Stewart Fefer Oral History Transcript

This is an oral history interview between Tom Goettel and Stewart Fefer, longtime friends and former colleagues at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They discuss Fefer's background and career path in conservation, including his early fieldwork experiences studying birds and wetlands that sparked his interest. Fefer recounts his work inventorying Maine's coastal islands and ecologically significant areas in the 1970s-80s which directly led to the establishment and expansion of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge. He highlights the importance of partnerships in conservation successes. Other topics covered include landscape-level planning, fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.

Learn more about fish passage and dam removal projects restoring rivers like the Penobscot, climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.

Learn more about climate change impacts, and the need for supervisor support in the Service. Fefer became interested in conservation in college through fieldwork with his biology professor studying birds and wetlands. His graduate work continued this with waterfowl research on the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge in Maine, further sparking his passion for wildlife refuges. In the 1970s, Fefer conducted pioneering inventories of Maine's coastal islands and ecologically significant areas for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This directly led to the establishment of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge as the Service acquired many of the identified significant islands. Fefer stresses the critical role of partnerships with other government agencies, NGOs, local communities and landowners in achieving conservation successes. He helped demonstrate the value of collaborative grant programs leveraging multiple funding sources to protect land. He also expresses pride in ten years projects with the Department of the Interior International Technical Assistance Program (ITAP), especially with friendships he developed in Oman.