Carl Zenger wins national award for 22 years of dedicated service at Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge

Photos by Tom Rivers: Carl Zenger holds up a certificate of commendation he received on Wednesday from a staff member for Congresswoman Claudia Tenney. Zenger received 2025 “Refuge Volunteer of the Year” award from the National Wildlife Refuge Association. Zenger has been a full-time presence at the local refuge for the past 22 ½ years.

MEDINA – There are 570 national wildlife refuges in the United States and many dedicated volunteers have been critical to educating the public, maintaining grasslands,  nurturing wildlife and serving in other roles.

Of all the volunteers in the refuge system, Carl Zenger stands out among them all for his dedication at the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, which covers 10,824 acres in the towns of Shelby and Alabama.

Zenger, 87, is up at 5:30 a.m. every day and make the 20-minute drive from Lockport. He is at the refuge by 7, typically the first one there.

He has kept a full-time presence at the refuge the past 22 ½ years, amassing 45,000 hours of volunteer service.

Zenger delights in mowing about 200 acres of grasslands each year, and along miles and miles of drainage dikes. He was instrumented in starting the Friends of Iroquois Wildlife Refuge in 2000, and has served as president, vice president and board member. That organization raises about $15,000 to $20,000 a year to support the refuge. Its fundraising has helped rebuild the Swallow Hallow Trail, extend the Cayuga Overlook Platform, install an accessible floating dock at the Ringneck Marsh, and sponsor youth fishing derbies and waterfowl hunts.

Tom Roster, the retired manager of the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, spent just over 20 years with Zenger at the refuge. Roster praised Zenger’s commitment to the refuge and his willingness to serve in many roles at the site.

“Carl is a person of many talents,” said Tom Roster, who recently retired after more than 20 years as the refuge manager. “His volunteering has touched all aspects of Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge daily operations including habitat management, wildlife population monitoring, maintenance, interpretive and educational programs, outreach and yes, we even got him to do some administrative work. We just didn’t call it that. We referred to it as safety or vehicle and facility maintenance!”

Roster was among about 100 people who celebrated Zenger and his distinguished award as national volunteer of the year during a luncheon on Wednesday at the Bent’s Opera House. Many other dedicated local refuge volunteers and staff attended the luncheon. (Due to the federal government shutdown, the refuge staff attended in regular clothes, not their refuge work attire.)

Zenger grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania and worked 42 years at General Motors. When he was nearing retirement from GM, he looked for a way to stay busy and give back to a worthwhile organization. The refuge was a perfect fit, utilizing his talents at a site with a long to-do list.

Carl Zenger said he has a great relationship with the refuge staff and other volunteers. “I did it because I wanted to be there,” he said about his volunteerism at the refuge.

Some of the projects Zenger has spearheaded, outside of routine maintenance, include:

• One of his first projects was establishing a bluebird trail with over 50 bluebird boxes along the trail. Zenger still coordinates the maintenance of this trail and has taught dozens of other volunteers and interns how to maintain the boxes, manage the program, monitor and band the birds.

• Zenger has worked to expand birding programs to include other cavity nesters like swallows, kestrels and purple martins.

“Carl’s interest in Kestrel grew as he saw that kestrel populations decline by 85% in New York State,” Roster said. “Carl has provided guidance on where and how to put up kestrel boxes on the refuge including switching over to his own pulley system that assists in lowering and raising nesting boxes for monitoring, thus eliminating the need for climbing up and down ladders. He ensures that monitoring is conducted every year.”

Those birding programs resulted in 130 bluebirds being fledged in the past year, 352 tree swallows and 71 house wrens, Zenger said, praising the refuge staff and volunteers. “Great job!” he declared from the podium at Bent’s Opera House.

Zenger is presented with the 2025 Refuge Volunteer of the Year Award by Wendi Weber, a board member for the National Wildlife Association and retired regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

After the success of the bluebird trail, Zenger shifted to establish a purple martin colony at the refuge. Carl worked diligently for several years before he started to see any response to his efforts, Roster said.

“Each year he would put out purple martin decoys and play the ‘dawn song’ to hopefully attract any lost martins that happen to be passing by,” Roster said. “There were finally a few takers, and over the years that has grown to multiple colonies on the refuge that annually produces over 700 fledglings.”

One colony is adjacent to the parking lot at the refuge headquarters, and provides a great opportunity to educate refuge visitors on conservation of the species and show the bird monitoring and banding techniques very easily, Roster said.

Zenger makes the added effort of ensuring that calcium is available to female martins that may be deficient after laying a clutch of eggs.

“He collects eggshells from his local community breakfast event, rinses and bakes them to remove any potential salmonella,” Roster said. “He then crushes them and adds them to feeders at twelve sites where purple martin females can obtain this essential mineral that is integral to their post laying condition survival.”

This year, there were a record 950 purple martins banded at the refuge and 700 fledges.

Zenger said he prefers to be low-key and out of the spotlight. But his dedication over so many years stands out – across the country.

He thanked the staff and other volunteers, and especially his family, including his late wife of 63 years, Phyllis. She often joined him at the refuge for projects, working in the welcome center and with public education programs.

Zenger is eyeing a goal of 50,000 hours of volunteer service at the refuge.

“If it’s God’s will,” he said about continuing as a very active volunteer. “I’m not quite done yet, but I may have to temper my pace a bit.”

Desirée Sorenson-Groves, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Association, congratulates Zenger on his award. Sorenson-Groves, who is based in Washington, D.C., said refuges across the country have seen a gradual reduction in their workforces over the past decade. Iroquois, for example, used to have two full-time maintenance positions that haven’t been filled.

“The way things are going, volunteers are the future of maintaining our refuges,” she said.

Zenger is joined for a photo with his grandchildren, Malia Keespies, left, and Mattison Zenger Hain.