Friends of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge Summer Newsletter

From the President Penni Phillips:

Hello Friends!

I hope you are having a good summer. We have some fun events coming in the next few months.

July:

Sunday, July 28 – 2PM Meet & Greet at the Bay Area Brewery, 525 W. Market, Rockport. Come and enjoy a beer named for our favorite bird, meet other members of our Friends group, and raise money for the Refuge and for Wings Rescue Center. RSVP to president@friendsofaransas.org.

August:

Saturday, August 3 – 10AM to 12PM Nature Photography at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, the last of this summer’s Art at Aransas Summer Nature Programs (programs geared towards families and beginners). Call 361-349-1181 to make reservations.

September:

            HummerBird Celebration, Sept 19 – 22, Rockport, TX. Friends of Aransas NWR will have a booth in the vendor show, so come and visit with us. Volunteers are very welcome to join us, this is a fun opportunity to talk about the Refuge and what the Friends group does, and raise funds from the sale of nature store merchandise. Find more information about HummerBird here.

October:

October 19 – Walk for the Wild – a nationwide activity during Refuge Week to raise money to support Refuge Friends groups missions & programs for wildlife conservation. On October 19 there will be a 5K Fun Run at the refuge. More information to follow.

Pollinator garden

A pollinator garden advisory team consisting of Linda Frank, Liz Smith, Donna Bailey, Bill Burge, and Bobby Garner are working to convert the garden into a “demonstration” garden.  This summer, the Refuge hired three local members of the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), who are cleaning the weeds out of the garden.  

The YCC hard at work in the Pollinator garden

Be looking for an invite to join us on a Friday morning (early August) and bring your wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, and hoes to help us spread a 4” layer of mulch over all the area that the YCC cleared.  The mulch will help suppress weeds (aka sandburs!!) and retain moisture.

Another problem we are working on is the erosion and sinkholes washed out at one end of the garden due to rainwater runoff from the parking lot.  We have a plan to resolve this problem and will get it done soon.

If you love gardening, please consider joining us in our effort to make the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge pollinator garden a beneficial place for pollinators and a welcoming and educational place for visitors.  There is a lot of work to be done! Contact Bobby Garner if you would like to join us.

Refuge Report from Laura Bonneau, Visitor Services Manager:

Refuge management and invasive species control projects include:



• Getting approval for use of the herbicide tebuthiuron to control running live oak on the Blackjack unit.
• Mulching, shredding or aerial treatment of invasive plant (phragmites, salt cedar and chinese tallow).
• Fire lines are being prepped for several growing season burns in the coming weeks.
• Trapping feral hogs in the fall when interns arrive.



Other projects:

Banding Mottled Ducks starting in August, to contribute to larger efforts focused on learning more about this species of conservation concern, which is resident on the Refuge.

Art at Aransas: this summer program included a nature journal and sketching session, led by Laura Bonneau, and acrylic painting (check out the Refuge Facebook for their painting results) and collage programs, led by Viv Atkinson.

This summer, the refuge is hosting a Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) crew of 3 hard-working high school students from Tivoli.

In June, Viv and the YCC crew went to the Refugio local library and put on a bug exploration program. They were able to find lots of great critters outside the library! Viv also did another program (accompanied by the YCC crew) at the library that involved cloud identification and making weather cloud ID frame kits.

Beginning in mid-July, Joe Saenz and Laura Bonneau are doing remote job details for the USFWS Southwest Regional Office. Joe is the Acting Refuge Supervisor for Arizona-New Mexico refuges and Laura is the Acting Regional Friends, Volunteer, and Community Engagement Coordinator.

This year's Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp – aka Federal Duck Stamp

The Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act, more commonly known as the Duck Stamp Act, was signed by President Franklin D Roosevelt in 1934. Under this act, all waterfowl hunters aged 16 or older, must buy and carry a current stamp. Ninety-eight cents of every dollar from duck stamps (currently sold for $25) goes into the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund to purchase or lease wetlands and wildlife habitat for inclusion in the National Wildlife Refuge System. The program has been called one of the most successful conservation programs ever established. Since 1934, over 1 billion dollars has gone into the fund to protect more than 6 million acres of habitat. And some of those dollars were used to purchase the land now protected by the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Learn more about the duck stamp program here.

Stamps can be purchased online, at USPS offices and from the registration desk at National Wildlife Refuges. Purchase of a stamp gives free entrance to refuges that charge a fee.