This 113,000 acre refuge located six miles south of Columbia has over 100,000 acres of pocosin habitat. Pocosin wetlands are flat and their natural drainage is poor. More than 200 species of birds, including bald eagles and the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, and over 40 species of reptiles and amphibians use the refuge habitats.

Among the 40 species of mammals are large populations white-tailed deer, the only wild population of endangered red wolves in the world, and one of the largest populations of black bears east of the Mississippi River.

Horicon National Wildlife Refuge is a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. (Photo by Ryan Hagerty courtesy USFWS)

In 1990, Horicon Marsh, the largest freshwater cattail marsh in the United States, was designated a "Wetland of International Importance" by the Ramsar Convention. It has also been designated as a "Globally Important Bird Area" by the American Bird Conservancy and a unit of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve.

Birds found in and around the marsh include great blue and black-crowned night herons, great egrets, little blue and tricolored herons, snowy egrets, peregrine falcons, ruff, buff-breasted sandpipers, black-necked stilts, white-fronted geese, eared and red-necked grebes and American avocets.

The Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, located south of Sacramento, lies within the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, the destination of thousands of migrating waterfowl, shorebirds, and other water birds.

The refuge is protecting scarce natural habitats and agricultural resources in an area threatened by urban sprawl and agricultural changes. Stone Lakes Refuge contains both seasonal and permanent wetlands, riparian forest, and grasslands, as well as some of the last remaining freshwater lakes in the Central Valley.

Large populations of migratory water birds, a major rookery for several colonial nesting species such as great blue herons, and a warm water fishery are found here as are endangered Swainson's hawks, and greater sandhill cranes.

Ducks in the flooded forests of the White River National Wildlife Refuge (Photo courtesy Recreation.gov)

Neotropical migratory songbirds use the refuge as a stopping point on their journey to and from central and south America. The refuge is an autumn stopping point on the Mississippi Flyway for mallards, gadwalls, American widgeon, and greenwing teal. During some years, up to 350,000 birds will winter in these flooded bottomland hardwood forests.

The worst spill in U.S. marine waters since the Exxon Valdez accident 15 years earlier is still being cleaned by more than 150 field response personnel and 21 vessels, hundreds of volunteers and dozens of Native corporations. Officials hope to complete cleanup operations by October 15.

Impacted wildlife consists of 781 birds observed oiled, 29 captured for rehabilitation, 10 released, and 1,609 dead. Mammals consist of 18 observed oiled, zero captured and six dead.

Alaska Maritime's seashore lands provide nesting habitat for approximately 40 million seabirds, or about 80 percent of Alaska's nesting seabird population.

The desert bighorn sheep is Nevada's state animal. (Photo courtesy First Lady Dema Guinn)

Bighorn can be extremely intolerant of human interference, and the 1.5 million acres of the Desert Range provides much needed shelter, refuge personnel say. Having rebounded from a record low of 300 in the late 1930s, the desert bighorn population now numbers about 750. This is below the peak numbers recorded in the late 1970s to middle 1980s, which coincided with a period of high rainfall.

Water is the most important limiting factor for bighorn populations and is in short supply on much of the range. For this reason, refuge personnel say 30 springs have been improved and 26 guzzlers have been developed. Guzzlers, or rain catchments, collect precipitation and deliver it to an underground storage tank that fills a small drinking trough.

As a remedy for these threats, the National Wildlife Refuge Association is urging Congress and the Bush administration to strengthen incentives for private landowners to practice conservation that will benefit the refuges.

In addition, the association proposes conserving more land through acquisition and easements; allocating more funds at the state level; conducting more research to determine priorities; and establishing preventative systems for shipping disasters near refuges.

The National Wildlife Refuge System contains 545 refuges and 3,000 waterfowl production areas located in all 50 states and several U.S. territories. The refuges help protect 700 bird species, 220 mammal species and 200 kinds of fish.