Refuge Open House This Saturday

by Candace Ward

We would like to invite everyone to our annual Open House on Saturday, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Our 1999 theme is "Helping Wildlife & Wildlands." Refuge and Fishery Resources Office staff will have activities and displays demonstrating how their programs help conserve the wildlife and wildlands of Kenai Peninsula. The Friends of Kenai National Wildlife Refuge will host the event and will have information on volunteer programs for wildlife and wildlands on the Refuge.

We will have:

- A free harvest soup lunch, from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

- Kid's activities, including a drama "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" (11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m). The Fire Program will present special contests with prizes and an opportunity for kids to dress up as firefighters.

- The Anchorage Bird Treatment and Learning Center will have a live golden eagle on display from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

- Free National Wildlife Refuge Week posters, bookmarks, and blue goose tattoos!

Our displays will include:

- "Friends of Kenai National Wildlife Refuge" - Find out what the Friends Group is doing to help the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Through their efforts projects are accomplished to help the Refuge that otherwise would not be possible. Find out how you can become a Refuge Friend.

- "Fish Are Wildlife, Too!" - The U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service Kenai Fishery Resources Office will explain how to age fish, use radio telemetry to follow fish in the wild, and will give demonstrations with fish puppets.

- "Loons, Lynx, and Brown Bears - Oh, My!" - Find out from Refuge biologists what's new and exciting with these Refuge animals. Discover how you can assist our Loon Watch Program.

- "Spruce Bark Beetles - Past and Future " - Spruce bark beetle outbreaks are historically part of the natural cycle of the Kenai Peninsula boreal forest ecosystem. See where the beetles have been during the last two hundred years on the Peninsula and what we can expect from them in the future.

- "Tools of the Trade" - Learn how firefighters protect the community from uncontrolled wildfires and how they manage controlled burns that benefit wildlife and provide firebreaks.

- "Ranging with a Ranger" - Discover how our rangers travel into remote areas of the Refuge to rescue visitors and to protect wildlife.

The Refuge Open House is part of National Wildlife Refuge Week for 1999. National Wildlife Refuge Week celebrations began four years ago to bring together refuges and their neighboring communities. These events let refuge staff and volunteers share their work with local residents and help the communities better understand the purposes of refuges and the benefits they receive from living next door to these very special public lands.

No other nation on earth has the National Wildlife Refuge System found in the United States. With more than 500 refuges from Alaska to the South Pacific, the National Wildlife Refuge System seeks to conserve our nation's diverse wildlife and the habitats they need survive. Please join us on this Saturday to celebrate our own very special Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

Candace Ward is a park ranger at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, who coordinates the Refuge's visitor services and environmental education programs.

Previous Refuge Notebook columns can be viewed on the Web at www.r7.fws.gov.