Refuge Manager’s Update August 2025

Volunteers make the world go around!

As many of you know the refuge has asked for volunteer support every year to help us complete a variety of tasks and free up time for our small staff to do other priority work on the refuge. This past spring we saw a jump in our volunteer work force inspired in part by Al Crist, a Friends member, newsletter editor, and now “volunteer-Volunteer Coordinator”! Through Al’s help we signed up many new and some returning volunteers to help support the refuge.

For many years we have asked for volunteer help to keep the Visitors Center open. Volunteers staff the front desk Monday-Friday from 9 am to 2 pm from mid-May through the middle of October. This is a huge help to the refuge staff and to the visitors themselves as we would have to lock up the Visitors Center when our staff are all in the field. I know this is a huge disappointment to folks traveling from other states specifically to come to Missisquoi NWR only to find the doors locked. Thanks to our front desk volunteers, this almost never happens these days!

We also have a great group of volunteers helping with routine maintenance operations. From mowing trails and parking lot areas, to staining kiosks, and even picking up trash, you can almost always find one of our volunteers helping out during the week. Having this support allows for our Maintenance Mechanic keep up with habitat management, repairs on equipment and facilities and, at times, support our biological program.

Speaking of the biological program, we have some “seasoned” (you know who you are!) volunteers, as well as a few new folks, who are trained to monitor the refuge wetlands and floodplain forests for invasive plants. Much of this work supports a grant the Friends receive from the Lake Champlain Basin Program to help control invasive plants like Water Chestnut, Phragmites and Japanese Knotweed. Without this volunteer support we would not be able to meet our “match” portion of this important annual grant.

This year volunteers will have provided over 870 hours for public use activities, 340 hours for maintenance operations, and over 85 hours for biological projects. This is simply amazing! I hope that when you find time to visit the refuge’s trails or Visitors Center you know that without our amazing volunteers, the parking areas would not look as good, trails would need brushing, and the Visitors Center may not even be open. The refuge staff are incredibly grateful for our volunteer support this year!

by Ken Sturm, Refuge Manager, Missisquoi NWR