ALASKA 

Aleutian Islands  

Historically no mammals other then the Aleutian goose lived on the Aleutian Islands , the birds' traditional breeding grounds. But in the 1750’s trappers began releasing non-native arctic foxes on to more then 190 islands in the chain. The foxes destroyed the population of geese on the islands. Between 1938 and 1962 no geese were sighted. But then late in 1962 a small population of geese was found on a remote island. At this point the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the bird as endangered. In the 1973 with the passage of the Endangered Species Act the bird received even more protection. Under the Endangered Species Act all hunting of the Aleutian goose was banned and biologists removed foxes from the islands and reintroduced populations of geese to the now fox-free islands. The migration rout of the goose was also tracked so that important resting and watering grounds in the lower 48 states could also be protected. Farmers and landowners in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys have helped to preserve wetlands and have set aside areas of their farms for the geese to land and rest. By 1990 the population of Aleutian Canada geese had increased to the point where the bird status was downgraded to from endangered to threatened. In 2001 the Aleutian goose was declared fully recovered. Source: U.S. Public Interest Research Group.