Student Refuge Volunteers

Youth volunteers have always been welcome at Red River National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge). Since 2010, even before the facilities were opened in 2012, students have been actively contributing to the mission of the refuge. Over the years hundreds of young people, often along with their families, have contributed many thousands of hours of volunteer efforts. Some youth volunteers are high school age class or club members or independent student workers. Others are youth from church groups, scouts completing troop or Eagle projects, or home schoolers, Many have volunteered with camps or programs, and some have been Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) members working alongside refuge staff and volunteers. All have played a highly valued role at Red River National Wildlife Refuge, contributing to the public outreach, conservation, and outdoor education at our site.

Many of these young people have their own particular conservation interests like youth conservation education, herpetology, songbird habitat restoration, invasive species control, and waterfowl management. It has been exciting to see each young person develop a personal connection to elements of the important work being done on behalf of wildlife in Louisiana and around the world. In some cases those interests have led them to be selected as YCC members at Red River. Because Red River NWR is a hub for research and conservation education in our region, YCC members have had the good fortune to learn from and work alongside many other talented scientists and educators from Louisiana as well as nationally and internationally recognized conservation leaders.

Young people have put up fences and signs and worked with staff on water control structures when called on. They have been willing to get their hands dirty with inventory and monitoring efforts like songbird and waterfowl banding, and with efforts to keep trails clear and to control Chinese tallow, giant salvinia, and feral pigs. However, the willingness of each YCC member to embrace the public outreach efforts of the refuge and the staff has enabled our Friends of Red River volunteers to work most closely with them and has helped our organization work more effectively. At our refuge summer camps and at our most well attended public outreach event, our Fall Celebration, YCC members have serve diverse roles from setting up hands on science observation activities and experiments to manning educational booths, to teaching outdoor sports at fishing, canoeing, and archery stations. Their love for their work has made them great mentors for their younger conservation minded peers. They have stepped up and help us with hands on projects at the Refuge, like planting and maintaining native tree, shrub and flowering plant species, expanding the wireless wildlife camera network, supplying food for birds and providing materials and labor for projects such as the Kids Discovery Area.

We value youth volunteers as energetic, enthusiastic, and intelligent partners in our work at the Refuge. They help us support staff and our other volunteers, both young and old, and that means that more members of our community can enjoy being involved in conservation.

Plant with a Purpose Garden Station

Caddo Canoe Discovered

Red River National Wildlife Refuge