Consular Officer Annie Simpkins at Biebrzanski National Park

Consular Officer Annie Simpkins answering questions from the audience at the Forum

Biebrzanski National Park in Northeast Poland is the largest National Park in Poland. It covers nearly 60,000 hectares, the majority of it is wetlands and it is one of the most popular destinations for bird watchers. It is home to the Polish National Haymaking and Scything Competition each September in which Embassy employees have regularly competed. Consular Officer Annie Simpkins visited the Park to give a presentation about Natural Resources Management in the US to an audience of local city and regional managers and staff from several other National Parks. Although the focus of her presentation was about US National Parks and local cooperation, Annie Simpkins also talked about wildlife and land management at wildlife refuges and military bases, who are also large federal land managers. Annie was a Natural Resources Manager at US military bases in Key West, Washington State and Mississippi before joining the State Department. Audience members were surprised to find that military bases contain more than 220 endangered or threatened species and that acre for acre, military lands are 3 times more likely to contain critical habitat for endangered species than other federally managed land. The audience enjoyed a selection of photos of areas of outstanding natural beauty in the US such as Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, Yosemite National Park and Golden Gate National Park in California and also White Sands National Missile Range in New Mexico and Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.