Director Steve Williams at Ramsar Dedication Ceremony for Quivira National Wildlife Refuge

May 4, 2002

Thank you, Ralph. It's good to be back in Kansas.

This Ramsar dedication ceremony comes at a perfect time for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. May is National Wetlands Month, next week is International Migratory Bird Day, and next year, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System. Quivira is just one of the 538 National Wildlife Refuges throughout the United States. It is interesting to note that the first site to receive a Ramsar designation in the U.S. was a national wildlife refuge, Izembek Lagoon in Alaska, and that the first national wildlife refuge, Pelican Island, established in 1903 in Florida, is also a Ramsar site. The Fish and Wildlife Service, as you can see, has plenty of reasons to be excited about this Ramsar designation.

A strange and unexpected journey has brought me here today. In my previous job, as Secretary of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, I was part of the group that got the ball rolling on this nomination. Along with many of my colleagues and old friends here today, I sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expressing strong support for this Ramsar designation. Since then, I've been named Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I've been on the job for about three months, and in that time, I've had the odd experience of receiving my own letter.

I found it very convincing.

Almost as convincing as the letter from Governor Graves, or from Mayor Patchin, or from the Stafford Chamber of Commerce, or from Alan at The Nature Conservancy. Without reservations, I sent the packet forward to the Ramsar Secretariat in Switzerland, where people besides me apparently found the letters equally convincing. And that is how we have a Ramsar site here today. It has been a truly grassroots effort.

For that reason, it is my great honor and pleasure to once again join with my colleagues and old friends and say to the people of the great State of Kansas, "We did it!"

With this designation, the whole world now recognizes something that Kansans have long known; we've got a special place here. It has been recognized as a Globally Important Bird Area, as a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site, and now as a Ramsar site.

Quivira is a wetland complex of world-class caliber that brings people and wildlife together. The refuge really comes to life during the month of May, when we welcome back many birds that return to us from other Ramsar sites throughout the Americas. Ramsar is not just a network for wildlife. It is also a network for people, linking communities across thousands of miles.

Ramsar sites like Quivira are loved by local communities because of their wildlife values. At Quivira, the big draw is the birds. Shorebirds and waterfowl need wetland habitats along the entire range of their flyways. For some species, that flyway extends from the Arctic coast to the southernmost tip of South America. Wetlands along the way are important links in this migration chain. The loss of even one link can have severe impacts for an entire species.

That is why we need an international network of wetlands like Ramsar. More than 100 species of migratory birds in the Western Hemisphere benefit from Ramsar sites. Today, we have a special guest, Adriana Cafferata from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Adriana is one of the Fish and Wildlife Service's partners through the Shorebird Sister Schools Program. Yesterday, she was here at the refuge teaching fifth graders from Stafford Elementary about shorebirds. Quivira shares about 20 species of shorebirds with Ramsar sites in Argentina. Adriana, muchas gracias por venir. Thank you for coming.

We are also very fortunate to have with us another very special guest . . . Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Secretary Norton is a firm believer in the expression, "think globally, act locally." She believes in the power of the individual to make a difference on the land where they live and work, and that they love. Certainly, the local communities here in Kansas have embraced Quivira. We can see that with the local Chamber of Commerce, the Stafford Elementary School, the Friends of Quivira and the many volunteers who are making a difference on the ground.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton.