In 2015, a storm flooded and destroyed a Virginia wildlife refuge beach parking lot; now officials are moving it 2.5 miles north so dunes and saltmarsh can reclaim the old site

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (Image Credit: Canva) A severe storm in 2015 flooded and destroyed a recreational beach parking lot at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia, exposing the growing difficulty of maintaining visitor facilities on a shifting barrier island. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the refuge is now relocating the recreational […]

In 1992, Congress backed a plan to restore Florida’s Kissimmee River after decades of flood control. 28 years later, wetlands and wildlife were returning | World News

For much of its history, Florida’s Kissimmee River did not run in a straight line. It wandered through central Florida, spreading across a broad floodplain that filled with water during the rainy season. That slow, shifting landscape supported fish, wetland plants and large numbers of birds. Then, in the 1960s, the river was reshaped into […]

In 1964, a 27-year-old woman bought an abandoned 18 acre island off Maine and built a small house to live there alone; 22 years later the island was donated to become a wildlife sanctuary

Before it was a wildlife sanctuary, it was a woman’s abode. Witch Island is an approximately 18-acre land area off the coast of South Bristol, Maine, United States. Named after the woman who used to live there, it was sold off to another who donated it to become a wildlife sanctuary, as per a report […]

In 1944, a Vermont woman used money meant for a fur coat to buy a 150-acre farm; 20 years later she gave it to Audubon for wildlife conservation | World News

Representative Image of a 150-acre Vermont landscape where a historic dairy farm has become a thriving nature preserve (AI-generated image) In 1944, Christine Hires, a member of the family behind Hires Root Beer, was vacationing in Vermont when she fell in love with the landscape and decided to buy a 150-acre dairy farm in what […]

A Florida couple bought a 45-acre swamp to protect it from development; 15 years later, 275 wood storks were nesting there in a thriving ecosystem filled with wildlife

Jim Stevenson (left) and Tara Tanaka (right) at their wildlife sanctuary in Florida. A Florida couple made an unusual decision more than a decade ago when they bought a 45-acre cypress swamp beside their home in Tallahassee, Florida, rather than allowing the land to be cleared or developed. Jim Stevenson and Tara Tanaka purchased the […]

In 1988, an English farmer stopped cultivating his entire 377-acre wheat farm; 35 years later, it became one of central England’s biggest refuges for scrub, woodland and rare wildlife

Bedfordshire farm was saved through public donations after a successful £1.5m crowdfunding campaign An English farmer who stopped intensive wheat farming in 1988 has unintentionally helped create one of central England’s largest young woodland nature reserves, reports the Guardian. Strawberry Hill, a 377-acre site near Knotting in Bedfordshire, has now been permanently protected after the […]