Blue Goose Passports and the National Wildlife Refuge System

Blue Goose PassportsBlue Goose Passports are a fun way to record your visits to any of the 563 National Wildlife Refuges you visit. The inexpensive book includes listings for the different refuges, a little about them, and when they were established. Most listings have space for their own distinctive stamp, which you can get for free, usually at a refuge’s visitor’s center. However, some refuges are hard to get access to and do not have stamps (or visitor centers).

President Theodore Roosevelt established the first National Wildlife Refuge in 1903. The refuge system covers nearly 93 million acres over the United States and includes a diversity of ecological habitats.

The mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System is to conserve fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats. -National Wildlife Refuge System

Great Egrets at Horicon Marsh NWR
Great Egrets at Horicon Marsh NWR
Sandhill Cranes at Horicon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge
Sandhill Cranes at Horicon Marsh NWR

Blue Goose Passports are a cool incentive to try and visit as many refuges as possible. There is space to make notes and observations along with getting the actual stamps. The National Wildlife Refuges comprise a large number of great birding areas.

New refuges are being added too. In 2013 the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge was created in McHenry County, Illinois, practically in our Illinois backyard.

Learn more about how to get a passport.