Old and New Ideas we can all Share

The theme of yesterday’s conference programs focused on partners, building constituencies and keeping the Refuge System relevant to a changing America.  In the morning lecture series we heard from speakers representing state wildlife agencies, the President of the NWRA, the young conservation leader Juan Martinez, from a group of schoolchildren, and from leaders in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

As a young person working and living in Washington DC and as an avid birder, these issues resonate with me.  Outside of college I haven’t lived in a rural area, and growing up I found nature not in the form of great expanses of wilderness, but on a smaller scale catching sunfish in the creek that ran between houses in my neighborhood, or pursuing spring warblers at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in the shadow of the Philadelphia airport.  It’s exciting to hear the Fish and Wildlife Service discussing things like “nature deficit disorder,” and how to make our national wildlife refuges relevant to a generation that has grown up with video games and the Internet.

In the afternoon I attended an insightful workshop “Building Successful Partnerships,” where we heard from Gary Sullivan, Joe McCauley and my colleague at NWRA David Houghton.  The discussion was about how to gain trust from ranchers and others in working landscapes to conserve large landscapes and preserve a way of life – while also providing habitat for wildlife.  While a different tone than the lectures I heard in the morning, the theme was still the same.  It’s encouraging to hear case studies of successful partnerships.  And even though landscapes like Rocky Mountain Front and the Greater Everglades in Florida are vastly different from my familiar Pennsylvania, many of the ideas – like preserving open space and controlling invasive species, are ideas we can all share.

Patrick Woolford, Communications and Program Assistant, National Wildlife Refuge Association