There are many ways to become involved in FRIENDS. Volunteers assist the refuges in areas of management, including administrative, maintenance, biological, environmental education, visitor services, and outreach.The organization also has a variety of volunteer opportunities for members who want to become more involved.

Opportunities

Administrative - assisting the office with filing, data entry, and mass mailings.

Maintenance - trail, dock, boardwalk, and kiosk construction, trail maintenance (cutting the grass, weed-eating, etc.), litter pick-up, wildlife nest box construction, and other woodworking projects.

Biological - wildlife surveys, including shore birds, wading birds, songbirds (both neotropical migratory and breeding), gopher tortoise, and others.

Friends Group - grant writing, grant administration, mass mailings, purchasing, newsletter articles, membership and many other ways to get invloved.

Environmental Education - programs presented to schools and community organizations, such as Boy and Girl Scouts of America, about sea turtles, alligators, migratory birds, and ecology, among other topics. Programs are held in both the classroom and on-site

Visitor Services - providing on-site tours of refuge resources, including bird, wildflower, and butterfly walks during the Fall and Spring, canoe and bicycle tours on refuge trails, hosting special events during National Wildlife Refuge Week, and assisting with refuge clean-up days.

Outreach - working information booths and festivals such as Naturefest, Cedar Key Spring Arts Festival, Seafood Festival, Seahorse Key Open House events in July and October, and other special programs. Both FRIEINDS and the refuges have educational and informational displays.

CULLEN'S TROOP AT WORK - Scouts as Stewards of Local National Wildlife Refuge
by Ranger Pam Darty
The Lower Suwannee NWR had some visitors from Gainesville last Saturday – very helpful visitors, not to mention ambitious. Cullen Roberts, a 13 year-old member of Gainesville’s Troop 432, decided he wanted to make an everlasting difference; he and his troop would strive for the William T. Hornaday Award for distinguished service to conservation. His mother being the president of the Friends of the Refuge at the Lower Suwannee NWR approached refuge manager, Ken Litzenberger, for the perfect project.

The forty-one scouts were accompanied by a support group of twenty parents and leaders. Under the direction of Refuge Forester Daniel Barrand, the group planted 6,000 native pines over twelve acres for a refuge restoration project. “The long leaf pines will restore commercial pine plantations planted by the previous owners into a more suitable habitat for the indigenous wildlife,” reported Barrand.

Having brought bag lunches, the youths worked throughout the day when other kids were playing video games and walking the mall. “Conservation and the Boy Scouts of America have been partners for a long time. We’re proud of Cullen’s part in scouting heritage,” said Scout Master Bradley Pollitt.

Youth volunteerism is extremely admirable, but unfortunately rare. “Understanding and practicing sound stewardship of natural resources like the planting of these magnificent native pines can only strengthen scouting's emphasis on respecting the outdoors,” added Litzenberger.