Bowdoin prepares for National Wildlife Refuge Systems centennial

On March 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt set aside tiny Pelican Island on Florida's east coast as the first national wildlife refuge. Since then, this one island monitored by one man in one small boat has grown into a vast network of federal lands consisting of more that 535 refuges and covering more than 94 million acres across the United States and its territories, an area about the size of Montana.

Although the National Wildlife Refuge System is dedicated specifically to wildlife conservation, these lands are also set aside for people in an attempt to protect the nation's wild her...