Friends of Desert Wildlife Refuges and the Nevada State Museum invite you to a special evening of education and entertainment on Thursday, October 24th from 6pm-8pm at the Nevada State Museum at the Springs Preserve, 309 S. Valley View, Las Vegas, NV 89107. Engaging wildlife biologist, David Choate, will present: "Life on the Edge, the tough life of cougars around Las Vegas". In addition, we will be unveiling our "New Look", recognizing our photo contest winner, and more . . . Appetizers and refreshments will be provided. For more information or to RSVP for this unique event please contact: parsonsd@unce.unr.edu before 5pm on 10-22-13.

Blog entries

Greetings Friends and interested citizens. For the time being we are putting the blog on hiatus. However, you can still catch frequent updates about our activities on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofDesertWildlifeRefuges

You can follow this link to our latest newsletter.

http://bit.ly/110D6tJ

Thank you for your interest. We hope to see you soon at a Social or a Refuge event.

You should go to this

Noted local nature artist Sharon Schafer has put together a presentation on Desert NWR for the 75th Anniversay. Chesk out the presentation, enjoy the company of your Friends and partake of free pizza & beer provided by Land Rover!

click image to enlarge

First Friends Social

For the folks who follow this blog, you know we had our first Friends Social meeting on Thursday at the Interagency office. All who attended and participated online were happy with the experience. The few glitches that occurred did not dampen anyone’s enthusiasm. All who attended are special people concerned with the environment and conservation. A couple people of note who attended include Sharon Shafer and Jim Boone. There were 31 folks total who took part. The first presenter was Alyson Mack, Education Specialist from Ash Meadows NWR. Presenting from Ash Meadows over the conference line, she described why Ash Meadows NWR is so special. Many folks haven't been to Ash Meadows. Others who have been there were surprised to discover things about the refuge that aren't readily apparent to the casual observer. The second presenter was Bruce Lund. He described his research of the local dragon and damselflies populations. He has documented many firsts in the area extending the geographic map of species populations. He also solicited for citizen researchers to help further document extant populations. Many folks commented on the great photos and informative presentations. We hope you can attend the next Social which will be held sometime in September. We'll keep you posted here and through the mailing list of subject, presenters and date. If you would like more information about the social or Bruce’s call for citizen researchers, or to be included in the mailing list, send us an email at > friendsdnwrc@aol.com <.

Board Meeting

The date of the May Board meeting has been changed to May 26th. Same place, same time. Please make a note of it.

Desert NWR 75th Anniversary

We're celebrating ther Desert NW 75th Anniversary. Check the page links to the right for a schedule of planned events...

Quick Minutes

The NFWF Grant (from 2010) has been approved and will have the final documents to receive funds sent with signature. Frank & Harry will write the NFWF Grant for 2011. Have all suggestions to them and the Board by April 8.

To enhance our ability to interact with remote locations and to save on gas for our Friends at distant refuges we're going to try out a new location for the Board meetings. The next regular Board meeting will at the Interagency Office; 4701 N. Torrey Pines Dr. A conference line will be set up and all interested will be supplied with the phone number and passcode. Don't forget, the Board meetings start at 6PM. !

It was decided that in order to alieviate the general membership from the tedium of the Board meetings a separate general membership meeting will be held where more “fun” stuff would be offered. General membership meetings might include field trips, talks, or other programs by FWS biologists and other staff, volunteers with expertise on wildlife, wildflowers, and other topics, invited speakers, and so forth. This would be a great way to use Friends funds for speakers (if funding was needed), refreshments, etc., an excellent way to build membership, and also to inform folks about the many programs and projects going on at the Refuges. Further, there was a proposal that these could also be virtual meetings: meaning an attendee could participate in the meeting from home on their personal computer. More on this as it arises.

Related to providing services to our Friends Membership, writer Mark Petterson has volunteered to create a regular member newsletter. It will incorporate information, activities, and articles of interest from the four refuges. Mark is aiming to get this started sometime in April or May.

Desert NWR 75th Anniversary events will be spread out over the week of the Anniversary including but not limited to a May 14th Refuge Jeep Tour, a May 21st hike to the Hidden Forest, a Red Rock Audubon Society field trip, and a reception/celebration event at the Las Vegas Paiute Reservation. Invitations with more information will be going out to everyone soon.

The Friends Vision Statement was approved. It's in the side bar.

Kids Events at Ash Meadows NWR

At Ash Meadows NWR, there's a few neat upcoming events for kids...

Click here for the flyers

Moapa Valley NWR appears in USA Today!!!

' Federal program gives families 'nature prescriptions'
Here's what Matias Rojas Perez first saw on a trail walk in the Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge: a wild rabbit dashing past, a 3-inch-long endangered fish, soaring birds and creeping snakes...
Read the Rest

FRIENDS of the ALASKA REFUGES

MEETINGS AND FIELD TRIPS WITH FRIENDS of the ALASKA REFUGE: Feb. 22 and 23
Representative of the Friends of the Alaska Refuges will meet with all interested to discuss how they are organized and get things done. They, like us, are Friends for a Refuge COMPLEX that is geographically scattered over a large area - a VERY large area. The Alaska Friends were honored as the Friends group of 2010 by the National Wildlife Refuge Association and this is an excellent opportunity to learn from their experience. Their timeline is:

Feb 22: 9 am field trip at Moapa Valley NWR. Drive to Pahranagat NWR for afternoon field trip.

6-9 pm Alaska-Desert Friends meeting: Alaska organization history and development to today. Q & A
US Fish & Wildlife Offices, 4701 Torrey Pines Drive, Las Vegas, NV
.
Feb 23: 9 am field trip at Corn Creek. Drive to Ash Meadows NWR for afternoon field trip.

We're happy to entertain anybody who cares to join in the field trips. But the discussion at the Interagency office is sure to be informative and interesting. We hope to see you there!

Successful meeting and tours with the President and Vice President of the Friends of Alaska Refuges. We'll be holding a de-briefing at the Interagency office (4701 N Torrey Pines) on Friday 3/4 at 10AM. Please join us!