The weather was perfect for the volunteers to celebrate and for kids to be outside planting trees and learning about nature instead of reading about it in a classroom. One-hundred holes were already dug and trees standing by.
Then, the government shut it all down.
"Because Congress is at an impasse in funding our federal government," said Desirée Sorenson-Groves, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Refuge Association that sponsored the award.
Volunteers are not allowed to work during the shutdown. The refuge staff is down to one person to care for the refuge and to safeguard visitors. The rest are furloughed. All are forbidden to attend this celebration. Not even out of uniform.
"So, unfortunately, they who nominated the Friends group for this award, were not able to be here," Sorenson-Groves notes.
The Rappahannock Indian Tribe lent their building, located in the refuge, to the volunteers for a lunch and award ceremony. But, no kids, no tree-planting.
"It was a little bittersweet for us because we had planned to have a tree-planting celebration at Fones Cliffs, says Steve Colangelo. "But we weren’t allowed to do that because of the government shutdown." Colangelo is president of the Rappahannock
Wildlife Refuge Friends.
As staff at national parks, forests and refuges are cut and chronically underfunded, volunteers like the Friends keep federal lands safe and accessible.
"We don’t take partisan positions," Colangelo says, "but we do take positions with respect to policies. Give us whatever you’re going to give us. Give us the staff, whoever’s going to be here, and let us do the work we need to do."
The Trump administration has already made further cuts and is considering more.
"Across the United States there are volunteers who help on all public lands. Not just national wildlife refuges, but national parks, national forests," Sorenson-Groves notes. "When the government does open up this is a great opportunity to get out, get dirty. Where wildlife comes first are places that we can all enjoy as all Americans."
One week into the shutdown, like patient soldiers, 100 trees, clustered together, stand atop Fones cliffs waiting to be planted.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.