Completely happy a hundred and twentieth Birthday Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System! — The Nationwide Wildlife Refuge Affiliation

Completely happy a hundred and twentieth Birthday to the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System! For over a century, these protected areas have been preserving wildlife habitats, providing alternatives for outside recreation, and offering fantastic alternatives to study nature.

This 12 months marks a very particular anniversary, because it has been 120 years since Pelican Island Nationwide Wildlife Refuge, positioned off the coast of Florida, turned the primary refuge established on Could 14, 1903. Since then, the Refuge System has grown to embody a community of conserved lands throughout the nation, starting from coastal wetlands to grasslands and from forests to arctic tundra. The Refuge System has helped shield endangered species and restore ecosystems that had been on the point of destruction.

Nonetheless, the Refuge System faces challenges like by no means earlier than. Local weather change, habitat loss, and invasive species threaten the fragile steadiness of ecosystems that refuges work onerous to protect. Continual underfunding and understaffing have left refuges in dire want of upkeep and restoration.

As we rejoice the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System’s a hundred and twentieth Birthday, we should acknowledge the progress that has been made, however we additionally should tackle the challenges forward. We should work collectively to make sure the system’s continued success by supporting the funding and staffing needed to guard our pure world.

Let’s take a second to rejoice the unimaginable accomplishments of the Refuge System and recommit ourselves to its future. Completely happy a hundred and twentieth Birthday, Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System!