The Urban Wildlife Refuge Initiative Implementation Team is looking for suggestions on a name designation for the National Wildlife Refuge System’s new urban presence initiative and need YOUR vote! The goal is to engage communities to nurture an appreciation of wildlife conservation and foster a better understanding of the role of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Refuge System in conserving natural resources by creating new urban partnerships in ten diverse urban cities across America by 2015.
Head on over to the America’s Wildlife Facebook Page to leave your suggestions, or leave a comment here on the blog!
Here are the top 5 suggestions so far:
1) Urban Wildlife Refuge
2) National Neighborhood Wildlife Refuge
3) National Urban Wildlife Refuge
4) Wild in the City
5) Community Wildlife Refuge
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I like Wild in the City as the name of the initiative/program.
However, I would like to express my concern about creating a special name for urban NWRs. They should be named “X” NWR, similar to most NWRs. Maybe we create a special urban designation similar to other special designations (e.g., Wilderness, State birding trail, IBA, …). With population growth and the spread of development, many refuges have experienced an urbanizing landscape. If we create a new naming convention for urban NWRs, will we have a certain threshold past which we would rename existing NWRs? They should all just be NWRs, each with their own special designations as applicable.
I like the phrase National Urban Wildland (NUWild) and for the whole, The National Urban Wildlands System. It sets it apart from The NWR System which is more focused on species or natural communities.