By Jeff Lucas, USFWS

The sun is getting low in the still, western sky of central Minnesota.

A brilliant, fiery orange hue is cast across the landscape. The wetland is a glassy mirror, literally doubling the picture of this amazing sight. The sweet smell of the prairie is unexplainable.

As I sit in the tall grass on this cool, fall evening, I can only think, “Wow, this is my office.”

Suddenly the silence is broken by multiple shotgun blasts coming from just over the rise on the prairie before me.

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Welcome to That's a Wrap, a weekly round up of what's been going on in and around the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service! Every Friday, we'll supply you with the best news and info you'll need before heading out the door for the weekend.

And now, a disclaimer! We can't gather all of these lovely tidbits ourselves, so some of our links will take you away from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website. We will never knowingly link to anything malicious, but we are obliged to tell you to be careful out there.

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There is a lot of news about our National Wildlife Refuge System this week!

(Bison graze on the prairie at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa. Photo: USFWS)

Rise in Activity

For instance, did you know that participation in wildlife-associated recreation has increased in 28 states since 2006?

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By Kim Strassburg, USFWS

What, exactly, happens at an urban refuge?

The idea might come across initially as an oxymoron to some, but that is far from the truth.

Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge is located in Portland, Oregon, and serves as an excellent example of a place where even a city-sized community can engage with nature in a meaningful way.

While a group of 8 to 10-year-olds work on nature photography, Portland Community College conservation biology students explore the refuge trails and interact with staff to learn about wildlife management and conservation careers.

Students expolore the Refuge. (Photo: USFWS)

While pre-school groups make crafts in the Discovery Classroom and walk the trails, teens from a North Portland Youth Employment Institute program explore the Refuge with a volunteer naturalist.

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Welcome to That's a Wrap, a weekly round up of what's been going on in and around the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service! Every Friday, we'll supply you with the best news and info you'll need before heading out the door for the weekend.

And now, a disclaimer! We can't gather all of these lovely tidbits ourselves, so some of our links will take you away from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website. We will never knowingly link to anything malicious, but we are obliged to tell you to be careful out there.

[More]

Meet one of the rarest plants in the country.

The Franciscan manzanita (Arctostaphylos franciscana) is an incredibly uncommon species of shrub that grows in and around San Francisco and was just given protection under the Endangered Species Act.

(Photo: Sarah Swenty/USFWS)

Once believed exctinct, the last known wild Franciscan manzanita was discovered in 2009 during a road renovation project and moved for protection.

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Every so often it's good to look into the past to revisit the people who got us where we are today. 'Looking Back' is a series on the people who helped shape the National Wildlife Refuge System. The series is based on "A Look Back," a regular column written by Karen Leggett from the Refuge System Branch of Communications, which appears in each issue of the Refuge Update newsletter.

Chandler Robbins is 93 and can still be reached at his office at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland.

Chandler Robbins (Photo: Barbara Dowell/USFWS)

Hired in 1945 as a junior biologist in the bird banding office at Patuxent Research Refuge, Robbins in 1965 initiated the North American Breeding Bird Survey, one of the world’s most influential science-based surveys of bird populations.

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Welcome to That's a Wrap, a weekly round up of what's been going on in and around the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service! Every Friday, we'll supply you with the best news and info you'll need before heading out the door for the weekend.

And now, a disclaimer! We can't gather all of these lovely tidbits ourselves, so some of our links will take you away from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website. We will never knowingly link to anything malicious, but we are obliged to tell you to be careful out there.

[More]

A recently signed agreement brings together the U.S. and Russian governments and subsistence hunters in Alaska and Chukotka, Russia, to coordinate management of the iconic polar bear.

While the Marine Mammal Protection Act was enacted to protect and conserve marine mammals including polar bears, the law also recognizes the intrinsic role that marine mammals have played and continue to play in the subsistence, cultural and economic lives of Alaska Natives.

The new agreement works to balance the needs of Alaska Natives and native people of the Russian Far East with conservation and management requirements for the polar bear.

A polar bear at Barter Island in Alaska. (Photo: Christopher Putnam/USFWS)

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Welcome to That's a Wrap, a weekly round up of what's been going on in and around the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service! Every Friday, we'll supply you with the best news and info you'll need before heading out the door for the weekend.

And now, a disclaimer! We can't gather all of these lovely tidbits ourselves, so some of our links will take you away from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website. We will never knowingly link to anything malicious, but we are obliged to tell you to be careful out there.

[More]