SWANTON — Learning and entertainment come hand-in-hand for the second annual Missisquoi Wildlife Fair.
Next Saturday, Sept. 20, at 29 Tabor Rd., the wildlife fair is building off the foundational roots of the first-ever event last year. Julie Filiberti, member of Friends of the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, said the group is offering more interactive and exciting opportunities this time around.
“The last year was the first wildlife fair. I kind of put it together by myself and it was a success,” she said. “We had a lot of people there and a lot of the other board members said ‘Julie can’t do this by herself, we can make this bigger and better if we start a year in advance.’”
The wildlife fair will start at 8 a.m. with bird and nature walks, but really ramps into high gear from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. when a majority of the activities take place.
Like last year, there will be educational presentations, but Filiberti said they’ve added a more interactive element to the activities.
For example, the wildlife fair will feature bird house painting, scavenger hunts, owl pellet dissection and a live raptor show.
The refuge will also put on its own “touch a truck” like event by pulling out the equipment it uses to maintain the 6,729 acres it owns. Kids participating in the day will receive a passport of stamps to collect an event badge, and there’s a raffle to win a guided boat trip in the refuge and Lake Champlain.
“You’re bound to learn something whether you’re an adult or a kid,” Filiberti said.
Also new the fair is a lunch period at noon when a food truck will be parked in the visitor center lot with live music for attendees to enjoy.
Using feedback from last year, Filiberti said the Friends are hoping to double the size of the audience by marketing the event to Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties to bring in a new selection of people who may have never been to the refuge before.
For the Friends group, welcoming in as many people is the goal.
The best part of the event, Filiberti said, is getting to talk to people, new visitors who are discovering the refuge for the first time, and let them know how special the place is to her..
“I think everybody will be able to walk away knowing something new and having fun at the same time,” she said.
Inside of the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge visitor center last October. The refuge relies on volunteers to be the front facing staff at the visitor center because the system runs on a small underfunded budget.
Extra motivation
While the main focus of the Friends is always to bring awareness to the refuge, this year, Filiberti said that focus is on high alert.
“There’s a lot of people in northern Vermont who haven’t been [to the refuge] before, there’s a lot of people that don’t realize what we have in federal public lands right here in Swanton, Vermont,” she said. “Because the refuge is under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife… there have been cuts that have been made.”
The Missisquoi refuge is staring down further cuts from the federal government this year. If the house gets its way, the wildlife refuge system could be looking at a budget set at levels from 10 years ago.
Already the refuge has had to cut down its staff numbers to three; manager, biologist and maintenance mechanic, increasing its reliance on volunteers like the Friends.
“We have lost staff, we’ve lost funding and so the friends group is actively trying to just increase awareness and appreciation for it to garner support from people and have them advocate for their public lands,” Filiberti said.
At the fair, Friends of the Missisquoi will be soliciting donations not only to recoup the money spent putting on the fair, but using any profits to directly benefit the refuge.
The schedule of events at the Wildlife Fair.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.samessenger.com ’
