May 29, 1984

The national wildlife refuges, islands of natural shelter for birds and animals in a sea of human development, are coming under increasing assault. Some refuge managers and staff as well as conservationists interviewed in recent weeks said policies of the Reagan Administration's Interior Department, such as those encouraging expanded economic and public use of the refuges, were loosening protection of the National Wildlife Refuge System. But Interior Department officials said they were serving the needs and desires of the public without compromising the system's primary function of protecting wildlife. Human Pressures Cited Virtually all experts interviewed, including critics of the Interior Department's policies, agreed that the most serious dangers to the refuges stemmed not so much from the policies of any single Administration as from the inexorable pressures of human activity. These pressures include urban and agricultural expansion, polluted air and water, toxic waste dumps, and highway construction as well as the recreational needs of a swelling human population. All are exacting a toll on the refuges' ability to sustain the millions of waterfowl, mammals, reptiles and aquatic creatures now sheltered within the somewhat fragile boundaries of the refuges.

A year ago the leaders of seven major industrial democracies met in the restored colonial village of Williamsburg, Va., for three days of cloistered discussions. At the end they arrayed themselves on the world stage, before a sea of television cameras and journalists, and issued a communique promising a stronger world economy. The economy has indeed improved. But with the intractable debts of the developing world, spreading protectionism in trade, stubbornly high unemployment in Europe and Canada and the high-valued dollar, it has turned out to be a vastly more troubled economy than the leaders envisioned. ''Their promises were meaningless,'' said C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Institute for International Economics in Washington and the Treasury's principal summit planner in the Carter Administration. ''They did nothing to follow them up.''

The United States has sent 400 Stinger antiaircraft missiles to Saudi Arabia, which plans to establish a protected zone for shipping along the western coast of the Persian Gulf, Administration officials said today. The officials said the Stinger missiles, along with 200 missile launchers, could be used to protect shipping, Saudi oilfields and important installations such as desalinization plants. Defense Department officials said the missiles would not arrive in Saudi Arabia until an announcement by President Reagan, which is expected Tuesday. Setting up the zone and defending it from Iranian aircraft or warships, officials said, will be the responsibility of Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council and will require only minimal United States support. Safety Zone in South The Saudis' concern has grown out of recent Iranian air attacks on neutral shipping near Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The attacks were in response to Iraq's hitting ships near Iran's main oil terminal in the northern gulf. Saudi Arabia and the other gulf states support Iraq in its nearly four-year-old war with Iran, a non-Arab country.

It was March 20, the second day of tryouts for ''Anything Goes,'' and Alan Lehrman, the drama teacher, was narrowing the field. ''Don't read any special significance into it, if I ask you to read for a particular part,'' he said. Well, of course, everyone read special significance into everything. Marisa Peluso worried that the choreographer watched only when she made mistakes. And Michelle Lebow was a basket case because she wasn't grouped with Sandy Sternlieb and the other fast-tapping seniors.

Paul Koepff joined Davis, Polk & Wardwell in 1973 fresh out of Duke Law School, expecting, like most of the other first-year associates, to work hard and ultimately become a partner in the firm. But three years ago, Mr. Koepff was told he would not be invited to join the partnership. ''When you come to a large Wall Street firm, you know not everyone makes it, not even everyone who's good,'' he said. ''But I thought I had a good shot at it. I thought that right up until I didn't make it.''