INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Wildlife refuges by design blend into the scenery, so they don’t get the attention they deserve – both at federal budget time and when volunteers decide where to serve. Local residents often forget that islands just off Sebastian in the Indian River Lagoon and lands extending east to Vero Beach’s north barrier island are home to the first national wildlife refuge, Pelican Island.
Wildlife Way leading out to the refuge isn’t paved and there’s no colorful welcome center. There are no Disney-style tours to show off the more than 30 species of birds that stop off at Pelican Island during fall and spring migration.
National Wildlife Refuge Week, being marked this week, doesn’t warrant a parade, a big bash or even a festival, but it’s a chance for refuges to get a bit of press and to reach out to the public by telling what they are and what they do.
Public opportunities at the refuge are more for education than for entertainment and – with 70 percent of the pristine refuge lands accessible only by boat – it can take some imagination to grasp the impact the refuge makes.
The “wow factor” might elude the typical visitors unless they are the sort of people who simply appreciate the fact that Americans have set aside large swaths of land to protect wildlife, not in a zoo or park, but in its natural habitat.
Pelican Island was founded because the birds were being hunted down not for food, but for fashion.
Plumage on hats and ladies’ clothing was all the rage in the Victorian era and Pelican Island founder Paul Kroegel singlehandedly waged war against poachers who might have sent the area’s water birds into the history books.
His resolve and his trusty shotgun are the reason why local residents still enjoy watching the birds that soar above the Indian River Lagoon and hang out at marinas vying for fish scraps.
With only three staffers plus one graduate student intern on the refuge and some of that personnel shared with other regional refuge lands such as the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, the only way the facility on the barrier island can have tours, programs and greater interaction with the public is if local residents invest some time.
“We need volunteers in the area of maintenance, biology, administration and visitor services,” said Kevin Lowry, acting deputy refuge manager. “We want to put the right people in the right places. For volunteers who will be doing the wildlife tours, we want to make sure they feel comfortable and confident that they have that ability as a naturalist.”
The staff will train volunteers to identify the birds by sight and the small animals by their tracks. They will learn about the plants and trees, about the Indian River Lagoon ecosystems and about the butterflies fluttering around the garden.
Lowry brought lots of vision, enthusiasm and a wealth of experience to Pelican Island in September 2011 after a dozen years at other refuges around the country.
Lowry said becoming a volunteer can be as simple and as manual as pulling weeds and as involved as teaching visitors about the history, the flora and the fauna on the refuge.
“We have a small core group of volunteers who do various things for us,” Lowry said. “We’re opening it up for people to challenge themselves and learn something new.”
This fall and winter is the time to get trained to become part of a core group tasked with putting Pelican Island Wildlife Refuge back on the map with locals and tourists alike.
In January, Lowry said he’s planning a celebration of volunteerism designed both to draw new volunteers in and to honor the small but loyal contingent of people like Paul and Anne Lins.
He calls the recent retirees who moved to Sebastian from New Hampshire his “dynamic duo” and if he could only recruit a few more just like them, the refuge could expand its public programs.
Paul, 66, and Anne, 60 are the perfect demographic to serve at Pelican Island. They are well-educated former professionals eager to learn and able to articulate the story of the refuge to the public. He’s an engineer and she worked in the aerospace industry, so the biological complexity of the refuge piques their interest.
With a few years of retirement and a life of frequent business travel under their belts, they want to explore a little closer to home from now on.
Having been gone to the four corners of the map their whole marriage, they want to volunteer as a team, something that’s not an option with some clubs and organizations.
They work between 10 and 20 hours per week on the refuge, depending on what’s going on. Some days they drive the tram. Other days they keep the trails in good shape or weed the butterfly garden and sometimes they even ride the tractor around.
This winter, volunteers will get a little more dramatic as they’re putting together a historical skit about Kroegel’s battle against the poachers back in the wild, early days of Pelican Island.
For that, volunteers will trade their khaki uniforms for colorful period garb to give visitors a lasting impression about the history of Pelican Island.
“It’s certainly an opportunity for people to express themselves,” Paul Lins said. “And it’s certainly an opportunity for people who are handy, for men who know how to build things and how to repair things. The staff is good, but they need support from volunteers.”
Anne Lins noted that the refuge staff has decades of experience and advanced degrees, that they are quite fascinating people to glean knowledge from while volunteering.
“There’s a tremendous amount of education and knowledge that the people have here,” she said. “We’ve been very impressed with Kevin and the team.”
Paul Lins said it’s been exciting “getting in on the ground floor” of what promises to be a new era for the refuge if Lowry’s vision of the volunteer program becomes a reality.
The refuge has already hosted one nighttime Owl Prowl and there are plans for a more robust schedule of interpretive tours and even a possible visitor center on the mainland at Sebastian’s working waterfront.
The refuge will also be highlighted by various activities, including a tour of the butterfly garden, during the Treasure Coast Birding Festival scheduled for Oct. 26-28.
For more information or to become a volunteer, call Lowry at (772) 581-5557 or visit the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge page on Facebook.
