 It is a land of transitions, yet one defined as much by borders and boundaries as by continuity. Here the great green and teaconic mountains flatten and separate into the vast Champlain Valley, site of ancient seas and strange creatures of free history. The story is told in the rocks. Immediately to the north, Canada, as the land broadens still farther into the valley of the St. Lawrence. To the south, the lush, enveloping folds of Vermont's emerald landscape. It is a crossroads of cultures and historical pageantry, shaped first by the native peoples and touched in turn by French, British, Canadian and American migrants, each of whom left their mark. It has been the site of mighty deeds and exceptional bravery, great cruelty and avarice, the domain of priests and smugglers, prophets and profiteers. In short, there has been much history in this place. In the midst of all, a slow, languid stream, the Abnaki people call Missisgoi, the land of the Flint. Tucked into the Green Mountain State's far northwestern corner, it is a crossroads of life for the animals and plants that make this place their home. It is Vermont's Haven for Wildlife. Missisgoi National Wildlife Refuge protrudes into Lake Champlain and its smaller offshoot to the north, Missisgoi Bay. Its meandering creeks and slews, marshes and bogs, islands and channels form a complex and productive water-saturated network of lands. Water, geology and topography have shaped Missisgoi and the life that finds Haven here. As great continental ice sheets retreated northward, high elevation lakes ebbed and flowed in their wake. What remained were river deltas and sand gravel margins that produced a distinctive mosaic of plants found nowhere else in Vermont and in few other places in Northern New England. The Missisgoi River now winds through beds of wild rice and lush stands of arrowhead, bullrush and wild celery. Such morsels provide a tempting forage buffet for ducks, geese and other marsh dwellers. In 1943, while in the midst of war, the federal government and the people of Vermont recognized the uniqueness of this region by creating Missisgoi National Wildlife Refuge. Managed for the people by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this 6,600-acre refuge exists as a haven for Lake Champlain's migratory birds as they move up and down North America's Atlantic Flyway. And what a story there is to tell. Here at Missisgoi, you'll find one of Vermont's largest great blue heron rookeries located on Shad Island where as many as 600 nests erupt every summer with the cacophony of squawks and screeches that signify new life. Most of Vermont's black terns nest on the refuge as do a large share of our state's ospreys which are encouraged to come here by osprey nesting platforms. Every fall, 20,000 ring-neck ducks, golden eyes, mallards and black ducks converge at Missisgoi for feeding and resting while on their southward migration. Other birds you'll spot in seasonal abundance include bittern, bobble-links, kill-deer, red-tailed hawks and a profusion of noisy and demonstrative woodpeckers and songbirds. In their rarity, you might even spy a peregrine falcon, sedgeren or bald eagle. But Missisgoi isn't just for the birds. Our lands are managed to preserve the natural diversity of animals and plants that intersect at this biological crossroads. Missisgoi's 900-acre woodland macquam bog shelters the Green Mountain State's only community of pitch pine, rodora and chain fern, a state-threatened species. In summer, you'll spot white-tailed deer and a variety of resident songbirds in this swampy lowland. Spiny, soft-shelled turtles bask in the sun's rays on the nearby Missisgoi River. Here, we actively manage the land to perpetuate this diversity. At Missisgoi, as at all national wildlife refuges, the hand of man is an active one. Water levels are manipulated to encourage wild rice and button bush for our black ducks and teal. Nesting structures have been employed throughout the Delta to boost numbers of common golden eyes and black ducks too. Because haying, mowing and prescribed burns discourage open fields from returning to forest, we use these techniques to produce cover for grassland birds like bobble links, savanna sparrows and eastern meadowlarks, and to yield the small mammals that hawks and American kestrels require as prey. It's all part of a carefully crafted plan to maintain balance among the many species you'll encounter at Missisgoi. We control non-native or exotic plants like common reed grass and purple loose strife. If left unchecked, they would quickly overwhelm native plants. We allow limited trapping of raccoon, muskrat and beaver to control predation on ground-nesting birds and to protect our impoundment dikes and water control structures. Your first stop for a successful visit to Missisgoi National Wildlife Refuge should be our new 7200-square-foot visitor center and headquarters, near Route 78's intersection with Tabor Road in West Swanton. Here you'll discover exhibits and practical information about the refuge, its wildlife and its natural history. You'll meet our helpful and knowledgeable staff and our partners, the Friends of Missisgoi National Wildlife Refuge. Our center is open every weekday, while the refuge itself is yours 7 days a week dawn to dusk. Nature walks, boat tours, public lectures and special events like our popular owl prowls and woodcock walks occur throughout the year. While you're at our visitor center, we invite you to join in supporting the mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System by buying a duck stamp. It's the duck stamp that created Missisgoi Refuge with the funds of hunters and other conservationists and from millions of people just like you. Our staff and volunteers from our Friends Group will be glad to tell you more about conservation's remarkable little stamp. We recommend you begin your Missisgoi experience on foot, either early or late in the day when animals are most active, starting on our nearby one-mile loop trail. It leaves our visitor center and winds through grass and shrublands, land forests, a button bush swamp, and mixed hardwoods of oak, birch and sugar maple. Our Black Creek and Macquam Creek Interpretive Trails will take you through one and a half miles of maple, gray birch, swamp white oak and ash lowlands. If you're quiet and observant, you're sure to spot red fox, white-tailed deer, and colorful patches of native wildflowers along these trails. Deeper into the refuge, the one-mile Max Bend Road and our Stephen J. Young Marsh and Old Railroad Passage Trail provide good wildlife windows for birds and marsh mammals. If you stay on the trails and move quietly, you'll be treated to so much more. And when areas are closed, know that we're often protecting sensitive habitats and bird nesting areas. The newest sand kayakers can launch on the Missisgoy River at Louise Landing off of Vermont Route 78 for an all-day paddle around Gander and Goose Bay and back along Dead Creek to your put-in point. This circuit gives a unique waterside view of Shad Island and its great blue heron colony. Remember that open water demands even greater adherence to safe boating than our sheltered creeks and rivers. Anglers and hunters are welcome at Missisgoy too. Walleye, Northern Pike, Large Mouth Bass, and a dozen other game fish species abound in the refuge's waters. Bank fishing's best along Charcoal Creek, where it passes beneath Route 78, and on the Missisgoy River from the refuge boundary to Max Bend. Every June, our refuge fishing derby introduces youngsters to the fun of fishing too. Each year, we open parts of the refuge to managed hunting for ducks and geese, deer, and small game. Missisgoy is famed for being one of the region's best waterfowling spots. We team with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and Ducks Unlimited every August for our Junior Waterfowl Hunter Training Program where young outdoor enthusiasts are taught safe and ethical hunting. Whether you enjoy Missisgoy National Wildlife Refuge by land or water, in winter's chill or at summer's abundance, know that this land, this land of the flint of the Abnaki, remains a place of transition from mountains to the Great Lake Champlain. Touched by many cultures, ours to sustain for posterity, this haven for wildlife remains a special place for all who continue to pass this way. Welcome to Missisgoy National Wildlife Refuge.