About Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge
"If you travel much in the wilder sections of our country, sooner or later you are likely to meet the sign of the flying goose — the emblem of the national wildlife refuges. You may meet it by the side of a road crossing miles of flat prairie in the Middle West, or in the hot deserts of the Southwest. You may meet it by some mountain lake, or as you push your boat through the winding salty creeks of a coastal march. Wherever you meet this sign, respect it. It means that the land behind the sign has been dedicated by the American people to preserving, for themselves and their children, as much of our native wildlife as can be retained along with our modern civilization. Wild creatures, like men, must have a place to live. As civilization creates cities, builds highways, and drains marshes, it takes away, little by little, the land that is suitable for wildlife. And as their space for living dwindles, the wildlife populations themselves decline. Refuges resist this trend by saving some areas from encroachment, and by preserving in them, or restoring where necessary, the conditions that wild things need in order to live." (Rachel Carson, USFWS 'Conservation in Action' series)Early in the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) process, the planning team and public identified the refuge’s unique qualities or special values—characteristics and features of the refuge that make it special, valuable for wildlife, and an integral part of the Refuge System: protects 2,800 acres of riparian, wetland, and upland habitats in a rapidly growing county supports a healthy riparian corridor used by breeding neotropical songbirds contains gallery forest along the Bitterroot River provides a wildlife corridor that runs north to south along the Bitterroot River and east to west from North Burnt Fork Creek to Kootenai Creek contains the largest montane wetland complex in the Bitterroot Valley on which many migratory bird species are dependent for breeding and migration stopovers provides r
