Congratulations Friends! Together we did it!

Friends, your support, stories, and calls made it possible for the Refuge System to obtain $500 million in emergency supplemental funding for disaster relief. These funds will make it possible to repair damage from hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters at numerous refuges. At some sites it will be possible to replenish funds that were used to repair critical infrastructure.

This is a huge victory! The coordinated actions of Friends, the National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA), Coalition of Refuge Friends and Advocates (CORFA), and Defenders of Wildlife led to this win. NWRA initiated the funding request and brought together more than 80 Refuge Friends groups who signed onto a letter urging Congress to act. CORFA reached out to specific Friends groups for photos and stories—thank you to all the groups that answered our appeal. Finally, Defenders took all the information, photos, and stories to create a fact sheet that went to Capitol Hill. All of us working together made this victory possible. Thank you!

These funds will not meet all the natural disaster repair needs, but this funding comes close to covering 85%! This is a huge success and demonstrates the importance of building partnerships with the common goal of supporting our refuges. The path forward will be hard, and we will need to look for every opportunity to secure the resources needed to support our nation’s wildlife and the lands that both we and the wildlife need.

Thank you for standing with us and helping make this happen!

Read NWRA’s Blog for more information.

We thank you for taking action.

Regards,
CORFA’s Board of Directors