US Fish & Wildlife Services in Panama City, FL

The US Fish & Wildlife Services in Panama City, FL is located on Pelican Island and is the first national wildlife refuge in the area. Although the president at that time, Teddy Roosevelt, was an "ardent conservationist," the Panama refuge didn't come into existence because of his efforts. It came into existence partly as a result of a surveyor's error.

Staff at the US Fish & Wildlife Services discovered this by accident while sorting through documents donated to the refuge's archives by the family of late employee, Phil DuMont. An original 1902 survey calculated the island size at 4.5 acres, but a survey the following year recorded the wrong acreage of 5.5 acres. The 1903 survey became the official survey.

The US Fish & Wildlife Services is one of the oldest in the world dedicated to the conservation of natural resources. There are offices located throughout the United States. Although it's a relatively new member of the Department of the Interior, but its history has origins in the US Commission on Fish and Fisheries in the Department of Commerce, and the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy in the Department of Agriculture.

For more than 125 years the Service hasbeen dealing with conservation and environmental issues.

In 1946 the Service established a River Basins Study program to help minimize and prevent damage to fish and wildlife from Federal water projects.

In 1980 the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was passed. This resulted in nine refuges added to the National Wildlife Refuge System and the expansion of seven existing refuges.