By Susan Morse, USFWS

Going all out for your honey on Valentine’s Day?

Prepare to be outdone. When it comes to over-the-top courtship displays, we humans are kinda tame. There’s just no competing with love in the wild.

Male Attwater’s prairie chicken inflate air sacks on their necks and make a 'booming' sound when they want to attract a female. (Photo: George Lavendowski/USFWS)

Want proof? Watch this!

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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.

Fred Staunton was raised on his family’s ranch in Roundup, MT, and he finished his 31-year U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service career in Montana, as manager of Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. But he became passionate about waterfowl when he worked at Long Lake Refuge in North Dakota and then Waubay Refuge in South Dakota in the 1940s.

Fred Staunton in the mid-1940s, an era when he was a pioneer in recognizing the value of Prairie Pothole Region wetland habitat to waterfowl. (Photo: USFWS)

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So, we know you’ve heard of Punxsutawney Phil, the world-renowned rodent that captures the hearts and minds of many Americans every year on Groundhog Day.

But Phil isn’t the only one worthy of such recognition.
 
Every February 2, friends and employees of the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge gather to honor their own mighty marmot – Bitterroot Bill.

(Photo: USFWS)

This yellow-bellied fellow is a native species to western Montana, although he’s not a woodchuck like Phil. Bill is still part of the marmot family though, which is why we feel he’s still worthy of acknowledgement on the only day when Americans band together to honor rodents.

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By Brynn Walling, USFWS

The Canada Lynx has returned to the Rockies!

This reintroduction in Colorado is one of the most successful of a threatened species to date. It’s also a great model plan for future efforts.

The story starts all the way back in 1999, when the Colorado Parks and Wildlife began the reintroduction process. They introduced 96 lynx from Alaska and Canada into the San Juan Mountains to kick off the effort.

The next year, in 2000, we listed the lynx as a federally threatened species. This put protections in place for the lynx to help protect the species and its’ habitat. A recovery plan was also put into place.

By 2003, we were already seeing progress. 16 native kittens were born that year alone.

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From egg to fry -- students are getting a first-hand look at how salmon grow and devleop.

Fishery Biologist Sean Connolly talks to the students about salmon and the importance of protecting their habitat. (Photo: USFWS)

For the first time, students in the Portland Public School system have the opportunity to engage with Salmon in the Classroom, a curriculum created and implemented by the Columbia Gorge National Fish Hatchery Information and Education Office.

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By Brynn Walling, USFWS

What a comeback!

There are now more than 600 Whooping cranes in North America.

These wonderful birds were almost wiped out, but thanks to the Endangered Species Act, their populations continue to climb – and their recovery stories continue to inspire.

In 1947, Mac was the only Whooping crane left in the entire state of Louisiana. (Photo: USFWS)

For instance, if you were near the Louisiana marshes in March 2011 you may have witnessed some amazing history in the making. Whooping Cranes were freely flying overhead for the first time in 60 years! Conservation efforts paid off and 10 “whoopers” that were raised in captivity were set free to fly the Louisiana Marshes. (Watch it here!)

At one time, the whooping crane population soared between 15,000 – 20,000 birds and their habitats ranged from Central Canada to Mexico and from Utah to the Atlantic coast.

But the birds began to vanish due to the transformation of wetlands and grasslands. Unregulated hunting and specimen collection negatively impacted the population, as well.

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And just what is a CITES CoP, you might ask?

Delegates from around the globe will converge on the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand, for the world’s most influential meeting on international wildlife trade -- a meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, otherwise known as CITES.

March 3, 2013, marks not only the start of CoP16, but also the 40th anniversary of CITES.

Until the early 1960s, trade in wild animals and plants focused on fulfilling consumer demand with little regard for its impact on the long-term survival of species. But, as international discussions turned to this unregulated trade and the threat that it posed to wildlife, a paradigm shift began to occur.

U.S. Delegation to CoP1 in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo: USFWS)

Forty years ago, representatives from 80 countries came together in Washington, D.C. to agree on the final text of a convention to regulate international wildlife trade. After discussing the language of CITES for three weeks, the Convention was signed, establishing a framework for regulating international wildlife trade.

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By Matt Trott, USFWS

At the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we talk a lot about partners and the need to work with diverse groups to carry out our goal of conserving the nature of America.

I was lucky enough Monday to take part in the Inaugural Parade, and without my own diverse group of partners, I would not have made it very far.

Claren and Matt braved the cold to be a part of the parade. (Photo: Steve Ferrar/CCI)

My key partner is Claren, an 11-year-old service dog. She is responsible for so much improvement in my life. I can't imagine life without Claren and her willingness to pick up anything I drop and more. At work she carries my lunch. When I lived alone, she would bring me water bottles from the fridge. She grabs my shoes for me most mornings. And she is a near-constant companion.

But there were so many other partners who helped me.

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By Brynn Walling, USFWS

Why is it important to care about mussel species? I am so glad you asked!

Along with the 20th century came a decline in mussels. Sadly, we lost three species altogether. Twenty-four other species are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

One of the species we're working to protect is the oyster mussel, which was listed as endangered in 1997. We're enlisting the help of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Center near Marion, Va. as well as Virginia Tech’s Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center in Blacksburg, Va.

Endangered freshwater mussels bound for the Powell River. (Photo: Gary Peeples/USFWS)

By working together, we remove mussels from damaged waters and raise them in safer environments until they are healthy enough to survive on their own.

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By Susan Morse, USFWS

There’s no missing Jessica Flory.

This sixteen-year-old gets it.

The volunteer at Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge tells people how balloons and other plastic discards end up on beaches where they choke turtles and seabirds. Then she asks listeners to pledge not to release balloons outdoors; hundreds have signed.

She’s decked out in a dress she made from 87 balloons that refuge staff collected from a coastal island before animals could swallow them. “Hey mom, look,” she hears a kid say. “She’s wearing that because she wants to save the turtles.”

Jessica Flory in balloon dress and sister Hailey on Cape Charles Beach (Photo: Becky Flory)

We’ve all seen the images: Broken boats, trees, docks, what-have-you, swept away by Hurricane Sandy or the 2011 tsunami in Japan and washed ashore miles – sometimes thousands of miles − away.

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