Summer 2006

Table of Contents

Volunteers are inspiring
By Dr. Jeff Koenings, WDFW Director

Citizen volunteers have long played a key role in helping ensure a healthy future for fish and wildlife.

The stewardship efforts of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists, enforcement officers and other staff are amplified by the work of thousands of citizen volunteers.

You may not realize it but, as a Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary manager, you are a volunteer too. You volunteer time and money to build and maintain habitat for wildlife on your property.
The cumulative effect of thousands of others across the state making similar efforts, and serving as examples to many others, helps Washington’s wildlife in the long run.

With so many energetic volunteers working on behalf of fish and wildlife in so many ways, it’s difficult to single out just a few for recognition. But every year we take time to recognize some of the outstanding contributions that citizen volunteers make to fish and wildlife management.

This year our Volunteer of the Year is Rick Hendrick of Brewster, in Okanogan County. Rick is one of the foremost experts on birds in our northcentral region, a dedicated birdwatcher and naturalist who freely shares his time, experience and resources to help us and other organizations.

Rick has built, placed and monitored hundreds of nestboxes for wood ducks on WDFW’s Wells Wildlife Area and for American kestrels and blue birds on the Chelan Wildlife Area and other locations throughout Douglas and Okanogan counties. He has banded over a thousand kestrels and other birds under study, surveyed bald eagle roosts and peregrine falcon nests, and monitored American white pelicans on the Wells Pool of the Columbia River. He is also the principal volunteer in charge of the Cooper Mountain Hawk Watch site.

Rick’s dedication to wildlife has gone far beyond the usual level for a volunteer. He works full-time on wildlife-related activities, driving thousands of miles a year with no expectation of reimbursement.

That kind of enthusiasm is inspiring to me. I hope it is for you, too.

Keep up the good work for wildlife in your backyard. And enjoy the benefits of your efforts this summer.