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Friends of Bitter Lake Friends of Bitter Lake have worked diligently to gain community and congressional support for the Bitter Lake NWR in New Mexico. Their annual Dragonfly Festival has brought increasing national attention to the refuge, attracting coverage from various magazines, including Smithsonian and Nature Photographer, and drawing visitors to the refuge, nearby Roswell, and the surrounding area. The Friends group organized a "Joe Skeen Day" event at Bitter Lake, to build a relationship with the Congressman and involve him in their vision of building a refuge visitor and education center named in his honor. Federal funding was eventually approved, the site for the Joseph R. Skeen Visitor Center was dedicated in 2003, and construction of the center is underway. The new facility promises to further strengthen the relationship between the friends group, the refuge, the community and the visiting public. |