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The Second Century
Understaffed, underfunded, and underappreciated, national wildlife refuges cannot survive without the help of friends. But making them a success story will require vanquishing their number one foe: species that don't belong.
Audubon Apr./June 2003
Before I could ask Paul Tritaik why the last plank—the one for Pelican Island—was missing, he offered the explanation. A luminous dignitary—Gale Norton—would insert it on March 14. It was going to be a huge press event. He hoped it would inspire the American people, get them charged up about their refuges. I hope so, too, but I doubt it. Such doings tend not to stir the imagination. Still, the image of Secretary Norton squatting over a plank bearing evocative words about the birth of the world’s largest and most successful system for protecting wildlife, and then pounding nails through it, seemed memorable—and appropriate.
Ted Williams last reported on national wildlife refuges in the May–June 1996 Audubon.
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