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National Wildlife Refuge System Centennial

Photo by: USFWS

One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt listened to the pleas of a young Florida resident named Paul Kroegel and signed an executive order designating Pelican Island in Florida as a national preserve, which blocked hunters from shooting any more of the thousands of birds roosting on the small island.

That order, signed March 14, 1903, eventually led to the creation of the National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) system, one of the world's largest systems of protected lands for wildlife and bird habitat. Pelican Island was the first of what would become a network of more than 540 refuges, protecting more than 95 million acres across the nation.

TPL has been a major force in that effort. Since TPL was founded was in 1972, it has protected land at 51 refuges in 22 states, starting in 1976 with work at the Great White Heron NWR in Florida.

Paul Kroegel Photo by: USFWS

Roosevelt--a conservationist to the core--was responding to a slaughter of pelicans, herons, egrets, and other wading birds, whose dramatic plumes were much the fashion then for ladies hats. He was also responding to a personal crusade by Kroegel, who had been patrolling Pelican Island in a skiff, holding-off the bird hunters with a doubled-barreled shotgun as he sought legal protection for the birds.

As a child in 1889, Kroegel had moved to a homestead on the Indian River, and he soon became fascinated with the colony of brown pelicans on nearby Pelican Island. Later, in seeking the birds' protection, he wrote letter after letter to the nation's 26th president.

"My grandfather was a tough man, and when he believed in something, he wouldn't quit," says Wayne Kroegel about his grandfather's efforts to protect Pelican Island. In creating the refuge, Roosevelt also named Paul Kroegel its first game warden, at a volunteer's salary of $1 per year.

Aerial view of Pelican Island Photo by: USFWS

In the years since, Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge has grown to nearly 5,500 acres--attracting more than 30,000 visitors each year. Roosevelt himself established 50 National Wildlife Refuges, and the system has now grown more than 540 refuges in 50 states-- more than 95 million acres. The Trust for Public Land has helped protect land for 51 National Wildlife Refuges, including Pelican Island.

Most recently, TPL has been working with government officials and the Kroegel family to protect the historic Kroegel homestead on Indian River. One parcel has already been acquired for preservation by Indian River County, and it is hoped that eventually the entire homestead will connect to the Pelican Island refuge.

In the centennial year of the National Wildlife Refuge system, this would be a fitting tribute to a groundbreaking conservation idea and to two tenacious conservationists: who founded the system, and Paul Kroegel, who held off the hunters at Pelican Island until TR could get it done.

Related Story: TPL Purchase Protects Kroegel Homestead

Posted 2/26/03

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FILE ATTACHMENTS:

Land Protected by the Trust for Public Land for National Wildlife Refuges (1976-present)