[Coral-List] National Wildlife Refuge System hosts the USCRTF Gov. Sunia Scholarship Summer
Jim Hendee
Jim.Hendee at noaa.gov
Wed Jun 1 14:31:50 EDT 2005
*Governor Sunia Memorial Coral Reef Conservation Summer Internship
Scholarships *
*Will Benefit the National Wildlife Refuge System's Coral Reef Refuges
*(modified from a June 2005 press release)
This June the National Wildlife Refuge System will welcome two
recipients of the Second Annual Governor Tauese P.F. Sunia Memorial
Coral Reef Conservation Summer Internship Awards. Ms. Kassandra Cerveny,
a graduate student attending the University of Puerto Rico, and Ms.
Tiffany Robinson, an undergraduate attending Western Washington
University in Bellingham, are the 2005 Sunia Scholarship recipients.
The Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs is funding the
2005 Sunia Scholarship. Awards are based on professional experience,
academic background, an essay, and letters of recommendation. The
selection committee matches candidates’ aspirations with the coral reef
conservation and management priorities of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force.
Working with the Refuge System’s Marine Program Specialist, Andrew Gude,
the Sunia scholars will spend the summer analyzing coral reef resource
issues from the Refuge System’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Ms.
Cerveny, who begins work June 1, will investigate the history of Navassa
Island National Wildlife Refuge. She will produce a white paper
summarizing the marine biology, geography, natural history and human use
of the Caribbean wildlife refuge. The white paper will include proposed
management strategies and foster inter-agency cooperative conservation
of this spectacular coral reef ecosystem.
Ms. Robinson, who begins work June 13, will develop a comprehensive
analysis of the Refuge System’s coral reef management programs. She will
compile, analyze and discuss the coral reef ecosystem resources and
management activities for wildlife refuges with coral reefs and
associated habitats. Thirty-seven wildlife refuges have coral reef
ecosystem resources, including coral reefs, associated hard bottom
habitats, seagrass meadows, mangrove forests and estuaries. The analysis
will provide information about natural and cultural resources and
challenges in addition to marine recreation opportunities, all for use
in education materials.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency
responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and
plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American
people. The Service manages the nearly 100-million-acre National
Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges,
thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. The
mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System is too administer a
national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management,
and where appropriate, restoration of the fish, wildlife and plant
resources and their habitats within the United States for the benefit of
present and future generations of Americans. There are 170 coastal,
Great Lakes, and insular national wildlife refuges geographically
distributed from above the Arctic Circle to below the Equator. This
system of Great Lakes and marine refuges encompass some 30,000 coastal
miles, and some 20 million coastal acres, with 300,000 acres of
congressionally-designated marine wilderness, and almost 3 million acres
of coral reef ecosystems. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also
operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78
ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife
laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird
populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and
restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign
governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the
Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in
excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife
agencies.
__________________________________________________________________________
Contact:
Andrew_Gude at fws.gov
National Wildlife Refuge System Marine Programs
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, No. 570, Arlington, VA 22203
P - 703.358.2415; Fx - 703.358.1929; C - 703.577.4267
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