Below you'll find excerpts from our Director Dan Ashe’s “Call to Action” speech, delivered July 14, at the Conserving the Future Conference in Madison, Wisconsin.  Learn more about the conference at http://www.americaswildlife.org.  

We must, in effect, win over the hearts and minds of the American people. That’s a call to action for each of us—both professional and citizen conservationists.

First, I am asking the Refuge System staff to take the work we have done this week and incorporate the best ideas into the final vision for Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation. I want the final vision document completed by Refuge Week in mid-October.

I want this vision to define a future state, but I want it to respect the past and the partnerships and traditions that have brought us to this point.

The Refuge System Leadership Team will guide the implementation of our vision. I am signing a charter today that spells out that charge. The Leadership Team will meet in October and lay out a detailed set of priorities and timelines for implementation of the final vision.

I am establishing today the first three vision implementation teams.

[More]

This Week Dan Ashe has been writing from the Conserving the Future Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Today's theme: Youth and Technology.

Wednesday at the Conserving the Future conference for the National Wildlife Refuge System, was another inspiring and exciting day. 

In today’s update, I wanted to talk about two themes that resonated for me: the tremendous capacity of young people to carry America’s conservation legacy forward and the power of reaching out to those young people through new technologies. 

There were amazing moments from yesterday’s conference. 

[More]

This week Open Spaces is featuring posts from our new Director, Dan Ashe. Dan will be blogging live from the Conserving the Future Conference currently underway in Madison, Wisconsin.

Yesterday was an energizing, inspiring first day of the Conserving the Future conference for the National Wildlife Refuge System.  Many themes have been emerging from the conference so far and I want to take today’s blog to talk about two that I thought were particularly notable and important. 

The first is the use of science. The Service has a long, distinguished history of using the best available science in our decisions and our ability to have access to the best science is more important than ever. 

[More]