- City:
- Seneca Falls, NY
- Site Type:
- Forestry and Agriculture, Wildlife Refuges
- New Deal Agencies:
- Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Conservation and Public Lands, Work Relief Programs, Bureau of Biological Survey
- Started:
- 1937
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
In 1937 the Bureau of Biological Survey (from 1940, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) purchased 6,432 acres of the former Montezuma Marsh at the northern end of Cayuga Lake (one of the finger lakes of upstate New York). In 1938, the Montezuma Migratory Bird Refuge was established by Executive Order 7971 to provide a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds on the Atlantic Flyway. The name was changed to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in 1940. Today, the refuge covered about 9,800 acres.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp to work on this wildlife refuge, as it did in many other refuges. CCC men built a series of low dikes to hold water and restore part of the marsh habitat that had previously existed.
Source notes
https://www.co.seneca.ny.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Montezuma-National-Wildlife-Refuge.pdf (accessed Dec. 9, 2017)
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/montezuma/
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on December 9, 2017.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.
Contribute to this Site
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal site.
Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal Site
Join the Conversation