U.S. Fish & Wildlife Center to Open in Rockland, Maine

"The primary conservator of America's wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has chosen Rockland as the home base for a new headquarters and visitor's center for the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

The Maine Coastal Islands NWR oversees 53 islands and 150 miles of coastline and includes five existing National Wildlife Refuges in Maine - Petit Manan, Cross Island, Franklin Island, Seal Island and Pond Island. Their primary focus is restoring and managing colonies of nesting seabirds. Refuge islands provide habitat for common, Arctic, and endangered roseate terns; Atlantic puffins; razorbills; black guillemots; Leach's storm-petrels; laughing gulls; and common eiders. Over the last 25 years, the USFWS has worked effectively to reverse the decline of these species. As a result, many birds have returned to islands where they historically nested."

Read the rest of the article in "U.S. Fish & Wildlife to Open Visitor Center and HQ in Rockland", The Free Press, April 29, 2010.