Friends of Red River NWR Adopt a Tree/Adopt a Bench program
Zac Burson, President, Friends of Red River NWR and Louisiana Wildlife Federation
As we turned upstream, I saw a white whale ahead and all of the fascination and fear and awe it sparked in me is as strong today as it was 53 years ago. It wasn’t actually Moby Dick, and we weren’t in the great southern ocean, but my dad and my parrain (my godfather) had taken me fishing in a boat on the Calcasieu River and that ominous thing on the horizon was a sandbar.glowing white on a foggy spring morning.
I caught my first fish, a catfish, that day and have encountered many more fish and sandbars since then. Those men, along with my grandfather and uncles and my mom immersed me in the outdoors through hunting, fishing, hiking, and birding. Those early experiences in the forests and fields and the rivers and lakes gave me more confidence as each adult shared his or her unique relationships with the natural world.
My dad taught me how to fish, how to use a boat safely, and to keep the water clean. My grandfather was a sac-a-lait (white perch) master in the Atchafalaya Basin and revealed how the looming gray stumps in the Atchafalaya were once great trees and how the smallish conical cypress we saw would lose their tops after storms and flatten out and live for centuries. He taught me how to safely use a shotgun and lent me one. His daughter taught me the call of the female and male bobwhite quail. Where he had hunted them, she became a keen observer of such birds and other wild things. I am still grateful for the wisdom and passion they shared with me, and I am especially thankful for them teaching me about the everyday joy, awe, and wonder to be found in a wild place.
The Friends of Red River memorial program is one of the most rewarding ways that we engage with visitors to the refuge. The refuge itself is a place for wildlife, but it is also a place where we can tap into those more sublime elements of our existence. At places like the refuge, we are often immersed in nature within just a few minutes of being there. When we experience the euphony of the spring chorus of neotropical songbirds or the cacophony of a flock of fall sandhill cranes, we often experience awe and wonder. We are momentarily aligned with wild things that transcend our more civilized natures. That is something worth celebrating and sharing with others.
We all know and appreciate those people in our lives, family or friends who have made an impact on us by teaching us skills or sharing positive experiences with us, or by simply loving us. We invite you to share your own stories about and images of those people who have made an impact on your love for wild places and wild things. Your memories of those loved ones encourage us to make sure succeeding generations have those same opportunities. At our best, we humans plan and work together and share those products and lessons for future use.
The Friends of Red River NWR Adopt a Tree/Adopt a Bench program is a shining example of that instinct. The memorial benches are all made by student or community volunteers learning about woodworking or carpentry, and the memorial is a physical space on the refuge where one can sit and take in a vista or find a quiet spot and take in the beauty of the season The memorial trees are often grown, planted, and nurtured by our landscape volunteers and the people they are teaching about native wildlife habitats. We recognize that though we are all born with an affinity for the wide world around us, we all have adults or peers who have helped us tap into that primitive and transcendent spirit that dwells in every human heart. We invite you to join us in honoring those who guide us to an appreciation of the natural world.
Our new Adopt a Bench/Adopt a Tree initiative will not only enable you to honor your loved ones, but also to share memories and an image that we will feature on our web site and our social media stream. We invite you to join us in sharing your memories today and help us promote conservation education and an appreciation for the awe and wonder that wild places bring us.
