Join the Work Crew

Do you enjoy working outside, mowing, sprucing up hiking trails, trimming and removing brush and general cleanup? Show your love for nature by joining the Outdoor Crew at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Outdoor Crew volunteers meet on the First Tuesday and Fourth Saturday of every month. 

With budget cuts and staff shortages due to retirements, the refuge needs you more than ever!

For exact times, dates and other details about joining the volunteer Work Crew, please email us at: 

info@friendsofhagerman.org

Scouts welcome!

The Little Sit Sunrise Bird Count

Meet Jack and the Bird Census Team while learning how to identify the birds of North Texas, and enjoy the beautiful sunrise over Lake Texoma! Modeled after Cornell's national "Big Sit" event, the public is invited to join a group of dedicated birders at sunrise to conduct a bird count as multiple species fly to the water and the surrounding land to feed.  Leaders will bring spotting scopes and will provide tips for identification of the many species you will see.

This event begins 30 minutes before sunrise (sunrise is 7:19 AM) and lasts a couple of hours, but all are welcome to come and go as they please. Participants are advised to bring a chair, binoculars and water. 

The location of the Little Sit is technically in Sadler, TX, but it is within the boundaries of Hagerman NWR.

Location: H Pad, Sadler, Texas 76264 

GPS Coordinates: 

33.734961, -96.780582

Directions from the Hagerman Visitor Center:

• Take a right (north) out of the Visitor Center parking lot road.
• At the bottom of the hill, take a left onto the gravel road (Wildlife Dr).
• The road will end at the Big Mineral Day Use Area. Take a right onto Bennett Lane.
• You will cross a bridge over Big Mineral Creek, then go over a low water crossing.
• There will be several small gravel roads going off to the right.
• Stay on Bennett until the road forks, then go right.
• When the road forks again, go right.
• Take the gravel road to the right marked “H” (you will see oil tanks on the NE corner) and go all the way to the end.

Free and open to the public.  Donations are accepted to support this and other events and programs sponsored by the Friends of Hagerman NWR.

Join us with membership today to receive the monthly Featherless Flyer newsletter with nature articles, program information, updated events and other important refuge information.

Take a Tour on the Wildlife Explorer!

Come join us for a ride on the Wildlife Explorer! Our new and beautiful tram is available for ninety-minute tours of Hagerman every weekend, weather permitting. Our tours are as varied as our drivers. Each tram driver has her/his approach to the tour: you may learn about wildlife, birds, habitat, refuge history, photography, you name it! To paraphrase, “a Wildlife Explorer tour at Hagerman is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” But you know it’s going to be good! Come see us! Lots of stops for bird-watching and photography.

• Weather permitting, seating is limited. 
• Bring binoculars or borrow ours.
  
• Standbys accepted if space permits. 
• Ages 6 and above.
• Meet at the visitor center 15 minutes before departure. 

Free, open to the public, Donations are accepted to support all events and programs sponsored by the Friends of Hagerman NWR.

Join us with membership today to receive the monthly Featherless Flyer newsletter with nature articles, program information, updated events and other important refuge information!

Take a Tour on the Wildlife Explorer!

Come join us for a ride on the Wildlife Explorer! Our new and beautiful tram is available for ninety-minute tours of Hagerman every weekend, weather permitting. Our tours are as varied as our drivers. Each tram driver has her/his approach to the tour: you may learn about wildlife, birds, habitat, refuge history, photography, you name it! To paraphrase, “a Wildlife Explorer tour at Hagerman is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” But you know it’s going to be good! Come see us! Lots of stops for bird-watching and photography.

• Weather permitting, seating is limited. 
• Bring binoculars or borrow ours.
  
• Standbys accepted if space permits. 
• Ages 6 and above.
• Meet at the visitor center 15 minutes before departure. 

Free, open to the public, Donations are accepted to support all events and programs sponsored by the Friends of Hagerman NWR.

Join us with membership today to receive the monthly Featherless Flyer newsletter with nature articles, program information, updated events and other important refuge information!

Obstacles to Environmental Progress

Why, when so many people understand the severity of environmental problems, is progress so slow and sustainability such a distant goal? What gets in the way? Perhaps you have immediately thought of several barriers. In Obstacles to Environmental Progress, Peter Schulze identifies 18 practical obstacles that routinely and predictably hinder U.S. progress on existing environmental problems. The obstacles apply to problems small and large and, in most cases, regardless of whether an issue is controversial. Though the book focuses on the U.S., most of the obstacles pertain elsewhere as well.

The obstacles fall into three categories: challenges to anticipating, detecting, and understanding problems; political and economic factors that interfere with responding; and obstacles to effective responses. While all the obstacles are predictable and common, they have not been systematically studied as related phenomena, perhaps because they span a wide range of academic disciplines.

Flying Too Close to Heaven Photo by Lisa Walsh

Take a Tour on the Wildlife Explorer!

Come join us for a ride on the Wildlife Explorer! Our new and beautiful tram is available for ninety-minute tours of Hagerman every weekend, weather permitting. Our tours are as varied as our drivers. Each tram driver has her/his approach to the tour: you may learn about wildlife, birds, habitat, refuge history, photography, you name it! To paraphrase, “a Wildlife Explorer tour at Hagerman is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” But you know it’s going to be good! Come see us! Lots of stops for bird-watching and photography.

• Weather permitting, seating is limited. 
• Bring binoculars or borrow ours.
  
• Standbys accepted if space permits. 
• Ages 6 and above.
• Meet at the visitor center 15 minutes before departure. 

Free, open to the public, Donations are accepted to support all events and programs sponsored by the Friends of Hagerman NWR.

Join us with membership today to receive the monthly Featherless Flyer newsletter with nature articles, program information, updated events and other important refuge information!

On 20 December we will count all the birds we can detect in a 15 mile circle centered on. Cook’s corners.  Observers of any skill level can help.  Meet at Hagerman NWR refuge headquarters at 7 AM.  Observers can go half day or whole day.  We also need help from anyone who has bird feeders inside the circle (see map below).  Feeder watchers should keep track of the maximum number of each species observed and how much time they spend looking.  For example, if you see three Chickadees in the morning, 5 at noon and four in the afternoon you would report 5 Chickadees so that you don’t count the same birds twice.  Please send your observations to Wayne Meyer by email to aphelocoma@me.com.  Include all birds you see and time spent looking rounded to the nearest half hour.

Dinner will be provided in the Visitor Center at 5:00 PM after the BIrd Count.

Join the Work Crew

Do you enjoy working outside, mowing, sprucing up hiking trails, trimming and removing brush and general cleanup? Show your love for nature by joining the Outdoor Crew at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Outdoor Crew volunteers meet on the First Tuesday and Fourth Saturday of every month. 

With budget cuts and staff shortages due to retirements, the refuge needs you more than ever!

For exact times, dates and other details about joining the volunteer Work Crew, please email us at: 

info@friendsofhagerman.org

Scouts welcome!

Take a Tour on the Wildlife Explorer!

Come join us for a ride on the Wildlife Explorer! Our new and beautiful tram is available for ninety-minute tours of Hagerman every weekend, weather permitting. Our tours are as varied as our drivers. Each tram driver has her/his approach to the tour: you may learn about wildlife, birds, habitat, refuge history, photography, you name it! To paraphrase, “a Wildlife Explorer tour at Hagerman is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” But you know it’s going to be good! Come see us! Lots of stops for bird-watching and photography.

• Weather permitting, seating is limited. 
• Bring binoculars or borrow ours.
  
• Standbys accepted if space permits. 
• Ages 6 and above.
• Meet at the visitor center 15 minutes before departure. 

Free, open to the public, Donations are accepted to support all events and programs sponsored by the Friends of Hagerman NWR.

Join us with membership today to receive the monthly Featherless Flyer newsletter with nature articles, program information, updated events and other important refuge information!

Nature’Ology Day Camp June, 2026

For Children 11 or 12 Years Old

A full day of learning all about nature: fossils, prairies, spiders, birds, snakes and water cycles! Make a terrarium, enjoy a nature craft and meet other young nature enthusiasts!

This program has become so popular, that it fills up very quickly. By opting into this mailing list, you will receive an email with a link to apply for a confirmed reservation before reservations open to the general public in the spring of 2026.