The staff at Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge are excited to get back to work after the government shutdown! We have lots of projects to complete and new ones to begin. I am writing to ask for volunteers to help with a couple of things:
1. We are in need of volunteers to staff the front desk of the visitor center on Thursday and Friday mornings (8:00 am – Noon) in February. The visitor center is located 5 miles west of Lago Vista on FM 1431. If you like interacting with people, both young and old, this is the volunteer position for you! Volunteer duties include: greet visitors; provide area and refuge recreation opportunity information; answer visitor questions, distribute brochures; restock brochures; and answer phone calls. Please reply to this email or call Jennifer Brown at 512-339-9432 ext. 70 for more information or to sign up.
2. Please see this message below from a Boy Scout for an upcoming volunteer opportunity on the refuge and email Ari Allen directly to sign up at arircallen@gmail.com.
My name is Ari Allen of Boy Scout Troop 198 in Lago Vista. I am currently working on the rank of Eagle and have devised a project that I am seeking volunteers for. This project will involve picking up misc. trash like glass, metal, and plastic to then load into trash bags. In addition to this, all of the trash that is either too large to carry or there is too much concentrated in one spot to clean within a reasonable amount of time we will be marking on a GPS so that Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge (BCNWR) will know the locations of these trash spots.
The purpose for this project is to begin a much larger project that the refuge had been looking to accomplish for some time. On the refuge property there is what once was an old rock quarry. After this quarry was decommissioned it served as an illegal dumpsite. Over the years much trash has accumulated in this area, keeping the refuge from opening up a hiking trail through it. This project will take the burden from BCNWR of trying to clean smaller pieces of trash that would be difficult to gather in a large scale cleanup as well as helping them locate every trash pile so that nothing is missed when the refuge executes a larger scale cleanup.
Date: March 02, 2019 Time: Start: 8:30 am End: 4:30 pm (end time may be sooner depending on work completion)
Location: Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church (21900 Ranch Rd 1431, Leander, TX 78641) Park in the parking lot. From there is a very short trail leading to the meeting spot.
What to bring:
Please wear protective clothing such as pants, long sleeves, and sturdy close-toed shoes. I ask also that volunteers bring gloves seeing as how we will be handling potentially sharp objects. Bring water in a water bottle. I will be providing donuts/kolaches in the morning. All I ask is that volunteers bring a sack lunch.
To sign up for this volunteer opportunity: email Ari Allen at arircallen@gmail.com
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Thank you all so much for helping Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge conserve our natural resources for wildlife and offer recreational opportunities for our community!
Gratefully,
Jennifer
Jennifer Brown
Visitor Services Manager
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge
24518 FM 1431
Marble Falls, TX 78654
Office: 512-339-9432 ext. 70
Cell: 830-220-9254
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