Stanley
Grandstand archive photo
The Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center is hosting a Welcome Back to the Wild event to celebrate its reopening.
The event will take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and will be the first public event at the Visitor Center in more than two years. There was a Wetlands Day program in March which took place outside at the shelter, 12987 EUS 50, Seymour.
Donna Stanley, park ranger at the refuge, said she looked forward to seeing visitors again.
“It’s going to be a fun day, and I really love seeing all the volunteers come out,” Stanley said. “We’ve really missed seeing the people here, and we have the most wonderful visitors who come to the shelter.”
She said they have visitors to the refuge who are experts in all things wildlife and are very nature-oriented, and then there are visitors who are not experts who are just happy to talk, so she can’t wait to see everyone. .
“The last two years have been a bit different because the visitor center has been pretty much closed,” Stanley said. “Most of us weren’t working in the office full time, so we spent some time at home, and now we kind of celebrate with the welcome event on Saturday.”
The visitor center is currently open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, and in May, if the level of COVID-19 remains the same, they hope it will be open as before, Tuesday to Saturday every week. .
Stanley said many places were open long before they were, but the refuge is operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. It is the primary federal agency responsible for the conservation, protection, and restoration of fish and wildlife resources in the United States and island regions.
“Overall decision making comes from our regional office in Twin Cities, Minnesota, and they delegate some things to local managers, but generally the policy comes from the regional office, and they were very concerned about employee safety,” a- she declared. . “That’s why we’ve been closed for so long, and yet our openings and closings are dependent on COVID levels in our counties, both Jackson and Jennings, so they look at that when determining openings. Right now, things look good.
The volunteer Friends Group, Muscatatuck Wildlife Society, is the backbone of the sponsorship of the welcome event. It is a voluntary, non-profit organization established for the purpose of supporting educational programs and activities in Muscatatuck.
“They’ve missed being at the shelter so much to talk with people, and I know our regular visitors have missed seeing the volunteers to talk about what they’re seeing and what’s going on at the shelter,” Stanley said. . “The volunteers have done a lot of work and planning for the event, and we have a great group of people working for us.
The event will begin with a bird walk at 8 am, and it’s a wonderful time of year to get out and see and listen to the birds.
“Right now is migration time, and all the birds that have wintered in the south are heading north to the nesting grounds, and this is the peak of the migration, to the second week of May,” Stanley said. “There are all kinds of different birds, and some of them include the popular warblers. They are popular because of their small size and they are so colorful.”
There will be activities for children from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and there will be educational programs.
Stanley said there will be pollinator programs, there will be a pollinator-focused hive game and a bee, which might seem familiar to some locals, will stop by.
A hawk and eagle program with live birds will take place at 10 a.m., and there will be an owl program with live owls at 1 p.m.
“The live bird programs will be carried out by naturalists from the Hardy Lake/Chamberlain Wildlife Rehabilitation Center,” Stanley said. “They will bring back birds that have been permanently injured and cannot be released back into the wild.”
The rehabilitation center has state permits to use the birds as educational ambassadors.
“The goal of the rehabilitation center is to help injured birds get back to health and then release them back into the wild,” Stanley said. “Program birds are those that cannot be released because their injuries were too severe and they would never survive in the wild.”
These birds are well cared for and are wonderful for educational programs and people can see them up close, which they could never do in the wild, she said.
“At noon, we will have our Junior Duck Stamp Contest recognition ceremony for all the students who entered the Junior Duck Contest and won prizes, and we will have cake and lemonade for them,” Stanley said. “We will also have a great treetop walk at noon, led by one of our very knowledgeable volunteers who will take people to see gigantic old trees and lots of other fun things going on.”
There will be a cake walk at 12:30 p.m. and a silent auction will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with funds going to the Muscatatuck Wildlife Society.
“They are the main sponsor of this event, and all the money they make from things like memberships and projects goes to the shelter to provide things that the shelter cannot afford to provide,” said Stanley. “So they are doing wonderful things for us, and they helped us build observation decks and build on the visitor center many years ago and bought seeds for pollinator plantings.”
She said the group of volunteers started the nature discovery area, the children’s play area at the visitor center, and they’ve done a lot of things about the shelter that are people-oriented.
“They’ve made a lot of improvements for people and done a lot to help the wildlife at the refuge,” Stanley said.
On Saturday, visitors without an appointment will be allowed in the closed area of the refuge. Food will be available and a plant sale will take place.
Information: 812-522-4352 or muscatatuck.org.
