Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge has opened an auto tour of the refuge
for next Saturday (9am-4pm), when waterfowl especially should be
spectacular. Announced tours for coming months are scheduled for 21
April, 12&13 May, 16 June, 21 July, 18 August, and 15 September. The
grand opening of the new green Visitor Center, now so visible from Rte
2, will take place 12 May.
        You can get this sort of news on the web site of the Ottawa NWR
Association, a ten-year-old volunteer organization of friends of the
refuge, at http://www.onwra.com/ .  From the Association you will learn
that chronic underfunding of refuges continues, and that ONWR will have
to reduce its staff from ten to nine positions. That's right, just nine.
Apparently a now-vacant position will be dropped, but this loss will
affect efforts to control invasive plants (a great problem these days),
and maintenance of roads and dikes (which may mean that auto tours may
have to be scaled back). If you care about this, you might want to
question your Federal representatives, and campaign/vote for or against
them accordingly.
Bill Whan
Columbus
ONWRA member from day one


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