Construction Work at Blackwater Refuge
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Refuge Going Geothermal
If you visit Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge this fall, you'll likely notice construction work going on around the Visitor Center. Thanks to recent stimulus funding, the Refuge will be converting to a geothermal heating and cooling system. Geothermal energy is a type of renewable energy that conserves natural resources and saves money on heating/cooling costs. We expect the geothermal work to go on for several months, so please excuse the construction fences that might be near the Visitor Center during your time at the Refuge. |
Hunt Season is Coming
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Hunt T-Shirts Now Available
 Hunting is a popular activity at Blackwater Refuge during the fall and winter, and it is an effective way to keep our local animal populations at a level that is healthy for the Refuge. The new 2010 Hunt T-Shirts are now available at the Blackwater Refuge Visitor Center Gift Shop, and hunters can also purchase Sika caps and can holders, as well. If you're not a hunter but you'd like to know when hunting will occur at the Refuge, visit our Hunting page for the deer scouting/hunting dates. And please remember that during fall and winter, waterfowl hunters are active on private property near our Green paddling trail. |
Annual Meeting of the Friends of Blackwater
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Join Us on Sept. 27 at 7pm
The Friends of Blackwater will have their 21st Annual Meeting on September 27 at 7:00 pm at the Blackwater Refuge Visitor Center conference room.
During this year's meeting, Refuge Manager Suzanne Baird, who is on the planning committee set up by the Chesapeake
Bay Executive Order, will give a talk on the "Strategic Plan for Protecting and Preserving the Chesapeake
Bay." You can also meet our new Visitor Services Manager, and members can vote on new board members for the next term.
Everyone is invited to the annual meeting -- not just members -- so we hope you'll join us.
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Gulf Oil Spill Donations Being Accepted
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Help a Friends Group in the Gulf
 As many know, national wildlife refuges in the Gulf of Mexico are struggling to deal with the fallout of the BP oil spill. The non-profit National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA) has set up an emergency fund to provide aid to Friends groups that are supporting refuges impacted by the spill. The Friends of Blackwater are supporting this effort. At the Blackwater Refuge Visitor Center, we have a donation box where you can contribute to this fund. Although we expect BP to pay for their share of the cleanup, the NWRA fund is meant to provide much faster funding for Friends groups that are trying to help as quickly as they can in the short term. ( Read about the first grant issued by the NWRA.) In addition to our donation box, the Friends are also giving our donations from now through October to the NWRA oil spill fund. Please note that if you donate during this time and specify that you want the money to go to a particular Friends' project (such as the raptor cams), we will of course honor that request. But all general donations will go to the NWRA oil spill fund. You can make your own contribution to this cause on our donation page. Thank you for your generous help! |
