America's first wildlife refuge was created to save birds from the fashion industry
America's first national wildlife refuge was established not for land preservation, but as an emergency measure to protect birds from a deadly 20th-century fashion trend.
On March 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt created Pelican Island in Florida to save brown pelicans from extinction. At the time, the fashion industry was killing five million birds annually to use their feathers in hats. Roosevelt acted unilaterally through an executive order to protect the five-acre mangrove site.
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