Slade National Wildlife 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 ...

Kidder County Kidder County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of North Dakota. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 2,394. Its county seat is Steele, North Dakota, Steele. History The Dakota Territ ...

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

. It was established in 1941 when the property was donated by G.T. Slade, a

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

executive. It is managed under the

Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge, located in south-central North Dakota, was established in 1932 as a migratory bird refuge by President Herbert Hoover. The refuge consists of a saline basin that is long and is appropriately named "Long Lak ...

. It contains Harker Lake and Upper Harker Lake.

History

Historically, the marshes and wetlands south of the town of Dawson, North Dakota support a large quantity of migratory

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

, which have attracted

hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, ...

s. George Theron Slade, Third Vice President of the

, enjoyed hunting game birds in the area. In 1924, he began purchasing land around Harker Lake for the use of a private shooting club.United States Fish and Wildlife Service (2006).
Slade National Wildlife Refuge Overview
Retrieved Aug. 15, 2006. Slade invested a considerable sum into improving the land with the aim of making it more attractive for waterfowl. Improvements included planting and harvesting a limited amount of organically-grown

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

to provide bird feed, and a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

capable of pumping 60,500 liters (16,000 gallons) of water per hour to keep the lake level from falling during

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

. In 1940, Slade donated the land to the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is a List of federal agencies in the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior which oversees the management of fish, wildlife, ...

, which used the land to establish the Slade National Wildlife Refuge.United States Fish and Wildlife Service (2006).
Long National Wildlife Refuge: "Slade National Wildlife Refuge: Kidder County, North Dakota"
Retrieved Aug. 15, 2006.

Wildlife

The refuge is used by waterfowl approximately nine months out of the year. The most common species to be found include

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), sometimes called Canadian goose, is a large species of goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North ...

mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...

snow geese The snow goose (''Anser caerulescens'') is a species of goose native to North America. Both white and dark morphs exist, the latter often known as blue goose. Its name derives from the typically white plumage. The species was previously placed ...

, ring-necked pheasants,

sharp-tailed grouse The sharp-tailed grouse (''Tympanuchus phasianellus''), also known as the sharptail or fire grouse, is a medium-sized prairie grouse. One of three species in the genus ''Tympanuchus'', the sharp-tailed grouse is found throughout Alaska, much of N ...

, and Hungarian partridges.

White-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known Common name, commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, North, Central America, Central and South America. It is the ...

are common around the lake, and some

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

s live in the area. A majority of the grasslands around the perimeter of the lake are introduced

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

es and

legume Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...

References

Refuge website
Protected areas of Kidder County, North Dakota National Wildlife Refuges in North Dakota {{NorthDakota-protected-area-stub