Mound City, Missouri -- Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge announces opportunities to volunteer and National Wildlife Refuge Week events this fall. Squaw Creek NWR will host two fall volunteer habitat restoration workdays on: Saturday, September 19, 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. and Saturday, October 31 9:00 A.M. to 12:00 PM. Here is your chance to actively participate in refuge efforts to improve wildlife habitat. Volunteers will have the opportunity to participate in the popular wildflower seed collection and monarch butterfly tagging. Also the annual refuge wide fall volunteer workday is scheduled for Saturday, October 3, from 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. A variety of work projects are planned to prepare for visitors during fall migration.

Volunteers make a great difference in helping refuge staff conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats over the last 27 years. Workday projects on the refuge will include various facilities, grounds, and trail maintenance projects. Lunch will be provided by the Squaw Creek Refuge for volunteers on scheduled workdays.

To celebrate National Wildlife Refuge Week themed” Living with Wildlife”, Squaw Creek NWR will host Family Day with Wildlife on October 18th . This special event gives everyone a chance to get active on the refuge. This year, several special activities are available to refuge visitors from 9:00A.M. - 2:00P.M. Let the sportsman in you come out as you participate in activities and learn more about the refuge. The event is being sponsored by refuge partners in conservation: Missouri Western Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society, Missouri Master Naturalist Loess Hills Chapter, and Friends of Squaw Creek. Participants will have an the opportunity to: paddle in a wetland, sharpen your fishing skills, handle frogs and snakes, testing out the tools biologist use in the field, and more! Northwest Missouri Longtails Chapter of Pheasants Forever will be hosting a free shooting event near the refuge during same time.

For more information you may contact the Wildlife Refuge Specialist, Corey Kudrna at email corey_kudrna@fws.gov or call 660-442-3187ext4 during office business hours from Monday - Friday, 7:30 A.M. - 4:00 P.M. to register for workdays or to obtain further information. Squaw Creek Refuge is located 5 miles south of Mound City and 30 miles north of St. Joseph, Missouri. Visitors may take I-29 to exit 79, then 2 ½ miles west on Highway 159 to the refuge entrance.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 100-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 560 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 fishery resource offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitats such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts

It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies. For further information about programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our national website at: http://www.fws.gov/midwest The Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge website is: http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Squaw_Creek/