12 iconic American animals for National Wildlife Refuge Week

Ever since President Theodore Roosevelt created Florida’s Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in memorable fashion, national wildlife refuges have been an important tool in the fight against habitat loss and for wildlife conservation. Today, under the authority of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the National Wildlife Refuge System has more than 560 units, protecting (and in some cases restoring) about 150 million acres as habitat for thousands of species, many threatened o…