Ridgefield refuge volunteers prove devotion

Ridgefield — During the 2013 planting season, volunteers at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge put in nearly 1,400 hours of work to improve the habitat. The planting season wraps up early in the spring, but before it did, volunteers helped spruce up more than six acres of the refuge. Now 1,900 new native plants are laying their roots and revealing their leaves, wrote AmeriCorps Habitat Restoration Specialist Nicole Gautier in the Friends of the Refuge April newsletter. The final Wednesday work party of the season was April 10, when helpers retrofitted beaver fencing. “We couldn’t do it without you,” wrote Gautier about the volunteers.