Message From the Board
December 2024 Tim Reynolds, Chair Friends of Camas NWR
2024 marks the 10th Anniversary of Friends of Camas Inc. On February 24, 2014 we were officially incorporated and determined to be a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. We should have had a big party, but we didn’t. How could we overlook this significant milestone? Well, quite frankly, we simply weren’t paying attention, and our actual birthdate is a little confusing.
What is now Friends of Camas Inc. originated as Friends of Camas (unincorporated) on July 16, 2010, when we were recognized by the IRS as an unincorporated non-profit association and a public charity. The early focus was a flurry of activity to get the organization up and running: installing a board of directors and associated officers, training and meeting with USFWS to learn what a Friends organization was all about, designing a logo, establishing a social media presence, recruiting members, applying for grants for basic office supplies and operations, and all the other things necessary to get an organization off the ground. We also ambitiously pursued a grant for the first phase of construction of what is now the Nancy Maxwell Conservation and Environmental Education Pavilion.
We had some early growing pains. During the first three years we had four different presidents or acting presidents. The high rate of change was due mostly to job and educational opportunities elsewhere. But, the lack of leadership continuity was fatal. When I took over as Chair (first time around) in the early summer of 2013, one of the first pieces of mail I received was from the IRS and had the headline: Your organization’s tax-exempt status was automatically revoked. YIKES!!! Evidently, we did not realize that a nonprofit entity still had to file an annual tax form. Big oops! We had to reinvent ourselves.
Fast forward 10 years, and Friends of Camas Inc. has clearly overcome the early challenges. In the past decade we have received well over $200K in Grants and donations, and have been able to construct the above mentioned pavilion; put a web cam on the local Peregrine Falcon nest; establish a pollinator garden with a water feature and gazebo; purchase various environmental educational materials for our public outreach events; bankroll a two-year labor-intensive bird monitoring and banding project conducted by the Intermountain Bird Observatory (IBO); buy radio-collars for trumpeter swans; continue efforts on the Kent Christopher habitat restoration project; establish an educational fund to cover the cost of transportation of school groups to the refuge; contract for the start of cottonwood cuttings to replace aging trees; join the East Idaho Chapter of Safari Club International in supporting an IDF&G study of pronghorn migration in the Upper Snake River Plain; purchased and deployed (with the help of IBO) MOTUS tags to track migrating songbirds; covered the windows at the HQ building with a film to prevent bird strikes; and much more. Friends also coordinates and/or supports several public events each year: Come to Roost (watch bald eagles fly into their winter roost), World Migratory Bird Day (co-sponsored by IDF&G), the Friends and Snake River Audubon Society Bird-A-Thon (big fundraiser!), Birds, Bugles and Brunch (annual members meeting) and, added just this year, Walk for the Wild (a national event offering a 5K walk around the refuge). All our events are open to the public at no charge. Our conservation and educational outreach, focused on youth, continues to grow. Besides hands-on activities at most of the events we host at the refuge, we also participate in STEM Day at the Zoo, Earth Day, and the Henry’s Fork Wildlife Alliance’s annual celebration of conservation. Plus, this year our education coordinator (and incoming Chair of the Board), Zoe Jorgensen, brought environmental education hands-on activities to several classrooms and coordinated two school visits to the refuge; bus transportation covered by Friends.
As the previous paragraph implies, I am stepping down as Chair of the Friends’ Board, effective the end of December. I have been Chair twice, totaling slightly more than half of the organization’s history. It’s time for new leadership. I am very comfortable handing off the challenges and the rewards of being Chair of the Board to Zoe. Friends will be in very capable hands.
My tenure on the Board coincides with the accomplishments above, for which I can take only a little credit. The support of the Board, the energy of our members, the interest of the public, and the heavy lifting by the Refuge management and staff has allowed Friends to grow as an organization and provide needed assistance to the US Fish and Wildlife Service in meeting their management goals at Camas NWR. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to be part of this evolution.