Wildlife Values

I saw a ghost a while back.  He appeared out of thin air, transformed a peaceful, bucolic scene into murderous chaos, and vanished in seconds.  I loved it.  It was one of the never-to-be-forgotten highlights of my experiences in the natural world.

We are losing the old wise ones.  Some of our most erudite naturalists never heard a professor's lecture or studied in a biology lab that reeked of formalin and moth balls.  Still, they know the eddies where giant flathead catfish prowl and ridge-top trails of foraging coyotes.

Historians agree that the American president with the greatest conservation legacy was Theodore Roosevelt.  Among his many accomplishments in that arena was the protection of millions of acres that became units of the National Forest and National Park systems.  Additionally, he protected another group of lands and waters specifically for their wildlife values.  These became components of the National Wildlife Refuge System.