A view from the visitor center at Santee NWR.
Santee National Wildlife Refuge, located in Clarendon Co, South Carolina, is like a lot of refuges: a hidden gem. Santee is close to I-95, but when you pull into the parking lot there is a sense of calm and restfulness with this refuge. The trees are trimmed, the lawn is mowed, and the visitor center is newly remodeled; housing a mock osprey nest, stuffed hog heads, several interpretative panels, and a kids corner with crafts.
Chris Spivey, Santee Refuge Law Enforcement Officer
Chris Spivey, the dual function law enforcement officer at Santee, was our host for the day. Spivey had arranged for a local hunter to come talk about the importance of their long-standing hunt program. We also had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Captain Spence, searching for record-breaking catfish in Lake Marion. These two guys were great, but it was the interaction between Spivey and the public that really amazed me.
Anna interviewing Bob
Everywhere we went people where asking him questions. Before we had time to exit the visitor center, which has to be locked when refuge staff are not around, Spivey had interacted with several visitors and spent more than an hour answering questions and educating them about the refuge. On our ride out, he stopped to let folks know the visitor center would be closed, but asked if he could answer any questions before we left. At the gas station, he was pulled aside by a woman discussing the two dead birds she had recently found in her feeder. And it was the final moment, when we were winding down at dinner, a young boy came up to Chris telling him, “Mister, I plan to come for my first hunt this fall,” (during the refuges youth hunt) that Chris gave him a big high-five and asked if he’d been practicing. He is a true ambassador for the Refuge System.
The National Wildlife Refuge System is currently designing an Ambassador Program. This customer service training has a goal to make the Service #1 in customer service among all the land managing agencies. This is building on a program from the past, but updated by a Conserving the Future implementation team. When the implementation team thinks about what they want success to look like, I’d recommend giving a call down to Santee NWR, because the results are already in place.
Anna Harris is the Vision Coordinator for Conserving the Future and a member of the team taking vision on the road.