Download or read book J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge Lee County, Florida written by U. S. Department U.S. Department of the Interior and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-01-02 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Located along Florida's southwest Gulf coast in Lee and Charlotte counties, the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex includes the J.N. "Ding" Darling NWR and four satellite refuges: Pine Island, Matlacha Pass, Island Bay, and Caloosahatchee NWRs (Figure 1). J.N. "Ding" Darling NWR (Figure 2) was established in 1945 as Sanibel NWR and later renamed as a memorial to Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling, the noted editorial cartoonist; conservationist; and first Chief of the U.S. Biological Survey, the founding agency of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service). The 6,406.79 acres [2,592.74 hectares (ha)] of the refuge support hundreds of species of wildlife and plants, providing protection for 14 federal-listed and 49 state-listed species, migratory birds, and native wildlife and habitat diversity through a mix of habitats, including tropical hardwood forests, beaches, mangrove swamps, mixed wetland shrubs, salt marshes, open waters and seagrass beds, and lakes and canals.