science · 14 March 1903 · 121 years ago
In 1903, the first U.S. national wild life refuge, was established with an Executive Order by President Theodore Roosevelt. This created a bird sanctuary for the nesting colony of pelicans and herons of the 5.5-acre Pelican Island, Indian River, east of Orlando, on the central Atlantic coast of Florida. In 1859, there were thousands of herons, egrets, pelican, ibises and spoonbills. But, they were so heavily slaughtered for their plumage used in women's fashion, that by 1903 only brown pelicans were left. The island was “reserved and set aside ... as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds.” Conservationist Paul Kroegel was made first Game Warden. Yet in Spring 1918, commercial fishermen killed more hundreds of pelican chicks, wrongly believing pelicans reduced the fish population. Since 1943, the island land area has halved, eroded by watercraft traffic, but the bird diversity has improved.
OnThisDay.net