Are any wildlife refuges named for women?

Many national wildlife refuges are named for noted conservationists, artists, writers, donors, and elected officials, including three named for women.

Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge

The Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge near Southampton, Long Island, New York, captured the distinction of becoming the first refuge named for a woman when it became the 231st refuge in the system in 1954. It's a distinction since shared by two other women: the writer Rachel Carson and former Congresswoman Julia Butler Hansen of Washington.

Mrs. Elizabeth Morton Tilton, member of a prominent family on Long Island's east end, donated the refuge's 187 acres to preserve the area's natural features from commerical development. The Morton refuge now protects and provides habitat for diverse wildlife, including songbirds, ducks, geese, raptors, and endangered and threatened species such as piping plovers, least terns, roseate terns, peregrine falcons, and loggerhead and Kemp's Ridley sea turtles.

Although somewhat isolated and with few amenities, the refuge draws about 60,000 people each year for birdwatching, nature study, hiking, photography, environmental education, and fishing from the beach.

Finding partners to help develop a wheelchair-accessible trail is high on the priority list of refuge manager Patricia Martinkovic. “This is just a jewel of a refuge and we want people to enjoy it and help protect it for future generations,” she said.

Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge

The southern coast of Maine was special to Rachel Carson, the conscience of the conservation community, former editor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the second woman to have a refuge named in her honor. She is best known for Silent Spring, alerting the public to the devastating effect that pesticides were having on birds and other wildlife. She could also be called the “first publicist” for the National Wildlife Refuge System for the series of narratives she wrote about the system and several individual refuges.

“Wild creatures, like men, must have a place to live,” she wrote in “The Land Behind the Sign,” an essay that accompanied each refuge narrative. “Wherever you meet the sign of the flying goose--emblem of the National Wildlife Refuges . . . respect it. It means that the land behind the sign has been dedicated by the American people . . . to preserving . . . or restoring . . . the conditions that wild things need in order to live.”

Originally established in 1966 as the Coastal Maine Refuge, it was rededicated as the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in 1970. Its 10 units are scattered along 45 miles of the Maine coast, protecting about 5,000 acres of fragile, wildlife-rich coastal marshes that stretch out to sea, and the adjoining uplands.

It is prime habitat for black ducks, the threatened piping plover, many other migratory bird species, and a “haul out” area for harbor seals.

“Rachel Carson is credited with starting the environmental movement in this country,” said Refuge Manager Ward Feurt. “Her ecological message, the interdependence of all life, guides our actions and spurs our efforts to protect coastal habitat.”

More than 300,000 visitors come to the refuge each year for wildlife observation and photography, hunting, canoeing, environmental education, and to walk the self-guided, wheelchair-accessible trail that skirts the salt marsh and upland edge. The mile-long Carson Trail was designed with the advice and assistance of the Maine Association of Handicapped Persons and was built by teen-aged members of the Youth Conservation Corps, the Maine Conservation Corps, three Boy and Girl Scout troops, and the Friends of Rachel Carson Refuge.

Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-tailed Deer National Wildlife Refuge

Three thousand miles away, on Washington's Pacific Coast, is the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-tailed Deer. It was renamed by Congress in 1988 to honor the late member who had served in the House of Representatives for 14 years. She was the first woman to chair an appropriations subcommittee and, as such, exerted tremendous influence on Federal natural resource agencies, including the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The refuge was initially established in 1972 as the Columbian White-tailed Deer National Wildlife Refuge to provide protected habitat for the remaining population of 230 endangered deer. Explorers Lewis and Clark recorded the first observation of this deer in 1806, reporting it as abundant. By the turn of the century, as the area was cleared for agriculture, the deer had disappeared from nearly all of its range and by the 1930s was thought to be extinct. Remnant populations later were discovered and now the population is estimated at about 900 animals, both on and off the refuge.

“The refuge alone cannot preserve enough habitat to save the deer from extinction,” said Refuge Manager Ann Sittauer. “That's why it's so important for us to work cooperatively with private landowners if we are to achieve the goal of reclassifying the deer as threatened or removing it from the endangered species list.”

The refuge also is a wintering area for tundra swans, Canada geese, and several species of ducks. Waterbirds and raptors are common and the surrounding waters hold salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and trout. The refuge consists of 4,757 acres of diked Columbia River floodplain and undiked islands. It offers waterfowl hunting, fishing in the adjacent rivers, and environmental education.