Good morning everyone. I'm Michael Johnson the refuge manager of the
Clarks River and newly established Green River National Wildlife Refuge in Kentucky.
We're here today to formalize the
partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and the Friends of the Green River National Wildlife Refuge.
Joining me for today's ceremony is David Viker,
U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, Refuge Chief of the national wildlife refuge
system for the South Atlantic Gulf and
Mississippi Basin regions. Leo Miranda, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service Regional Director for the South Atlantic Gulf and
Mississippi Basin regions. Mike Morton, Secretary, Friends of the
Green River National Wildlife Refuge. Chase Fulcher, President of the Friends
of the Green River National Wildlife Refuge.
I'd like to express my gratitude to all those who are participating in today's
ceremony. For the integral role they've each
played in making this project a success. I'd like to begin today's ceremony by
asking Refuge Chief, David Viker to say a few
words about the importance of this partnership. David.
Thank you, Michael, and thanks to Green River Refuge and the community that
helped establish it. There are now 568 national wildlife
refuges across America, which now total 95 million land acres
and more than 750 million acres of water, larger than the National Park Service in
terms of number of units and acres, yet without the visibility and staff
support. We also have 50 million visitors per year.
So it's a tall order but that's where friends and volunteers come in.
Friends groups provide invaluable support across our national wildlife
refuges and national fish hatcheries. After today, there will be 186 friends
groups around the country, with membership at 40 000 people and
growing. These are people who've connected us
much better to local communities, raised an estimated 15 million for
conservation, and donated tens of thousands of
volunteer hours. Those volunteer hours include showing
young children a rare bird or butterfly, banding ducks
and geese, maintaining exhibits, mowing the lawn, and
then talking to neighbors local mayors and U.S. senators about how
much they care about conservation and their wildlife refuges,
and everything in between. So new friends group have fun with this.
We're going to be working together now in the forever business.
There's not any more land being made, and human population is soaring, and human
development marches on. That makes taking care of what we have
and protecting very special places like Green River
more important than ever. Your work matters, and we appreciate you.
Thank you so Michael. David, thank you so much as well, as well as Mike and
Chase, for your support. I really appreciate it,
and I am honored to be here today signing this friends
agreement with our great friends, in support of Green River National
Wildlife Refuge. As you all know, this refuge has been a
couple of decades in the making. A lot of you have been engaged from the
beginning. So again, I really appreciate that, and I
say thank you. Just a few months after the
establishment of the refuge, we are establishing a new partnership
and officially getting a friends group for the Green
River National Wildlife Refuge. That's a great testament to the support
of the community, and the importance of this national
wildlife refuge to all citizens around the Green River
area. In terms of the importance of this refuge, it's not only protecting
bottomland hardwood forest for at-risk species,
listed species, as well as hundreds of migratory birds, but it's also going to
provide important wildlife and outdoor
recreational activities, like hunting and fishing.
Those are top priorities for our agency. And the establishment of this refuge, and
now the establishment of the formal partnership with the friends
group will help us fulfill the goals of protecting
all the lands within the acquisition boundaries. Again, I would
like to say thank you again to everybody involved,
and kudos to the communities that supported the
Green River National Wildlife Refuge. I'm very proud
to be part of the Friends of Green River National Wildlife Refuge and to formally
sign the documents to have a partnership with the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.
This has been a project that I've been involved with for over 20 years
and something I see is being a tremendous asset to the community in the
region, and to wildlife populations in the area.
It's a pleasure to be here. I think Chase has a few remarks also.
Well first, Michael, I want to thank you for your contributions. I thank you for
all your hard work. It's one of the best things to happen to
our community, in my opinion. And the biggest asset of this project is
mitigation, because all the land being utilized for 69, some
of that lands in marsh areas or wildlife areas and they
will have to go buy land elsewhere to mitigate the land
they're using and taking, which our refuge will be set up for them
to be able to do that. So we're going to benefit in so many
ways, so I'm blessed to be the President of the Friends of Green River National
Wildlife Refuge. I'm happy. I wish you all a blessed day,
and thanks everyone for all their hard work before all of us.
It's been 34 years of work on this to get this done
nine different times and tenth time we finally made it.
Thank you, Michael. God bless everyone. Thank you Chase and Mike.
We appreciate everything you've done for conservation,
past, present, and what you will do in the future.
We definitely appreciate you guys getting behind the Green River National
Wildlife Refuge project and taking it upon yourselves to be a
part of this friends group that will support this project moving forward. So,
definitely want to thank you on my behalf and the behalf of the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service. Now I'd like to ask Regional Director,
Leo Miranda to join Chase, myself, and Mike
for signing of the partnership agreement.
Once you have your document signed, would you hold it up for everyone to be able
to witness please? All right, looks like we got it. This is
another step forward in the progression of this noteworthy project, and
we definitely need to celebrate this historic moment. So,
everyone good job, appreciate you, thank you very much.