Friends Groups from Across the Big Bend Meet to Set Strategies

On Tuesday April 11, after months of trying to make it happen, several members from each of the Friends groups associated with the Refuges in the North Florida Refuge Complex met at St. Mark's.  Those attending were:

• Friends of St. Marks Wildlife Refuge: Mary Smallwood, President
  
• Friends of St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge: Lisa Johnston, President, Nancy Stuart, President Emeritus, Susan Cerulean, Vice President and President-elect
• Friends of the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges: Russ Hall, President, Bill Dummitt, President-elect, Peg Hall, Communications Committee Chair

Sue led the meeting. The goal was to align and strengthen the advocacy efforts of our Friends groups on behalf of our Refuge Complex and our individual Refuges.
 
We each described our Refuges and what makes each of us get involved with our Friends organizations.
 
The introductions revealed commonalities and differences among the four Refuges. They also highlighted differences among the Friends groups, how they see their roles, and how they operate in supporting their Refuges.

St Marks:
The Friends is a 30-year old, large, well established, and sprawling organization, with many volunteers, about 500 Friends members, generous donors, and standing committees in such areas as development and advocacy. The Refuge serves a large visitor base and sees that as one of the Refuge’s significant contributions to the region. At least some of St. Marks volunteers are managed by Refuge staff.

St Vincent:
Because of its isolation, St. Vincent has few visitors, and the Friends group has a comparatively small member base of about 100, but is actively involved in political activism. Friends of St. Vincent recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding. Both St. Marks and St. Vincent Friends groups have strong ties with Florida State University.

Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys:
Our Friends organization is 16 years old, with about 250 members. We want to increase support of our Refuges through volunteers and the kind of advocacy in which St. Vincent Friends is doing.

We discussed possible advocacy initiatives, especially trying to think of ways to prevent our Refuges from bearing the brunt of budget cuts.

• Reaching out to our members through social media
• Reaching out to local and state officials
• Directing advocacy to Senators and Representatives or the Secretary of the Interior
• Advocating for the Refuges through op./ed. writing for local papers
• Requesting members to make calls or visits to elected officials
• Joining groups preparing petitions
• Participating in fly-ins to congressional offices in Washington, D.C.  
• In response to a suggestion from the National Wildlife Refuge Association’s (NWRA) weekly Action Alert, possibly asking city and county commissioners to pass a resolution requesting that the Congress provide full funding for the refuges and other public lands to meet their statutory obligation to provide the local entities with payment in lieu of taxes. This effort was discussed as a possible way to document and build support for refuges in local political and community circles.
  

The final hour of the meeting was devoted to a conference call with Desiree Sorenson-Groves, Vice President for Government Affairs at NWRA.

• Andrew

Desiree asked if Andrew was with us, reminding us refuge manager is well recognized in refuge advocacy and representation circles.

• Chaos in D.C.

Desiree believes that the healthcare debate and the fact that the Republicans were unable to overturn Obamacare has fractured the Republican Party, shifting some power to the Democrats. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan must either work with the right-wing Freedom Caucus, thereby angering more moderate Republicans, or with the Democrats, thereby angering the Freedom Caucus.

• Neal Dunn

Desiree believes we are lucky in having Neal Dunn as our representative. He is a first-term Congressman in a swing, purple district. He is not in a safe seat. He needs us to give him documentation, narrative, and strategic positioning on issues that will resonate with voting constituencies on both sides. Few districts have a representative as poised to listen. She recommended that we meet with him while Congress is in recess and build a strong relationship with his local office staff.

• Refuge Visits

St. Vincent Friends already have brought Dunn’s local office staffers to their Refuge and opened the doors to building a relationship with them.  Sue, Nancy, and Lisa offered to help the rest of us meet with Dunn’s staff members. 

Friends of Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys also has a contact with Dunn’s office. It came about through a Dixie county commissioner who attended a recent presentation about a critical road on the Refuge. The presentation was arranged by Board Member Debbie Meeks and given by Jason Coates of the Lower Suwannee Refuge staff.

• Lobbying in D.C.

Desiree advised that working with the local office staffers and meeting with Dunn in the district, rather than in D.C., would likely be as effective, or even more effective than coming to D.C.

• Social Media

Desiree recommended having a Twitter account and using it to thank or express disapproval with our Senators and Representatives. Enthusiasm was not high for the idea.

• Secretary Zinke

Desiree met briefly with the Secretary Zinke, at a welcoming reception. He told her that he has no interest in turning public lands over to private interests or to the states. However, he will strongly consider turning management of them over to states.

• Presidential Budget Proposal

President Trump’s “Skinny Budget” (an outline without details) will be out in mid-May. She expects a 12% cut to Refuges for the rest of FY17, all of which will need to be taken between whenever it is put in place and the end of September. She expects the cut for FY18 to be larger. The prospects for the Refuge System in the President’s proposed FY18 budget will be dire.

The call ended with appreciation on both sides for the time to together.
 
The meeting ended quickly thereafter with participants expressing satisfaction at the outcome and hopes to have another get together in the relatively near future. All were grateful to Mary for hosting us.