Friends of Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge

Public use projects: fonwr creates a visible impact on Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge by creating, improving, and maintaining public use areas for the Refuge's 370,000+ annual visitors. Funds this year supported facilities maintenance including visitor center cleaning contract and building repairs, pollinator garden pond replacement, trails and grounds maintenance for the tree trail and fox nature preserve, a concrete walkway and gravel at the nehls memorial nature preserve, gravel for roadwork at the marinewood unit to improve visitor access. The mobile field station was painted with scenes from the Refuge. Fonwr donated the electric shuttle to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and led over 150 tours additionally fonwr installed a livestream camera at cedar point National Wildlife Refuge to virtually connect audiences to this remote Refuge.

Habitat restoration and management: restoration and maintenance work is completed by fonwr as resources allow to sustain the globally important stopover habitats at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. Together with the partners for fish and Wildlife program, fonwr created a cooperative agreement to restore wetland habitat on private lands. In 2023, funds were used to restore 215 acres of emergent wetland and 74 acres of upland pollinator habitat on private lands, and treated 450 acres of coastal wetland habitat for invasive species with an aerial herbicide application. Fonwr also sold 27.5 acres of land to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge to be conserved, forever. Fonwr purchased and planted over 250 native pollinator plants on the visitor center grounds. Additionally, fonwr funded bird friendly facility marketing materials and provided support for the glass city bird crew collision monitoring project in downtown toledo.

Youth programs: it is a priority of fonwr to connect youth with environmental education and career development opportunities on the Refuge. -- internships: fonwr offers internships for college students or recent graduates pursuing degrees in conservation fields. Interns assist with visitor services, biology, law enforcement, and maintenance programs. This year fonwr provided 6 internships for a total of 2,920 hours of work and funded training opportunities for interns. --career pathways: together with the united states fish and Wildlife service, fonwr continued a cooperative agreement for the career pathways program to allow interns opportunity for advancement and selected two technician positions. These technicians contributed 4,160 hours of work for community engagement, intern recruitment, and invasive species projects. -environmental education: this year, fonwr sponsored the earth heart farms fall field days event py providing volunteer guides and a tent for participant activities.

Fonwr supports the mission of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge by helping to protect 11,026 acres for Wildlife and fostering its use by 370,000 visitors annually. Through marketing and outreach, fonwr shares information online about the Refuge and Friends group through email updates, social media, and the www.friendsofottawanwr.org website which also features the rookery nature store online. Printed quarterly newsletters and annual reports share news about Refuge projects, accomplishments, and program updates to keep visitors connected. Outreach events such as the lorax day, chili cook-off, migration-a-thon, howl-o- ween, and the holiday open house bring new user groups to the Refuge grounds to diversify visitation and deepen community involvement.