Service Fights Battle on Midway

Biologists are waging a new battle on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific, one of 553 refuges managed by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This time, the enemy is Verbesina encelioides, or golden crownbeard. The invasive plant is shrinking vital seabird habitat in the area where the U. S. Navy defeated the Japanese fleet in June 1942, marking the turning point of World War II in the Pacific.

The Laysan albatross, the large bird immortalized by 19th-century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, depends on the island