Among the activities that made the refuge a haven for birds was the planting of vegetation for 
food and cover. Foundation planting of carefully selected species has controlled erosion along 
the canal banks and provided seed stock from which these desirable plants spread. 
A research station operated at Bear River for several years developed a means of controlling 
duck sickness or botulism throu^gh the proper manipulation of water levels. Findings of the 
Bear River Station are widely applicable to other areas where botulism occurs. 
All along the water margins ducks may be 
flushed from their nests — gadwalls and red- 
heads, mallards and pintails and cinnamon teal; 
and in spring the Canada geese pilot their little 
convoys of goslings up and down the canals and 
across the ponds. 
Many other birds breed there, too. Cali- 
fornia gulls, the bird that the Mormons honored 
by erecting a statue, raise six to seven thousand 
young each year, and from the grass-lined nests 
of the avocets come two to three thousand young. 
Other nesters included the western grebe, Wil- 
son’s phalarope, Brewster’s egret, Franklin’s 
gull, white-faced glossy ibis, black-necked stilt, 
yellow-headed blackbird, and several terns, 
grebes, herons, and small shore birds. 
In restoring conditions favorable for birds in 
a great marsh area such as Bear River, it follows 
that other forms of wildlife will benefit as well. 
A good duck marsh is also a good muskrat 
marsh, and these animals are plentiful at Bear 
River. Local trappers take the surplus under 
permit. In all about two dozen species of mam- 
mals live on the refuge. The weasel is fairly 
common along the channel banks and over most 
of the higher marsh area ; mice are its principal 
food. The skunk population is kept in check to 
prevent loss of waterfowl eggs during the nesting 
season. There are small numbers of marmots, 
ground squirrels, and jack rabbits; the cotton- 
tail rabbit is common about the headquarters 
area. Despite the scarcity of willows and other 
trees, a few pairs of beavers are living along the 
main channels of the marsh. With patience 
and persistence, the visitor to the refuge may see 
still another member of the mammal popula- 
tion — the coyote. Especially in the fall, one of 
these animals may sometimes be seen running 
along the dikes or through the marsh. 
The white-faced glossy ibis, a bird of 
open marshes, is widely distributed from 
Utah and Oregon southward. At Bear 
River several hundred pairs nest, form- 
ing one of the largest conveniently 
visited colonies in the country. 
The importance of the bear river refuge is 
far more than local. The millions of feathered 
visitors that congregate there during migration 
will spread out widely over the continent. 
Banding has taught us much about where they 
go. Out of some 36,000 birds that have been 
marked with numbered metal bands at Bear 
River, nearly 3,000 have later been recovered. 
The returns have come from distant places as 
well as nearby. Birds from Bear River have 
gone to Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Honduras, and 
Palmyra Island in the mid-Pacific. They have 
been recovered in 29 States, principally west of 
the Mississippi River. 
11 
