refuge

Help Save the Refuge System

  • Post category:Advocacy
  • Reading time:5 mins read

Urge Congress to Make Funding the Refuge System a Priority!

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The House of Representatives is beginning to work on the budget for Fiscal Year 2025.The National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA) and the Coalition of Refuge Friends and Advocates (CORFA) urge you to submit testimony to the House in support of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Written testimony for the House is due Friday, May 10th, by 5 pm ET. It can be up to four pages or as short as you like. Even if you only submit a few paragraphs that will be helpful! 

This deadline is only for the House of Representatives. Senate testimony is due later at a date to be determined, we’ll let you know that deadline.. The same testimony can be used for that as well (with easy edits for the correct committee).

How to Submit Your Testimony
Testimony can be submitted by Refuge Friends Groups or by individuals as supporters of a national wildlife refuge and the National Wildlife Refuge System. 

Instructions for submission are here. 

We are asking each of you to put at least two items in your written testimony:

1. The importance of your local national wildlife refuge, and what it offers to the community and to wildlife.

2. Your support for the overall National Wildlife Refuge System to which your refuge belongs, NWRA requests that you ask for $602.3 million in FY 2025.

It is important that we show the committee how much Friends Groups and members care about funding for the Refuge System. All of you have refuges that are understaffed and under-maintained and desperately in need of funding. It is critical that we get an increase for the Refuge System.

WHAT TO SUBMIT: These two items must be attached to the email for it to be accepted:

1. Your final written testimony in PDF form with the information noted above (see attached sample testimony)

2. Witness disclosure form (see the attached PDF to which notes have been added)

All testimony goes to IN.Approp@mail.house.gov. They are very good at confirming receipt, so if you don’t get confirmation, something might have gone wrong.

Help For Writing Your Testimony

If you have ANY questions, please let us know by reaching out to Libby Marking at NWRA at lmarking@refugeassociation.org. If you would like Libby or CORFA, coalitionrefugefriends@gmail.com, to review your testimony prior to submission, send it over! 

Thank you for your support of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Continue ReadingHelp Save the Refuge System

Friends: Showing Off Their Stuff on Capitol Hill

  • Post category:Homepage
  • Reading time:2 mins read

CORFA on Capitol Hill
On the 15th, CORFA took part in the National Wildlife Refuge Expo on Capitol Hill. Members of USFWS, CARE, Friends of Patuxent, and CORFA came together in a House office building to show the value of the National Wildlife Refuges. CORFA shared with members of Congress and their staff the importance of the Friends community. We thank all the Friends that contributed to this video about what we do and the special places we support! I also want to thank Aimee Arent, Matthew Emmer, Lisa Jansen-Rees, Jim Nosler and Stephanie Kaufman for making our display possible!

Continue ReadingFriends: Showing Off Their Stuff on Capitol Hill

Hosting Events As Fundraisers: What Does It Take?

  • Post category:Funding
  • Reading time:2 mins read

You’re Invited to this webinar on Wednesday, October 18th, at 2 pm ET

Does your Friends Organization want to host a fundraising event, but you are not sure where to get started? In this webinar, we will present examples of events hosted by Friends organizations both on and off FWS lands as fundraisers. You will hear how the event was developed, what partnerships were created, what level of effort was needed, lessons learned for future events, and net income raised.  

We will hear about events such as the Beer Festival put on by the Friends of Tualatin River NWR (presented by Bonnie Anderson), the Canyon Acoustics Festival, the Black Hills Beer Run, and Hotrods for the Hatchery Events held by the Booth Society (presented by Karen Holtzer), as well as the Friends of Seney NWR’s Loonapalooza Event (presented by Polly Sheppard) and the Wild Things Event at Southeast Louisiana Refuges (presented by Sue Wilder). We hope that the information provided in this webinar will not only get you excited about hosting a fundraising event but also provide some of the details it takes to host these kinds of events. This will be a fun webinar to attend!

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Continue ReadingHosting Events As Fundraisers: What Does It Take?

Friends Insights on Refuge/Hatchery Systems Funding Crisis

  • Post category:Advocacy
  • Reading time:2 mins read

Earlier this year the Coalition of Refuge Friends and Advocates (CORFA) with the National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA) hosted three-sharing sessions. The goal of the sessions was to bring Refuge and Hatchery Friends organizations together virtually to share information regarding the impacts of inadequate funding and reduced staffing. 73 Participants from across the country attended the three-sharing sessions.

Friends members shared their observations, examples, and stories about the impacts insufficient budgets are having on their refuge and hatchery partners, their organizations, and communities. The comments of the participants were compiled and general themes emerged. A white paper with the findings from the sharing-sessions is housed in CORFA Resource Center. The themes that emerged from the sharing-sessions are being used to help Friends organizations build messages to local, regional, and national representatives to make them aware of the need for adequate funding and staffing for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service programs.

On behalf of CORFA, I want to thank Sue Wilder for organizing the sharing-sessions and composing the white paper. We all want to express our appreciation to all the Friends that participated in the sessions and were so willing to share their observations and experiences.

Continue ReadingFriends Insights on Refuge/Hatchery Systems Funding Crisis

Addressing The Refuge Staffing Crisis

  • Post category:Advocacy
  • Reading time:2 mins read

Thursday, March 30th at 2 – 3:00 PM ET

The National Wildlife Refuge System, the nation’s largest network of lands and waters dedicated to wildlife conservation, is facing a staffing crisis that threatens its ability to protect biodiversity and provide recreational opportunities for all. Despite being essential for protecting endangered species, conserving habitats, and connecting communities with nature, the Refuge System has lost over 800 permanent positions since fiscal year 2011, resulting in an enormous 25% loss in capacity.

In response to this dire situation, the National Wildlife Refuge Association is focusing its efforts in the 118th Congress to raise awareness of this issue and secure the necessary funds to sufficiently staff the Refuge System.

Join Director of Government Affairs & Public Policy, Libby Marking, on March 30th for a conversation about the National Wildlife Refuge Association’s Refuge Staffing Campaign.

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Continue ReadingAddressing The Refuge Staffing Crisis