment.

• Water quality in the wilderness area may be at risk from air pollution. Research along the Gulf Coast has demonstrated that atmospheric nitrogen pollution (mainly from power plants and autos) has contributed to fertilization of coastal waters, with subsequent algae blooms, loss of seagrass beds, and deterioration of fish and wildlife habitat. An over-enrichment of a water body with nitrogen, resulting in excessive growth of organisms and depletion of oxygen concentration is called eutrophication.

• If the Breton Wilderness Area is not protected, unique wildlife and scenic values will be threatened or even lost, as has happened along much of the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico. The FWS hopes to preserve and protect these special wilderness islands for future generations.

• A study on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide increments at Breton Wilderness is available at Minerals Management Service Study on S02 and NOx Increments at Breton Wilderness.