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McNary 2nd Saturday
Free Event - 9am - Noon
Monthly
Click here for details
or call Greg 943-3951
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ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION CENTER at McNARY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
Thousands of students experience nature though hands-on
learning activities every year at McNary Wildlife Refuge. These
opportunities were not available to local schools until dedicated
volunteers got together with Refuge management to make it happen.
When the filling of McNary Dam in the 1950s flooded wetlands along the
Columbia River, the Corps of Engineers designated land to create McNary
National Wildlife Refuge to maintain the flyway accommodating waterfowl
migrating across the Columbia Basin. Club members walked the trails of
the new Wildlife Refuge in 1956. Among them were birders,
environmentalists, and naturalists. All had one thing in common. They
were educators and they could see the opportunities to develop an
education center. Members of Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society
(LCBAS - affectionately known locally as Elsie Bass) worked with Fish
& Wildlife staff to develop the education center. Under the
guidelines of the Audubon Refuge Keeper Program (ARK), it became the
McNary Environmental Education Center.
The volunteers at the Education Center encourage teachers to bring
their classes to the Refuge for hikes (called Nature Safaris),
participate in wildlife and Native American studies, and to examine the
combined taxidermy wildlife collections of Audubon and those of McNary
Fish & Wildlife Service. Initially these were housed in a Refuge
storage building. In 1997, an eight-room, two-story building was turned
over to volunteers, who dedicated themselves to bringing nature-related
science to the public. This effort continues to grow.
Of the volunteers working at the Education Center, a nonprofit
organization called Friends of the Mid-Columbia Wildlife Refuges was
formed to facilitate interaction between the Wildlife Refuges and the
community.
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Two male mallards
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Paula Clark, volunteer, shows a
class the tule mat-making techniques.
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Children learn about raptors.
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