To its credit, the NWRS is soliciting inputs from the public on the
future direction of their activities. One opportunity is this website
http://americaswildlife.org/  where you can see where things stand now,
read suggestions from others, and engage in comment and argument if you
like. You can hear from chronic contributors like the hunting lobby or
the 'let's just all buy a duck stamp' birders, examine new ideas such as
allowing photographers to visit off-limits NWR areas for a fee, debate
how climate change should affect management decisions, watch the
resource extraction people advocate for their aims, etc. Overall it is a
neat forum. You can weigh in on anything, or just observe a wide-open
discussion. You can see the mostly excellent new ideas and directions
the System has in mind, the threats from selfish interests, the burdens
of history and the challenges of the future, the new influence of
wildlife observers, the practical problems behind everything. You can
just watch, or you can speak up; they do seem to be interested in
hearing from us. Think at least about Ottawa. Check it out if you can.
Bill Whan
Columbus

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