Ways to Get Involved
Whether you want to further conservation, learn more about nature or share your love of the outdoors, you’ve come to the right place. National wildlife refuges provide many opportunities for you to help your community by doing what you love. National wildlife refuges partner with volunteers, youth groups, landowners and to make a lasting difference. Find out how you can help make American lands healthier and communities stronger while doing something personally satisfying.
Volunteering
Discover for yourself what tens of thousands of volunteers have learned: Volunteering for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is fun and rewarding in many ways. Learn new skills, meet new friends and enjoy a sense of accomplishment from doing your part to further wildlife conservation for the pleasure of generations to follow.
Volunteers at Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge provide their skills and energy to:
- Reforestation efforts
- Refuge clean-up projects
- Educational programs
- Maintenance of public facilities
- Trail construction
- Office work
- Special events
- Wildlife monitoring
- And more!
We invite you to learn from firsthand experiences. By volunteering you'll gain knowledge about the refuge, its purpose and prospects for the future and beyond.
Become involved; share our vision of wildlife, natural landscapes and quality of life for the people of Minnesota. Should you choose to share your talents here, your opportunities will be limited only by your time and ambition. The refuge is a tremendous resource both locally and nationally to migrating birds, animals, plants, and the people in the surrounding communities.
If you're interested in volunteering, please contact the refuge office at 218-768-2402 or RiceLake@fws.gov.
Our Partners
Nature does not recognize human-made boundaries. In order to conserve our natural and cultural resources effectively, we must work with others to bridge these boundaries. Partnerships foster creative solutions to challenging situations and often the results are greater than the sum of the parts. Learn more about our local partners.
Friends of Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge
The refuge has a special partnership with the non-profit group, Friends of Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge, which formed in October 2002 to support and enhance the public’s role in fish and wildlife habitat protection. Their goal is to promote public use of the refuge, along with educating visitors about the natural and cultural resources of the area. The group has sponsored events and built facilities on the refuge and represented the refuge at community and county gatherings. They also operate the bookstore in refuge headquarters. To reach a Friends member, please contact the refuge office at 218-768-2402.
Outreach
Refuge staff may be available to come and speak to your group. Programs are available on a variety of topics concerning the refuge, careers, plants and animals living in the area or other topics.