And indeed are the verges of motorways (highways) in the UK, where stopping is prohibited unless in an emergency and a strip of land leading up to the hard shoulder is fenced off. They are excellent hunting grounds for hawks and other raptors.

On a related note, the expansive Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base north of San Diego is probably the only thing stopping there being one giant urban sprawl all the way from San Diego through Orange County into LA.

Why not? The latest statistics I could find say that about 22 launches per year happen there. At each launch pad there are probably only a fraction of those. But even if the disturbance is approximately 2 minutes long (a slowly rising rocket), that's less than 1 hour per year. I find it hard to believe that wildlife cannot cope with that.

It can be put into other terms: The refuge gets a lot of money because of the NASA station there.

If it wasn't a launch area it would probably not be a wildlife refuge, especially since there is already an existing refuge, Assateague Island, right next door.

It would most likely be packed with vacation homes, just like the rest of the Mid-Atlantic shoreline.

Disclaimer: I saw this launch from Assateague and it was awesome. I was too far away to see any flying frogs, but the mosquitos and bats did not seem too upset where I was.

Ah, that makes a big difference then.