Friends Of The Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

Programs: The tualatin river national wildlife (nwr) enters its 25th year in 2017. There is a lot to celebrate. The 25-year effort of a lot of dedicated people has transformed a former dairy farm and other properties into a place of natural beauty for recreation and education for tens of thousands of people and their families to enjoy. We are proud of what the partnership between the fws and the friends has created. This year the refuge hosted over 140,000 visitors. Our friends employees continue to contribute their skills and energies. Bonnie anderson remains our administrative anchor. She again led the effort to put on a successful and well-attended bird festival. Rachel dunham serves as our public engagement coordinator. This year rachel introduced the nature ambassadors, a group of trained volunteers who reach into the surrounding community to promote conservation, environmental awareness, and the wonders of nature. Rachels energies motivate the volunteers in the natures overlook sales outlet, allowing the outlet to be open whenever the visitors center is open. Proceeds from the outlet directly support our refuge. Her team creates family-focused seasonal displays and activities to greet our visitors and entertain their kids. The team also includes trail rovers who greet and answer questions from refuge visitors. Seth winkelhake is our environmental education specialist. This year, an additional dozen volunteer naturalists were trained to support educational programs and lead visits by school children and other groups. With the support of the grasmajeto fund of the oregon community foundation, seth developed and hosted a week-long alternative outdoor school program for a pair of sherwood middle schools. Alternative outdoor school is for children who cannot participate in overnight outdoor school with their classmates. Seth has created national visibility for trnwr via pictures and videos of our resident wildlife captured by his skillfully-placed trail cameras. Sarah williams, our habitat restoration specialist, routinely hosts work parties and other volunteer organizations to support our restoration activities. Her enthusiasm and the genuine joy that she brings to her job are key to attracting others to support restoration activities. Sarah has applied mission-specific training shes accumulated over the past couple of years to supplement her skill set and enhance the impact of her efforts. We are grateful to the usfws urban program for their support and development of our staff. When potential donors investigate an organization, they look for how much of their donation will actually go to that organizations programs. We are proud of the fact that the programs offered by the friends of tualatin river nwr represent well over 80% of our total expenses (86% through july). Monies that the friends receive from all sources clearly go toward programs that benefit our community. Our continued commitment to the further development of the refuge and our programs will continue the legacy of the last 25 years.