News
The National Wildlife Refuge Association is pleased to announce our newest addition to the team, Gary Montoya. Gary Montoya will be filling the role of our Southwest Regional Representative. Gary will represent the Refuge Association to facilitate communication with refuge managers, staff, Friends Groups, and local stakeholders about issues affecting refuges.
Each year during the second week of October we celebrate our nation’s unique and wonderful national wildlife refuges with National Wildlife Refuge Week. In a non-COVID year, our wildlife refuges would be full of visitors this week--festivals, guided nature walks, and educational presentations in the Visitor’s Center. This year, we celebrate our nation’s refuges as individuals, with quiet moments on these special lands.
National Wildlife Refuges are peaceful places. In stressful and unforgiving times, refuges offer rejuvenation and decompression. Respite can be found in nature. I visited Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge last weekend, and it proved to be mentally and physically restorative. Ash Meadows is a unique oasis in the Mojave, offering panoramic views of desert and snow-capped mountains.
Recently, NPR’s All Things Considered featured a story about the refuge lands that are threatened in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Our own Vice President of Government Affairs Caroline Brouwer was interviewed for the report. I couldn’t be prouder of the work she is doing on behalf of wildlife, refuges, and you. But she can’t do it alone. I am asking you to take 7 minutes to listen to the story and ask, what more could you be doing to protect these important refuges?
Our work in Puerto Rico is diverse, all in support of wildlife conservation. Your support to the National Wildlife Refuge Association allows us to hire professional staff that can provide technical and administrative support to the National Wildlife Refuge System and adjoining lands to help protect and conserve critical habitats and endangered species.
This week is Polar Bear Week - a great way to celebrate this iconic, magnificent, and unfortunately threatened species. Prior to my current job as the President of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, I served as the Alaska Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As part of that job, I was appointed by both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama as the United States Polar Bear Commissioner.
