In 1903, a Florida boatbuilder became warden of a tiny island; his patrols helped protect America’s first federal bird refuge

Long before drones and satellite trackers, one man with a rowboat and a shotgun kept watch over a small Florida island that was about five and a half acres at the time. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 's own history of the refuge, this simple daily routine helped create America’s first national wildlife refuge in 1903. It was Paul Kroegel, a German-born boatbuilder. The island was Pelican Island, in the Indian River Lagoon near Sebastian.

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