CORFA Update: What’s Happening in the Friends Community?

by Joan Patterson, CORFA Board President

CORFA  Check out the latest announcements on the front page of CORFA’s website. The theme of the Friends April photo contest is Wildlife Babies. Share your photos of cute and cuddly or awkward and ugly wildlife babies on the Coalition of Refuge Friend and Advocates Facebook group.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) has a new website! Links on your website to the NWRS website may no longer work. If you have a problem, send the broken link information to Linda Schnee. 

Capitol Hill  March Madness doesn’t only happen on the basketball court. Budget madness on Capitol Hill begins in March. Close to two dozen Friends brought some reason to this madness when they submitted testimony to the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. They urged the House to increase the National Wildlife Refuge System’s operations and maintenance fund to $712 million for FY 2023. Thanks to everyone who voiced their support for the refuge system. 

Hill activities also included CORFA and NWRA testifying in support of the Keep America’s Refuges Operational Act of 2022. The Act reauthorizes the NWRS Volunteer and Community Partnership Enhancement Act that allows the Service to work with volunteers, Friends organizations, and community partners. 

A lesson learned on the Hill: Security concerns are making Hill visits more challenging. Virtual meetings and district visits are the way to go.