We Get By With a Little Help from our Friends…

Actually, it’s more than just a little help. In fact, in 2011 alone, almost 42,000 volunteers contributed over 1.5 million hours of time to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

That’s why it was crucial to have two recommendations in the Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation vision focused on volunteers, Friends, and community partners of the National Wildlife Refuge System. The two recommendations focus on how we can improve and expand our existing base of volunteers, Friends, and community partnerships.

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Delissa Padilla and Anna Harris in Fort Collins, CO

One year ago a conference in Madison, WI, literally changed my life — and I know I’m not the only one.

Last summer I was on a two-month detail in Fort Collins, CO, working for Mark Chase in the newly minted Natural Resource Program Center. Coming from the Wildlife and Sport Fish program, this was my first exposure to the Refuge System and my first experience outside the Beltway. I saw firsthand the cutting edge research and the brilliant scientists being brought on-board. It’s a summer that I’ll never forget.

But the trip to Madison sealed the deal on my commitment to the U.S.  Fish and Wildlife Service and my enthusiasm for the National Wildlife Refuge System.  The week-long experience led me to meet some of my best friends in the Service, exposed me to new ideas and intellect, and brought a whole new meaning to why the Service is the greatest conservation organization in the world.

The energy, passion and enthusiasm from our employees and our conservation partners permeated the Monona Terrace Conference Center.  From the engaging work shop discussions to the phenomenal speakers, I was inspired. I still hear myself quoting Dewitt Jones and Juan Martinez and find myself reflecting back on how I was “spinning my wheels” at the time of the conference.

Michael Gale, Rebekah Martin, USFWS Director Dan Ashe, and Anna Harris commemorating the one year Conserving the Future conference anniversary.

Here I am today, vision implementation coordinator for Conserving the Future and I’m still inspired. This isn’t where I thought I’d be, but after Madison, this is exactly where I want to be.  This week is a time to reflect back on those experiences, reconnect with friends made in Madison, and take a moment to realize we’re charting the course for the next generation of leaders in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Written by: Anna Harris, Vision Implementation Coordinator

By: Marcia Pradines

When I was in middle school, I remember starting what we called an environmental club. I was pleasantly surprised when over eighty students came to the inaugural meeting.  We did simple little things as expressions of our ecological conscious. I fall squarely within Generation X, so this was years before sustainability was a buzzword.

But that’s essentially what we focused on- starting a recycling program in the cafeteria for all the pop cans (yes, pop…this was a suburb of Pittsburgh), planting flowers to beautify the grounds (mainly because the principal thought that’s what an environmental club should do), and hosting clean-ups at the local creek after the trout season opener.  It wasn’t exactly cool to be earth-friendly at that point.  Yet the interest was there.  I can look back now and be proud of our efforts, however small they seemed.  But where is the ecological conscious of my generation now?

This week our Urban Refuge Initiative team met with a number of partners to discuss urban engagement with National Wildlife Refuges, a recommendation within Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created a vision for the National Wildlife Refuge System as part of a larger movement for strategic, science-based, landscape conservation and expanding a connected conservation constituency. As America has changed from a rural to urban society, how we engage people to instill a conservation ethic must change in order to achieve success.  This is a theme we are all dealing with, government agency or not.  We’ve been focusing heavily on engaging children in nature given the new technological world, and rightly so, as well as diversity due to the changing face of America, but what about my generation?   Where do we stand?  Does anyone care?

Marcia Pradines as a teenager volunteering at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh

Quickly aging out of the hallowed 18-34 year old demographic, and not the formidable force of baby boomers, we seem to be neglected by these discussions.  And yet we are earning more, raising families, and moving into leadership roles, both within the conservation community as well as companies and organizations that impact natural resources.  And we too are diverse.  The Generation X Report in 2011 found we are highly educated and family oriented, with 77% of us participating in outdoor recreation each year.  Yet it was Hazel Wong of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) that specifically called out the absence of GenX in this discussion of morphing demographics and conservation.  Apparently we are attempting to live sustainably, from our seafood dining selections to biking to work, and many variations in between, but we are not supporting conservation efforts financially, at least not proportional to our numbers according to membership data.  We enjoy it, with 40% of us participating several times a month in sports such as climbing, hunting, fishing, and hiking.

Why aren’t we showing up en masse to join conservation organizations such as TNC?  Did we grow up so believing the mantra of “think globally, act locally” that we now focus on self to the detriment of community?  How do we mobilize GenX for conservation causes to capitalize on our growing leadership presence, assets, and influence on our families?  We’re not the the Milliennials or Boomers.  Yet we are here, we care, and we act. All it took was a teenager with a sign pleading “please recycle” to motivate us back then.  What will it take in 2012?

Visit http://www.youtube.com/americaswildlife to learn more about the Urban Refuge Initiative of the National Wildlife Refuge System, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and join the Social Network at AmericasWildlife.org. We share the belief that we must change the world to conserve the future of America’s wildlife and our planet for generations to come. We need your help and heart to make the vision a reality.

Marcia Pradines is the Division Chief of Visitor Services & Communications and a co-chair for the Urban Wildlife Refuge Initiative Implementation Team.