Orienting at Malheur National Wildlife R

We arrived yesterday late in the afternoon, but had time to meet our boss and several other volunteers. Most are just here for a few weeks, but all are "regulars" and belong to the Friends of Malheur nonprofit. We got accepted before the refuge switched to having the nonprofit staff manage all volunteers. When we applied over a year ago, the refuge staff was still managing the visitor center volunteers.

In any case, they have really nice visitor accommodations. We have a nice camper pad with full hookups (although we really only use the electrics). There is a very nice shower house and a common room with kitchen, laundry, sitting area, etc. We were told cable TV went the way of budget cuts and we now have to clean our own bathhouse and common area (not an issue for us).

Today, we did our orientation. We signed some papers and then went down the Central Patrol Road (CPR) to see what we could tell visitors about. We saw tons of birds and a few snakes and deer. It is about 40 miles of pretty well maintained gravel. We were in a US government pickup truck. We also got our name badges and our volunteer vests, so we are officially ready to start tomorrow. We work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday every weekend all summer, 8 am to 4 pm.

We will bring our lunch daily. Among our tasks are filling bird feeders, greeting visitors, and some light cleaning (sweeping, etc). So far, so good!

The refuge is really beautiful. It is filled with more than 350 kinds of birds and more than 30 mammals. We saw so many birds today and all in different parts of the refuge. Last night, the sky was filled with stars, and there is very little light here.Read more