Friends of Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge

The Friends of Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge is continuing to raise money. Due to Fish & Wildlife budget constraints, the Friends group has already funded the term refuge ranger position for the remainder of the year. You may not know it, but at the end of this year, our refuge ranger will be retiring. Her position will remain vacant for an undetermined amount of time. This is due to the fact that the refuge system nationally has had flat or declining budgets for the last 15 years. In the past 20 years, the staff at Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge has been reduced by 37%. This is mainly from people leaving a position and that position is not filled with someone new.

Typically, the visitor center sees about 9,000 visitors per year, which includes approximately 3,000 students on field trips from a 10-county radius. To be clear, the REFUGE and Visitor Center are NOT shutting down. Yet without a refuge ranger, there may be times when the Visitor Center will need to be closed due to no staffing. Without a refuge ranger, there will be little to no environmental education programs. The Friends group is committed to supporting the term ranger position to keep the visitor center staffed and to provide limited environmental education programs.

Any monies raised will be put towards the term refuge ranger position for fiscal years 2025 and 2026.

We hope that you will consider helping us keep this position funded.