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Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
| Article
# : |
16202 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1989 |
3,872 Words |
| Author
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Dwight G. Smith
Dwight G. Smith is professor and chairman of the biology
department at Southern Connecticut State University in New
Haven. His latest book, Plants, was released this summer by
Pearson Publishing Company of Boston. |
Some of the rarest and most valuable wildlife in North America live just 20 minutes north of Washington, D.C., at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland. Here, protected by electronic gates and electrified fences, are colonies of whooping cranes, bald eagles, masked bobwhites, Mississippi sandhill cranes, and other critically endangered wildlife, maintained as captive breeding stocks to ensure the preservation of the surviving wild populations.
The world's largest wildlife research center, Patuxent is the hub of federally sponsored wildlife research conducted in the United States under the auspices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency responsible for the conservation and management of wildlife. Research conducted at Patuxent and its 10 field stations located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico is directed toward preservation and enhancement of wildlife and their habitats. This work includes evaluating the safety of chemicals released into the environment and keeping track of migratory bird populations and their habitats, as well as rescuing endangered species.
Patuxent is also famed as one of the largest and finest nature preserves located in the midst of a major metropolitan area. Buffered on the north by undeveloped regions of the Fort Meade Military Reservation and on the south by the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Patuxent's 4,700 acres are a quiet enclave of woodlands, fields, man-made ponds, marshes, and swamps which straddle the Patuxent River. The few buildings at the center (mostly named after former chiefs of the Bureau of Biological Survey) that provide offices and laboratories for scientists and their research associates are tucked in little clusters, leaving most of the area as a natural habitat.
Landscapes are actively managed for wildlife. Water levels of ponds and marshes are carefully controlled to provide optimum waterfowl breeding habitats and are periodically drawn down to eliminate rank aquatic vegetation. Old growth woodland at the center is left undisturbed but adjacent meadows are sectioned in 50-foot strips which are mowed in alternate years. The meadows provide food for woochucks, deer and rabbits, while the woody and herbaceous growth of uncut strips are used as nesting habitat for birds and shelter for other animals. Even the powerline right-of-way that was cut across Patuxent in 1960 is managed to create a varied brushy growth attractive to many kinds of wildlife; it has, in fact, served as a model for similar projects elsewhere.
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