The Green River has long provided life-giving water and wildlife, first for Native Americans, then for explorers, mountain men, and the hundreds of thousands of pioneers who crossed it. Siskadee Agie, a Crow Indian term meaning "River of the Prairie Hen," reflects the presence of sage grouse and other wildlife such as deer, pronghorn, bison, waterfowl, and eagles that people hunted in the area, while explorers and mountain men trapped beaver there. Construction of Fontanelle Dam about 20 miles upstream altered the river’s natural flooding cycle, creating prime trout habitat but endangering the marshlands along the river that depended on spring flooding and served as critical nesting habitat for many species of waterfowl. Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge was established by Congress in 1965 to offset marshland habitat losses resulting from construction of Fontanelle Dam and Flaming Gorge Dam about 100 miles downstream in Utah, and since then U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managers have used prescribed burning, flood irrigating, native grass planting, and fencing to enhance wildlife habitat and restore the land to a condition similar to that of the Oregon Trail era.