News
Every year, the National Wildlife Refuge Association honors the outstanding accomplishments by refuge managers, refuge employees, volunteers, Friends Groups, and refuge advocates through our Refuge System Awards program. Today, we begin accepting nominations for our 2022 National Wildlife Refuge Awards. The deadline for nominations is March 7th, 2022.
You may have heard about the first winner of the Friends Photo Contest and the refuge’s fantastic fungi in the Winter 2022 Edition of The Link. Nicole Souza’s stunning photos of fungi at Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge caught our attention, so Assabet River NWR was featured for the month of December.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association has been active on the ground in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem and Southwest Florida. Our work in outreach, conservation science, and land protection has resulted in significant conservation gains to protect the most ecologically significant landscapes in southern Florida, directly benefiting several national wildlife refuges or the landscapes where they are located. Our work has resulted in increased conservation funding and the permanent protection of thousands of additional acres.
2021 has been a busy and productive year in and around North Carolina’s national wildlife refuges. We made great progress in raising awareness of NC NWRs with Catawba College and the surrounding community of Salisbury, NC by presenting a slide show about the 11 national wildlife refuges in North Carolina with a follow up virtual meeting with the faculty of the Catawba College Center for the Environment faculty. The faculty is receptive to the opportunity of providing college interns for science-based project work on NC NWRs.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association, announces the promotion of Angie Horn to Urban Wildlife Refuge Program Director. Angie will have the primary responsibility for managing The National Wildlife Refuge Association’s expanded Urban Wildlife Refuge Program. The goal of the program is to reach beyond national wildlife refuge boundaries and into communities throughout our nation to connect all Americans to nature through dynamic outreach and by cultivating innovative partnerships across multiple sectors.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association’s Urban Wildlife Refuge Program grew by leaps and bounds throughout 2021, despite the ongoing pandemic and reduction in outdoor events and programs. After pivoting to remote work and virtual programs in 2020, the seeds were planted to fund and accelerate ambitious projects in and around Los Angeles and nationally.
The House passed their historic Build Back Better bill, which includes billions of dollars to fund climate change solutions, including additional conservation on the ground, the creation of a Climate Conservation Corps, and, most importantly for the National Wildlife Refuge System, the repeal of the oil and gas leasing program in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The 2021 recipient of the O’Brien Prize is the Friends of the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex (FWVNWRC), Oregon for their Bilingual Trail Video Project. They are producing a series of 14 short trail videos in English and Spanish showcasing the plants, animals, and habitats found within the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, the Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, and the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. Each of the national wildlife refuges that the Refuge Friends group support are a part of the Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Oregon. They have created a YouTube channel, posted videos of the first three trails, photographed and taken video footage for four additional trails, and identified seven additional trails for future videos. You can view all of the Friends Trail Videos on their YouTube Channel and one video of the series is shown below in both English and Spanish.
