Franklin Island National Wildlife Refuge | |
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IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area) | |
Location | Knox County, Maine, United States |
Nearest city | Friendship, Maine |
Coordinates | 43°53′28″N69°22′27″W / 43.891°N 69.3741°W |
Area | 12 acres (4.9 ha) |
Established | 1973 |
Governing body | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
Website | Franklin Island National Wildlife Refuge |
Franklin Island National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge on Franklin Island outside Muscongus Bay in the state of Maine, United States. It is one of the five refuges that together make up the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, along with Petit Manan, Cross Island, Seal Island, and Pond Island.
Franklin Island NWR has a surface area of 12 acres (4.9 ha). [1] It is one of the smallest refuges in the United States National Wildlife Refuge system. It is part of the Town of Friendship.
The U.S. Government acquired Franklin Island in 1806 and completed construction of the Franklin Island Light in 1808. This was the third lighthouse built in Maine. The U.S. Lighthouse Service and its successor, the U.S. Coast Guard, continued to staff the lighthouse for 160 years before the station was automated in 1967. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acquired Franklin Island in 1973, making this the first island acquired for the Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
Franklin Island once supported one of the largest common eider colonies in Maine. The eider colony was decimated by avian cholera in the mid-1980s. The population has slowly recovered, and a 2003 survey documented over 330 pairs of eiders and over 100 pairs of great black-backed and herring gulls.
Franklin Island is closed to public use during the seabird nesting season: April–August. It is open during daylight hours the rest of the year.
Baker Island, formerly known as New Nantucket, is a small, uninhabited atoll located just north of the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean, approximately 1,920 miles southwest of Honolulu. Positioned almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, its closest neighbor is Howland Island, situated 42 mi (68 km) to the north-northwest. Both Baker and Howland Islands have been claimed as territories of the United States since 1857, though the United Kingdom regarded them as part of the British Empire between 1897 and 1936.
Falkner Island is a 2.87-acre (1.16 ha) crescent-shaped island located in Long Island Sound 3 miles (5 km) off Guilford, Connecticut, United States. The island has been visited by the Native Americans for thousands of years. Its Quinnipiac name is "Massancummock", meaning "the place of the great fish hawks". In 1641, Henry Whitfield and the founders of Guilford purchased the island from the Mohegan tribe's sachem, Uncas, as part of a transaction for the land east of East River. Purchased by the Stone family in 1715, it remained in the family until it was sold to the government in 1801.
The Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Alaska whose use is regulated as an ecological-protection measure. It stretches along the southern coast of the Alaska Peninsula, between the Becharof National Wildlife Refuge on its east and the end of the peninsula at False Pass in the west. In between, however, it is broken into sections by lands of the Aniakchak National Monument and Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is administered from offices in King Salmon, Alaska and was established to conserve Alaska Peninsula brown bears, caribou, moose, marine mammals, shorebirds, other migratory birds and fish, and to comply with treaty obligations.
Machias Seal Island is an island in disputed water between the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy, about 8.6 nmi (16 km) southeast from Cutler, Maine, and 10 nmi (19 km) southwest of Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick. Sovereignty of the island is disputed by the United States and Canada. The Canadian Coast Guard continues to staff a lighthouse on the island; the first lighthouse was constructed there in 1832.
West Sister Island is an island of the U.S. state of Ohio located in the Western Basin of Lake Erie. The 82 acres (33 ha) island, jointly managed by the United States Coast Guard and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is Ohio's only designated Wilderness Area, the West Sister Island National Wildlife Refuge.
The Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge is a designation for nine Michigan islands in the North American Great Lakes. Owned by the United States federal government, they were set aside for ecosystem protection purposes by President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943.
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge is a wintering ground for migratory birds in Florida. Established in 1931, it encompasses more than 83,000 acres (336 km2) spread between Wakulla, Jefferson, and Taylor Counties in the state of Florida.
The Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge is a 950-acre (384.5 ha) National Wildlife Refuge in ten units across the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in the Atlantic Flyway, the refuge spans 70 miles (110 km) of Connecticut coastline and provides important resting, feeding, and nesting habitat for many species of wading birds, shorebirds, songbirds and terns, including the endangered roseate tern. Adjacent waters serve as wintering habitat for brant, scoters, American black duck, and other waterfowl. Overall, the refuge encompasses over 900 acres (364.2 ha) of barrier beach, intertidal wetland and fragile island habitats.
Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge is a 1-mile long (1.6 km) island off the coast of Maine, United States near Matinicus Island that is part of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge. During any given summer season, over 100 species of birds are observed by researchers on the island. It is home to colonies of many types of seabirds, including Atlantic puffins, double-crested cormorants, razorbills, Leach's storm petrels, eiders, and black guillemots. Seal Island is the last refuge for the dwindling great cormorant population in the Gulf of Maine, with 35 pairs in 2018. A policy of eliminating predatory gulls preceded the recolonization of the island by a large mixed band of Arctic terns and common terns.
Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge of the Oregon Coast. It is one of six National Wildlife Refuges in the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Located on Cape Meares, the refuge was established in 1938 to protect a remnant of coastal old-growth forest and the surrounding habitat used by breeding seabirds. The area provides a home for a threatened bird species, the marbled murrelets. Peregrine falcons, once at the brink of extinction, have nested here since 1987. The refuge, with the exception of the Oregon Coast Trail, was designated a Research Natural Area in 1987.
The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is a 14,000-acre (57 km2) wildlife preserve operated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It is primarily located on the Virginia half of Assateague Island with portions located on the Maryland side of the island, as well as Morris Island and Wildcat Marsh. Mostly composed of beach, dunes, marsh, and maritime forest, the refuge contains a large variety of wildlife, including the Chincoteague pony. The purpose of the refuge is to maintain, regulate, and preserve animal and plant species as well as their habitats for present and future generations.
Libby Island Light is a lighthouse on Libby Island, marking the mouth of Machias Bay, in Machiasport, Maine. The light station was established in 1817 and is an active aid to navigation; the present granite tower was built in 1823 and improved in 1848. Libby Island Light was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Libby Island Light Station on June 18, 1976.
Petit Manan Light is a lighthouse on Petit Manan Island, Maine. The island is at the end of a series of ledges extending out from Petit Manan Point, between Dyer Bay and Pigeon Hill Bay, that projects into the Gulf of Maine.
Cross Island National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in the state of Maine. It is one of the five refuges that together make up the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, along with Petit Manan, Franklin Island, Seal Island, and Pond Island.
Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in the state of Maine. It is one of the five refuges that together make up the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, along with Cross Island, Franklin Island, Seal Island, and Pond Island.
Pond Island National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge in the state of Maine, United States. It is one of the five refuges that together make up the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, along with Petit Manan, Cross Island, Franklin Island, and Seal Island. Pond Island NWR is an island in the mouth of the Kennebec River adjacent to Popham Beach.
Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge contains more than 50 offshore islands and four coastal parcels, totaling more than 8,100 acres. The complex spans more than 250 miles (400 km) of Maine coastline and includes five national wildlife refuges—Petit Manan, Cross Island, Franklin Island, Seal Island, and Pond Island. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the refuge complex as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a component of the Delaware River estuary in Salem County, New Jersey, it is just north of the Salem River and south of Pennsville.
Seatuck National Wildlife Refuge is located in the hamlet of Islip, New York, on the south shore of Long Island. It is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex. The refuge consists of 196 acres (0.79 km2) bordering the Great South Bay, separated from the Atlantic Ocean only by Fire Island. Situated in a heavily developed urban area along Champlin Creek, the refuge is an oasis for many species of migratory birds and waterfowl.
Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge of the United States located in the state of Wisconsin. It includes five all or part of six islands in Lake Michigan: Hog Island, Plum Island, Pilot Island, part of St. Martin Island and Rocky Island. Additionally it includes part of Detroit Island. The islands are near Washington Island off the tip of the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin and the Garden Peninsula of Michigan.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service .