Betty 
“This used to be a well-kept secret out here,” a visitor to the brand new visitor center at Desert National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), 25 miles northwest of Las Vegas, NV, complained to me. “Now that you’ve built this visitor center, there’ll be lots of people coming out!” “We can’t be everything to everybody.” says Refuge …
“Wildlife First” is the basic premise behind national wildlife refuges. So why is it important to reach out to school children, visitors, hunters, birders, and others who might decide to come to a refuge either out of curiosity or for recreation? What purpose does interpretation serve on lands set aside to protect and perpetuate animals …
The buzzing sound made us rein in our horses. The old cowboy who was our guide jumped from his mount, grabbed a stick, and began beating the rattlesnake that was warning us of its presence. The year was 1966. I had come to this ranch north of Phoenix to spend a few days playing cowboy. …
“It’s only a bee,” a father said to his child while dining on pizza on the porch of a tourist facility. “It’s not a snake!” Perhaps this father was sending the wrong message to his child. If left alone, a snake will not likely harm a person. We’re too big to eat, after all, so …
“Are cows allowed on the Refuge?” I asked our volunteer coordinator at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. “Cows? No!” Former Ranch Buenos Aires NWR was created in the late 1980s from a 110,000 acre ranch 60 miles south of Tucson, Arizona. Lush grasslands kept free of trees by natural wildfires had enticed cattlemen to settle …
“Do you want to see the moose head?” A fellow volunteer escorted Chuck and I out behind the workshop of the National Elk Refuge to see the head of a large bull moose, complete with enormous rack, that had been removed from a carcass earlier that day. The moose had been gored by a fellow …
“I wouldn’t want to take part in the death of such magnificent creatures!” we recently overheard someone say in regard to killing bison for meat. But what constitutes a “magnificent creature”? Bison? Bear? Bluebirds? Butterflies? [twocol_one][/twocol_one] [twocol_one_last][/twocol_one_last] Perception “It’s all just perception,” noted a biologist friend of ours. “It’s what’s been glamorized and victimized. We …