Katie Johnson offered an invocation written by Chat Campbell, a member of the Redondo Beach Rotary Club. It is worth repeating:
We give thanks for the opportunity to be a Rotarian
Rotarians dig wells from which we will never drink
We vaccinate children we will never meet
We restore eyesight for those we will never see
We build housing we will never live in
We educate children we will never know
We plant trees we will never sit under
We feed hungry people regardless of race or politics
We know real happiness, which as Albert Schweitzer once said,
Can only be found by helping others.
For this opportunity, we give thanks...
There was a Rotary Minute Plus quiz, again based on the March Rotary magazine, this time from the last seven pages. Two of three questions were answered correctly. Since prior quizzes in March covered the first five pages and with April arriving as of our next meeting, you will have to peruse the magazine itself for interesting things appearing on pages 4-57.
Mary Pettit talked about Trilogy's Easter Bunny event on April 3rd from 10:00 a.m. to noon, with free will offerings going to Habitat for Humanity. Other brags and fines included Deb Maertens telling us that Laly was with her host family in Park City, Utah skiing and bumped into a Rotary function.
Deb also said our Rotary District's in-bound and outbound exchange students were in Ely a couple weekends prior and went dog sledding. Hal Leland paid in for missing our last meeting and relayed unfortunate news about Donna, dealing with substantial heart and arthritis issues; our prayers are with her and Hal and their family. Mark Bring also fined himself for missing last week's meeting as he was in Fargo. Buzz Lundeen brought a picture of Stephanie Grow in The Daily Journal and contributed (loaned?) a dollar in her absence as a brag. Jamie also was gone the prior week, on a trip to Florida to check in with his 76-year-old father on their business (?). Tim was happy about passing his physical exam the day prior to our meeting and that the Hunts got their 2025 income tax returns filed. Steve Andrews told us he was flying to LaGuardia the next day, wondering about what he would be facing at the airport. Mary Pettit celebrated her oldest grandson's 17th birthday. Finally, Brian Tjaden said one of the questions from the March Rotary magazine about Taipei, site of this year's Rotary International Convention, reminded him of the first time he was there and finding out what he was being fed. Enough said.
Buzz Lundeen introduced our program of the day, Naomi Baucon, the director at the Prairie Wetland Learning Center. Naomi is from Hoot River, Oregon (at the base of Mt. Hood) and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Montana. She has worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service for 20 years, off and on since 2004. Naomi first came to the Prairie Wetlands in 2011 and is very happy to be back as she is an avid ornithologist, also enjoying camping, gardening and being a nature wanderer. She also has two fur kids. Naomi said U.S. Fish and Wildlife is in charge of wildlife refuges while the Park Service runs national parks. They have different functions, although one of the prior differences, where Fish and Wildlife tried to keep people away, doesn't really exist anymore. Naomi also said that Fish & Wildlife has ten times as much land as the Park Service but one-tenth of the staff, and a very small component of those working for Fish and Wildlife are assigned to visitor support. She referenced her previous posting to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma that has 1.7 million visitors a year to see, among other things, the buffalo herd the Service is attempting to re-establish there.
Prairie Wetlands will be hosting an event on April 26th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in honor of Earth Day. There is an upcoming National Public Lands Day in September, which is the largest volunteer day on public lands during the year. There will also be monarch tagging for two weeks in August, with follow-up work done by others down in Mexico after the butterflies migrate south. Last year there was started a prairie restoration project that will span four years, with the goal to entirely return the grounds to native prairie. The project is supported by the United Prairie Foundation, a non-profit out of North Dakota, and the Fish and Wildlife office on Co. Hwy. 82 staffs the effort. Friends of the Prairie Wetland Center have been and continue to be a huge help, particularly when there was no staff working at the Learning Center for over a year. Naomi said her goal is to get the Visitor Center open more often but realizes that at current staff levels more volunteers are needed. There are currently seven members on the Friends of the Prairie Board, and they are looking to get that up to 12. There is a recruitment effort scheduled for April 15th and that will likely be followed by an open house. If you want to contact Naomi, you can do so at naomi_baucom@fws.com or call her at (218) 998-4483.
