Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge
United States National Wildlife Refuge in Florida
The Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System, located in the Cape Haze area of Charlotte County. The 20-acre (81,000 m2) refuge was established on October 23, 1908. The National Wildlife Refuge System consists of over 570 national wildlife refuges that protect the country's ecosystems and the wildlife that live in them. Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge was created as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds, which contains brackish water and mangroves. Some animals that can be found at the refuge include migratory birds, West Indian Manatees, osprey, wood storks, and occasionally alligators and crocodiles.
The Island Bay Wilderness (which was established on October 23, 1970) covers the same area as the refuge.
History of Refuge
President Theodore Roosevelt created the Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge after signing Executive Order 958 on October 23, 1908. Following this, President Nixon signed Public Law 91-504 on October 23, 1970, which turned the refuge into a designated Wilderness Area. On August 13, 2004, the refuge suffered extreme damage from Hurricane Charley. Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge is now managed by J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge.
The public source identifies “Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge” as united States National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Island, National and Wildlife.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6082999. VIAF identifies the subject as 315529400. Authority coordinates are 26.772, -82.192. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1970 and 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.