Window To Birds
Viewing Platforms
This grant funds the construction of viewing platforms and interpretive signs at Chickasaw and Lake Isom wildlife refuges. Both areas are part of the Western Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge in the western part of the state and lie in the heart of the Mississippi flyway. The new wildlife viewing areas increase the opportunities for bird observation, environmental education and nature interpretation.
$19,000 plus $19,000 in local matching funds.
More than 250 bird species, many of them waterfowl, use this area as a stopover site during migration.
Birding the Mississippi River Floodplain
In Western Tennessee the bottomland hardwood forests stretch for miles, sheltering abundant fish and wildlife. Were it not for the occasional jet plane overhead, a visitor could easily fantasize about an earlier time when humans were just beginning to explore this wilderness. Fortunately, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is helping protect many of these forests as National Wildlife Refuges. And, thanks to a $19,500 grant from the Wild Birds Unlimited Pathways To Nature Conservation Fund, seeing the wildlife here will be easier than ever.
New viewing platforms at the Chickasaw and Lake Isom Refuges elevate visitors and provide opportunities to view shorebirds, wading birds, waterfowl, and raptors as they live in or migrate through this vast floodplain. Continue your exploration of Chickasaw’s 24,000 acres on the 20 miles of roads that wind through the forest, providing lots of opportunity for birding and nature appreciation. The smaller Lake Isom includes lakes and wetlands formed by violent earthquakes in the early 1800’s. These areas now team with birds and other wildlife.
Escape from reality – or get a taste of reality, with a visit to these jewels of the Mississippi.
For more information: http://www.fws.gov/westtnrefuges/fact.html
The Pathways To Nature Conservation Fund is a partnership between Wild Birds Unlimited stores and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to fund environmental education and wildlife viewing projects. We encourage all of our customers to visit these incredible places. Your patronage helped make these projects possible!
