Facility Activities

Check out our pollinator garden!

Pollinators like birds, bees and bats are incredibly important to a majority of the world’s flowering plant species. As pollinators move to and from each flower to gather nectar, they also move pollen. This aids in the production of certain fruits and seeds that rely solely on pollination. In the United States alone there are over 150 different food crops that depend on pollinators, including: blueberries, apples, oranges, strawberries, tomatoes, and almonds. Without pollinators, our cupboards would look bare. 

Unfortunately, pollinators are declining due to habitat loss and fragmentation, the introduction and spread of invasive plant species, misuse of pesticides, diseases, and parasites. 

In the early fall of 2015, the hatchery started tending several pollinator gardens to help increase and sustain our local pollinators like ruby throated hummingbirds, bumblebees, monarch butterflies, and the hummingbird moth. Our garden is planted with wild bergamot, blackeyed susan, purple coneflower, lance leaf coreopsis, blanket flower, golden alexanders.

Come have lunch at one of our pollinator garden picnic tables scattered around the property!

You can help pollinators and keep fruits and flowers on the table too. Learn more about creating your own pollinator garden at school and at home.

Fish viewing is available at a number of FWS facilities in the form of aquariums, tanks, and streams.
From bald eagles to spoonbills, from condors to puffins, birds abound on national wildlife refuges. Refuges provide places for birds to nest, rest, feed and breed making them world-renown for their birding opportunities.
Many refuges champion wildlife viewing as a key recreational activity.