Protection Island Refuge is located near the mouth of Discovery Bay in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Jefferson County, Washington. Protection Island provides nesting habitat for 21,000 pairs of sea birds, 72% of all the seabirds nesting in the Puget Sound basin and Strait of Juan de Fuca. The 17,000 pairs of rhinoceros auklets on the island represent approximately half of the breeding population in the contiguous U.S., and Violet Point's glaucous-winged gull colony is believed to be the largest in Washington. Some 130 bird species have been identified as migrant, resident, or breeding on the island. The island contains one of the last 2 nesting colonies of tufted puffins in the Puget Sound area. About 1,000 harbor seals depend upon the island for a pupping and rest area. Chipmunks and shrews are the only native mammals. Wave action erodes the base of the cliffs at an average of 6 inches per year.
This 364-acre island is covered by grass and low brush, with a small timbered area, high sandy bluffs for seabird nesting, and low sand spits on two ends of the island. A 200-yard buffer around the island is closed year round to protect wildlife resources. Nine families and a research group from Walla Walla College were granted extended use privileges when the refuge was established. They are permitted limited walking access to a beach in the winter and the use of their lots and access roads to the lots.
Between 1865 and mid-1960, Protection Island had farming, grazing, and minor military usage. The Protection Island Co. purchased it in 1968 for $435,000 and subdivided 4 of the original 5 units. In 1974 the Nature Conservancy acquired the fifth unplatted unit and sold it to the WA Dept. of Game as its first non-game preserve, 48 acres at Kanern Point.
In December 1981, H.R. 1486 established the Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge. Island landowners desiring to sell their lots had an opportunity to do so at fair market value, and a limited number of landowners were allowed a form of continued use reservation compatible with the purpose for which the refuge was established.
 wo women, Zella Schultz and Eleanor Stopps, are responsible for the exciting and inspiring climax to the story of the island's protected status. Zella was an artist and wildlife biologist who had studied its colony of glaucous-winged gulls, making detailed observations of their daily life.
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Photo of Ms. Stopps at 100-year FWS Celebration at Dungeness Refuge in 2003. |
Eleanor joined Zella on the bird-banding expeditions, learning about the gulls and the other avian inhabitants of the island, and sharing Zella's goal of seeing the island protected. Zella died of complications from a childhood disease in 1974 and her best friend Eleanor vowed to continue the work.
But not until construction bulldozers started destroying auklet burrows was any action taken. The month Zella died, the Nature Conservancy bought the western end of the island from the developer and re-sold it to the Washington State Game Department, making it the state's first non-game sanctuary. The 48-acre sanctuary was named The Zella M. Schultz Seabird Sanctuary.
leanor moved from Seattle to Mats Mats Bay, to be closer to the sea and the birds she had grown to love. With the money raised from selling Zella's prints, she published her book on gulls, On the Wings of the Wild Winds. Soon after, Eleanor founded a chapter of the Audubon Society in Port Townsend and started an "Adopt a Seabird" program, raising $50,000 - enough money to buy 23 lots on Protection Island. At the same time, she got the local Audubon group and Nature Conservancy to start pressuring county, state and national groups, agencies and politicians to take action.
Finally on October 15, 1982, after years of patient lobbying, letter writing and gathering support from a large, diverse constituency, Protection Island was made a National Wildlife Refuge, the first and only such legislation passed during Ronald Reagan's term of office. For her efforts through the years, Eleanor received the Nature Conservancy's Oak Leaf, its highest award, in 1992. Add to that the Citizen Appreciation Award by the U.S. Wildlife Service and the Jefferson County Citizen of the Century award - for her wisdom, foresight and determination in the service of both people and nature.