On the 14th of July our annual WNR Volunteer Appreciation Day/Shrimp Boil Dinner was held to honor the Volunteers who supplement labor, talents, skills, and commitment to maintaining an area where wildlife is protected and respected but allowing the Citizens a controlled access to these public lands so as to learn and enjoy our living natural resources.

At Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge the Rangers and Staff offer a thank you to the many volunteers who give of their time and talents to supplement the limited size of the full time staff. Time donated during the year ranges from over 4000 hours during migratory season to a few hours a month to interact with the general public, perform environmental studies, grounds maintenance, chartering the underground areas where endangered species live, and the tagging of wildlife for long term research. Unfortunately it appears the operating budget will be slim for quite a while so the importance of these women and men will be needed to protect a safe place for healthy wildlife from those people who never think of the effects of today on the tomorrows or what happens when a species disappears from this earth due to over harvesting or polluting a species environment.