Making Tracks

The Newsletter of the Friends of the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge Complex

Joyfully Connecting our Community with the Wonder of the Refuge

UPCOMING EVENTS

Volunteer Appreciation Event

September 22, 2022 3:00 PM 19255 SW Pacific Highway

RSVP 2022 Friends' Annual Membership Meeting

September 24, 2022 9:30 AM Zoom

Second Saturday Work Party

October 08, 2022 9:00 AM 19255 SW Pacific HWY Sherwood Or 97140

Creatures of the Night

October 29, 2022 5:00 PM 19255 SW Pacific Highway

Friends' Board of Directors Meeting

October 24, 2022 6:30 PM Zoom

Friends' Board of Directors Meeting

November 22, 2022 6:30 PM Zoom

President's Perch

by Cheryl Hart, President

September is Annual Meeting time, and we hope that every one of you will join us on Saturday, September 24 to participate in this important event for our organization. This year, we have revised our bylaws and the membership of our organization is required to approve the new bylaws. We undertook this revision to simplify the bylaws. Over the years, they had become cumbersome and detailed and contained a lot of things that didn’t really need to be in bylaws but should be in policies. So, we are making that revision. Willem Stoeller and the Governance Committee have been working on this project for many months. The Board has voted to forward the new the bylaws to the membership for approval. If you haven’t had an opportunity to look over this revision, you can find it on our webpage.

You will also find a list of the policies that are being created to direct the Board in the operation of Friends, many of the things that were formerly addressed in the bylaws.

Now to the more fun stuff! Because we are meeting virtually again this year, we wanted to come up with a program that would help you think into the future—what will happen to our refuge, our environment when we are no longer here to watch over it. I think you will find that we have some very capable hands to pass that responsibility to. The program for the annual meeting will be presented by a team of high school students lead by Alan Ma, a Jesuit High School Senior, who are as passionate about preserving and protecting the environment as are all of us. They are calling their presentation, Reconnecting with Roots: A launchpad for youth action in environmental conservation, stewardship, and engagement. In a digitized world, youth connections with the wild is a crucial cornerstone to the long-term livelihood of our communities.

These enthusiastic conservationists are planning an Oregon High School Environmental Summit. It is impossible to hear them talk about their aspirations and concerns without being reenergized around the conservation movement. We hope you will find this inspiring and perhaps be interested in helping with the realization of their goal.

Join us in a celebration of our next generations and the positive youth can plant forwards!

See you all at the Annual Meeting and on the refuge!

-Cheryl Hart

Focus on Friends

by Bonnie Anderson, ED

It's Back to School time, and this year it has several significant meanings to me. I have a child starting their first year of college and another starting their last year. For the first time in many years I do not have a child in the Beaverton School District. Yet in many ways I feel like I have over 300! Last night I was invited to host a table at Greenway Elementary School's Back to School Night, and along with Park Ranger Natalie we greeted so many familiar faces. Faculty, parents and student all expressed their gratitude for the programs that we offer to this school.

On September 1st we hosted Greenway Staff at the Refuge for a teacher training session focused on this year's TREE (Tualatin River Environmental Education) Curriculum. Refuge and Friends staff along with TREE volunteers learned about this year's theme - Animals as Engineers in Nature- and conducted the first lesson activity that will be taught to students. This collaboration shows the true power of being a community asset.

This Fall is also my first time back in the college classroom after many years. I started a 10 month course through PSU this week. At the end of the course I will have a certificate in Non Profit Fundraising. I appreciate the support from the Board as I learn new skills to help grow the Friends in our mission.

Please remember to RSVP to attend our Annual Meeting. Our program will include a presentation by a group of amazing high school students. They will definitely be tomorrow's conservation leaders.

Hope to see you out on the trails !

-Bonnie Anderson

Thank You Shelley!

A special THANK YOU to RV volunteer Shelley Young. Shelley and her husband Jerry have been RV volunteers at Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge during this past year. Shelley started volunteering countless hours in the welcome booth during the pandemic. Her welcoming smile greeted visitors to the Refuge and provided the first in person contact at the Refuge in over two years. When the Visitor Center reopened in May, Shelley also volunteered for many shifts. She is friendly, knowledgeable and a real asset to the Friends and the Refuge. Jerry and Shelley will be missed, as they leave at the end of the month on a new adventure- but we hope they will be back at TRNWRC again soon!

Thank you to everyone that has reached out about donating gently used nature books to the Friends.

If you have nature related gently used books that you would like to donate to the Friends, please contact Bonnie about making arrangements.

Tigard to Host First Ever El Tigre Fest

The Friends will be hosting an information table about the Refuge and the Friends at the El Tigre Fest in Tigard on October 15. We are excited to be a part of the inaugural year for this festival celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and hope to be included for years to come. If you would like to volunteer for a shift, please contact Bonnie and we can get you signed up. If you happen to be at the festival, please stop by our table and say hello!

Habitat Restoration Update

Surveys

The biology team, with the help of a few dedicated volunteers, has spent a significant amount of time mapping invasive plant species such as purple loosestrife, reed canary grass, and cocklebur out at Wapato Lake NWR. We utilize FieldMaps and Survey123, both ArcGIS Applications. We have also been conducting our annual vegetation surveys of all Refuge managed units. This is in congruence with our annual waterfowl surveys, and helps us to quantify food availability for migrating birds visiting the Refuge. Another surveying effort which was put on pause during the pandemic has made a comeback; our partnership with Prescott Bluebird Recovery Project! This year, volunteers documented 13 bluebirds which fledged from nest boxes on Refuge property.

Work Parties

Since we are outside of the planting season, our work parties have mostly been centered around clearing up the parking lot bioswale and rock beds outside of the visitor center and administration buildings. For our September Second Saturday work party, we had a group of about 20 young adults from the LDS Church join us and get the majority of this invasive clearing completed. Hopefully you are able to stop by the Refuge soon and see the difference for yourself! This meant that when around 45 George Fox University students joined us for their serve day on September 14th, we were able to target other problem public facing areas of the Refuge in need of some TLC. We cleared blackberry, bull thistle, and queen anne’s lace from the hillside adjacent to the visitor center, along with the trail leading from the parking lot down to the bench and viewing area. A second group cleared a large patch of blackberry that had overgrown native trees along our seasonal trail, creating a barrier between the trail and our main wetland. Thanks to these students' hard work, the wetland is now much more viewable!

Planning

The Refuge has been working with our partners on a plan for the upcoming winter planting season! This includes restoration work in new areas of the Refuge, planning volunteer events, and securing funding to purchase more plants! We have already received two small grants to fund our work parties from One Tree Planted, and you can see the volunteers sporting their shirts above. We have also been awarded a grant from Sherwood Rotary, lifelong Friends members and consistent work party volunteers, to install pollinator gardens in our bioswale and rock gardens that have been recently weeded. These will include signage and act as an educational and outreach tool for visitors to model how they may recreate them in their own yards, even with a limited amount of space.

USFWS to Host Volunteer Appreciation Event

Volunteer at the Visitor Center and Friends' Nature Store

The Visitor Center will return to regular hours starting this Tuesday. We are looking to train Friends' volunteers to greet the public, answer questions about the Refuge, and sell merchandise in the store. If you enjoy the Refuge and like talking with people, this may be the perfect volunteer opportunity for you!

No specific experience is necessary; training will be provided. To work in the store, you must be a member of the Friends of the Refuge, and we ask that you commit to working at least two three-hour shifts per month. For more information or to apply to volunteer, contact Natalie Balkam, FWS Park Ranger, at tualatinriver@fws.gov or 503-625-5944.

This Week at Interior

Interior's annual Convocation Awards recognize employees who go above and beyond; September 11th remembrance activities will be held at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; the Secretary visits sacred Tribal lands in Nevada; the Board on Geographic Names votes to replace the names of nearly 650 geographic places using a derogatory word; Interior leaders travel to Stockholm for World Water Week; there's new guidance for Tribes applying for federal funding to clean up orphan oil and gas wells; Interior seeks public comment on a proposed wind energy project off Rhode Island; and we take you to the Utah desert for our social media Picture of the Week

Friends of the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge Complex

19255 SW Pacific Hwy Sherwood, Oregon 97140

503.625.5944 x 15227

www.FriendsofTualatinRefuge.org

President's Perch﻿

Thank You Shelley!

Tigard to Host First Ever El Tigre Fest

USFWS to Host Volunteer Appreciation Event

Volunteer at the Visitor Center and Friends' Nature Store

President's Perch