Animals That Start with A - Listed With Pictures, Facts

Temporary Closures At Refuge

The J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge reported that the Bailey Tract main parking lot on Tarpon Bay Road will be closed today, Sept. 28, for resurfacing as a result of Hurricane Ian damage. Visitors can still enjoy the Bailey Tract by accessing Island Inn Road and using the back entrance. The main parking lot will reopen on Sept. 29.

With the slow season upon us, the Refuge Nature Store is taking the opportunity to inventory and refresh its merchandise, and thereby has closed the physical store for the month of September. Shoppers can still make purchases at ShopDingDarling.Com 24/7.

The refuge's recreation concession, Tarpon Bay Explorers has been closed during the month of September. It will resume normal hours, rentals and tours beginning on Oct. 2. Officials added that if there is a government shutdown announced on Oct. 1, information about reopenings may change.

With Success Of Steigerwald Refuge Restoration, Conservationists Want To Improve Campen Creek In City's Mable Kerr Park

Conservationists are launching plans to restore a 2,000-foot-long section of Campen Creek in Washougal's Mable Kerr Park, building on successful restoration work at the nearby Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge.

The project will reconnect the creek to its floodplain, expand the park's wetlands, improve habitat for salmon and lamprey, decrease downstream flood risk, improve public trails and improve water quality within the restored portion of Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

"We're excited about continuing to work in this community and implementing a project that's going to continue the success of (the Steigerwald Refuge) project," said Chris Collins of the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership. "Obviously, the Steigerwald reconnection project was a big success in and of itself, and we will do everything we can to ensure that that success continues."

From June 2020 to May 2022, the partnership led an effort to complete the largest habitat-restoration project on the Columbia River to date, creating more than 100 acres of wetland, reforesting 250 acres of riparian habitat, planting more than 500,000 trees and shrubs, reconnecting 965 acres of Columbia River floodplain, and adding 1.1 miles of trails at the Steigerwald National Wildlife Refuge in Washougal.

Campen Creek is less than a quarter-mile upstream from the refuge and serves as a tributary to Gibbons Creek, which runs through the refuge.

"For us, it's important to look upstream into the watershed and think about what else we can do to improve the health of Gibbons Creek," Collins said. "The healthier Gibbons Creek is, the higher likelihood that Steigerwald Refuge will continue to be healthy and that project will continue to be a success."

The public will also benefit from the project, because the section of Campen Creek to be restored passes through Mable Kerr Park.

"Right now, there's over 150 dead trees in the park that are standing but at risk of blowing over, and some of them are close enough to the trail where they could blow over onto the trail, so that's a public safety issue," he said. "We will remove a good portion of those trees and incorporate them into the restoration as habitat features."

Collins said the project's improved trail networks should encourage more visitors to the area.

"I think everyone recognizes that (the park is) already a great place to go and experience nature, but we'll improve that," he said. "The trail system will weave around and into some of these restored habitats, and people will get a good look at them, and they'll also be able to watch them come back to life over the next decade or two."

The project could start in the summer of 2025 and take roughly two years to complete, according to Collins. It will also add stormwater features to Washougal High School's parking lot, the largest impervious surface in the creek's watershed.

Lawsuit Aims To Protect Endangered Wildlife From Massive Sport Hunting, Fishing Expansion On National Wildlife Refuges

For Immediate Release, November 29, 2021

Contact:

Camila Cossío, (832) 933-5404, ccossio@biologicaldiversity.Org

Lawsuit Aims to Protect Endangered Wildlife From Massive Sport Hunting, Fishing Expansion on National Wildlife Refuges

WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for failing to protect endangered wildlife harmed by expanded hunting and fishing on national wildlife refuges across the country.

Today's lawsuit challenges the Trump administration's decision last year to expand hunting and fishing on 2.3 million acres, across 147 wildlife refuges and national fish hatcheries.

The suit explains that rare animals — including grizzly bears, jaguars, ocelots and whooping cranes — are harmed by use of toxic lead ammunition and tackle, increased traffic and noise and other risks associated with the massive expansion of sport hunting and fishing.

"We're going to court to ensure that our nation's wildlife refuges actually provide refuge to endangered wildlife," said Camila Cossío, a staff attorney at the Center. "The Fish and Wildlife Service is shrugging off the many risks that sport hunting and fishing pose to endangered animals, particularly from lead ammunition and tackle."

In 2016 the Service issued an order to phase out the use of lead on all national wildlife refuges across the country by 2023, but the order was rescinded by the Trump administration. The severe toxicity of lead to humans and wildlife has been known for centuries.

Though whooping cranes rely on the Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge in Kansas, Patoka National Wildlife Refuge in Indiana and Lacreek National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota, the Service has expanded use of lead ammunition or lead tackle in each refuge while failing to consider the risk of lead toxicity to the rare birds. Lead ammunition and tackle can poison endangered animals like whooping cranes that ingest lead when feeding in fields and waterways.

Imperiled scavengers may be exposed to lead by scavenging on carcasses contaminated with lead shot or fragments of lead bullets. Today's lawsuit challenges the Service's failure to consider the risk of lead poisoning to jaguars at the Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona, ocelots and jaguarundi at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in Texas and Audubon's crested caracara at the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.

In addition to lead risks, the lawsuit explains that the Service ignored many other dangers facing endangered wildlife that live in areas open to hunting. Grizzly bears, for example, now face an increased risk of mistaken identity or self-defense shootings by hunters targeting black bears in grizzly territory in Montana's Swan River National Wildlife Refuge.

"Opening national refuges to increased hunting means that rare and beautiful animals like grizzly bears, ocelots and whooping cranes now face increased risk of death, ingestion of toxic lead shot and other harms," said Cossío. "With wildlife already confronted by so many threats to their survival, they rely on refuges to be safe havens. We're hopeful the court will set things right."

Today's lawsuit brings claims under the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. It was filed in federal district court in Montana.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

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