Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge is a

National Wildlife Refuge The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) is a system of protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, Department of the Interi ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, established in 1928. The refuge is part of a national system of fee ownership lands purchased from willing sellers, mostly private property owners. The refuge encompasses the Bear River and its

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

where it flows into the northern part of the

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, partic ...

in eastern Box Elder County. It includes a variety of habitats, such as open water,

mudflats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal ...

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

, and uplands. The refuge hosts millions of migratory birds each year including species such as

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

and

tundra swan The tundra swan (''Cygnus columbianus'') is a small swan of the Holarctic. The two taxa within it are usually regarded as conspecific, but are also sometimes split into two species: Bewick's swan (''Cygnus bewickii'') of the Palaearctic and the w ...

. There are more than of freshwater wetlands. The Refuge is approx. 80,000 acres of Federal and State lands that are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The surrounding lands are occupied by multiple hunting clubs along the bird migration route. The James V. Hansen Wildlife Education Center features interactive exhibits about the birds and wetlands of the Refuge and a 1/2-mile accessible walking trail a wetland habitat outside. Environmental education programs, symposiums and public events are offered. There is a one-way 12 mile auto route through the Refuge, with an audio tour and map available for download through the official website. Starting in 1983, rising floodwaters from the Great Salt Lake severely impacted the refuge. The flooding of the refuge is at the center of

Terry Tempest Williams Terry Tempest Williams (born September 8, 1955) is an American writer, educator, conservationist, and activist. Williams' writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of Utah. Her work foc ...

's noted nonfiction book, '' Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place''. In 2006, a new wildlife education center off

Interstate 15 Interstate 15 (I-15) is a major Interstate Highway in the Western United States, running through Southern California and the Intermountain West. I-15 begins near the Mexican border in San Diego County and stretches north to Alberta, Ca ...

opened to attract visitors once more.

References

External links

Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge

Official Web site of the Blue Goose Alliance

Christopher Chadbourne and Associates, Inc.
Exhibit Design firm for the Education Center National Wildlife Refuges in Utah Protected areas of Box Elder County, Utah Education in Box Elder County, Utah Nature centers in Utah 1927 establishments in Utah Wetlands of Utah Landforms of Box Elder County, Utah Bird migration Great Salt Lake watershed {{Utah-protected-area-stub

See also

References

External links