The quarterly meeting of the Limestone County Historical Society will be Sunday, April 27, in the Rodgers Center of Athens First Presbyterian Church. The program will feature Tom Ress speaking about the abundant wildlife and history of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Refreshments will be served at 2:30 p.m., with the meeting to follow at 3 p.m. Everyone interested in local history is invited to attend.

Ress is a volunteer naturalist at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge and the Vice President of Wheeler Wildlife Refuge Association. He leads birding and kayak tours on the refuge. He is also an accomplished photographer and a writer with dozens of published articles on websites, in magazines and in newspapers.

Ress is the author of Images of America: Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. He is a well known local public speaker and often provides talks on his travels to Learning Quest, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and area groups and organizations. An avid adventure traveler, he has visited all seven continents, dozens of countries and all 50 states.

Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge was Alabama’s first national wildlife refuge and is the state’s largest and most-visited refuge. It was established in 1938 and encompasses 34,500 acres in Limestone, Morgan and Madison counties. Its thick stands of hardwoods and pines, lush wetlands and shady sloughs attract huge flocks of ducks, geese and cranes. Beavers, deer, otters and alligators also find a home in the refuge.

Today, the refuge is a haven of natural beauty surrounded by the trappings of modern society, attracting thousands of visitors who come to view the large numbers of ducks, geese, cranes and other wildlife that inhabit it. Ress conducted interviews with present and past refuge employees and was granted access to historical refuge files and photographs — many never before seen by the public — to write his book on the topic.