Moving from a Cooperating Association to a Friends organization

The San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex and the San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society (SFBWS) have a long-term partnership relationship dating back to 1987.

Beginning with a bookstore and financial support for projects like remodeling the Fremont pump house into a classroom, SFBWS over the decades continued to fund activities like summer camps and outfit environmental education programs with microscopes, binoculars, and publications at both the Environmental Education Center (EEC) and Fremont Headquarters. We spearheaded a fund raising campaign to build the EEC Boardwalk and worked with Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on many more projects, notably funding the Refuge Complex’s quarterly newsletter Tideline since its inception. Since 1992, SFBWS has managed employees that support the Watershed Watchers Program funded by the Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program and the Living Wetlands Program funded by the City of San Jose.

The partnership with FWS has been a strong one. Driven by changes in FWS laws and policies, SFBWS’s relationship will be changing over the next few months. SFBWS is moving from a cooperating association footing to that of a Friends organization. This change has had one noticable impact already. Bookstore operations are on hiatus at both the Fremont and Alviso locations, the reason being that only Friends organization volunteers, and not FWS volunteers, can handle monies for these kinds of fund raising activities. The transition from being a cooperating association to a Friends organization will take time and we are not yet set up for that management.

Going forward, the SFBWS will continue to support the Refuge Complex overall, with a focus on the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay NWR and Refuge Complex-level programs. Primary outputs will include but not be limited to education and interpretive programs funded through grants, partnership agreements, donations from individuals, corporations, government agencies, and other not-for-profit groups. Partnership aims will be to increase stewardship of refuge resources, to support the Refuge Complex’s volunteer program, to assist with the conservation of wildlife habitat, and to support wildlife-dependent recreation opportunities.

As the SFBWS and FWS continue to finalize the new Friends agreement that will govern our relationship, we will become an even stronger partner in supporting the vision and mission of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex as well as our own mission.

We welcome your inputs on these changes. Email Ceal.Craig@SFBWS.com

- Cecilia (Ceal) D. Craig, PhD President, SFBWS Board of Directors