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This paper summarizes the controversy over conflicts between human recreation and wildlife production at Ruby Lake NWR in Nevada, based chiefly on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) documents and refuge records. The author provides information on the court case arising from a 1978 suit by Defenders of Wildlife. In its decision, the U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (1978:10, quoted from page 556), stated the following: "Neither poor administration of the refuge in the past, nor prior interferences with its primary purposes, nor past recreational uses, nor deterioration of its wildlife resource since its establishment, nor administrative custom nor tradition alters the statutory standard. The Refuge Recreation Act permits recreational use only when it will not interfere with the primary purpose for which the refuge 'was established.' The prior operation of the refuge in a manner inconsistent with that purpose does not change the base point for applying the statute's standard." The first test of the Refuge Recreation Act (1962) set some important precedents for lands managed for wildlife by the FWS. The act and court decision provided strong protection for wildlife from incompatible recreational pressures on NWR's.