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Canvasback connects ‘sister refuges’ in AK, CA


Cara J

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At first glance, an urban national wildlife refuge on the coast of California and a remote refuge in the interior of Alaska don’t seem to have much in common. Take a closer look and the connections become clear and important. The striking and regal canvasback, the largest diving duck in North America, is the primary species that connects Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge in California. In the 1950s and ‘60s, biologists banded thousands of ducks on what is now Yukon Flats Refuge. Of these banded ducks, 313 canvasbacks were harvested and recovered – and 89 of those were returned from hunters in the San Francisco Bay area. So when refuge staff at Yukon Flats sought to establish a “sister refuge” relationship with a Lower 48 refuge – a relationship based on a shared resource – they followed the canvasbacks to San Pablo Bay Refuge in San Francisco’s North Bay. This pairing of refuges provides an opportunity to educate residents in the Bay Area and the Yukon River Basin about how wildlife refuges function together as a national network of lands despite their apparent differences and the great distances that separate them. [...]

 

Read more: http://wildlife.org/canvasback-connects-sister-refuges-in-ak-ca/

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