Fish and Wildlife Service

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge: Comprehensive Conservation Plan Fish and Wildlife Service

Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Sebastian, Florida, is the birthplace of the National Wildlife Refuge System (Figure 1). What happened on this tiny island that made it so important, that it became a catalyst for what is now the world?s largest network of lands and waters managed for fish and wildlife?the National Wildlife Refuge System? By the end of the 1800s, plume hunters, egg collectors, and vandals had nearly exterminated all the egrets, herons, and spoonbills from Pelican Island proper (i.e., the original 5.5-acre rookery island). Paul Kroegel (who was to later become the first Refuge Manager) protected the last nesting brown pelicans on the east coast of Florida and petitioned ornithologists and naturalists to help him.