The National Wildlife Refuge Association Board of Directors provides expertise, support, and a strategic vision for the organization. They are conservation experts, business leaders, volunteers, and advocates dedicated to our mission to promote, protect, and enhance the National Wildlife Refuge System for the benefit of all Americans.
Each month, we highlight a former or current board member and get their thoughts on current events, how they got involved in National Wildlife Refuge Association, and what they love about nature and wildlife refuges.
Wayne Hubbard is the host and producer of Emmy-nominated Urban American Outdoors TV and has spent his career bringing outdoor recreation opportunities to urban audiences around the country for decades.
Along with his partner Candace Price, Wayne founded the organization in order to highlight and address the issue of engaging urban and historically excluded audiences in nature-based experiences. Since 1998, Wayne has used this platform and profile to show a different side of outdoor recreation. Until very recently, depictions of outdoor activities included older white men hunting or fishing, occasionally adding a cooking element. On Urban American Outdoors programs, Wayne busts stereotypes by featuring diverse voices and ways of engaging with the environment that is unique, culturally sensitive, and addresses everything from notions of safety and danger to the relationship between pollinators and urban habitats.
Wayne’s path crossed with National Wildlife Refuge Associations’ Urban Wildlife Refuge Program even before he joined the board. In 2017, he brought an Urban Kids Fish program to Kenneth Hahn State Park in Los Angeles, where more than 200 families showed up for fishing instruction, a prize raffle, and conservation-themed activities with staff from NWRA’s Urban Wildlife Refuge Program, the U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The program was so popular that California State Parks requested an annual event, and other urban fishing programs around the county have continued to grow in popularity, yet more evidence that you can reach urban audiences even if there isn’t a national wildlife refuge or national park nearby.
What inspired you to join the NWRA board?
WH: As someone who has always promoted access to public lands to all people, I happened to film a TV show in South Dakota in 2005 about the Prairie Potholes Wetlands and interviewed one of the refuge managers. This is when I first became very familiar with the great work being done. So when the opportunity became available to be on the board, the past work that you all have done inspired me to be on the NWRA board.
How can the Urban Wildlife Refuge Program better support UAOTV programs?
WH: The Urban Wildlife Refuge Program can better support UAOTV programs by creating additional opportunities for diverse communities to be able to have a safe place to recreate and work on. We want to make people aware we mentor thousands of Urban Youth on career possibilities, recreating on safe spaces, and protecting the public lands, in addition to our fishing derbies program work. We also do an annual Summit for diverse communities. We are interested in doing a partnership to create more awareness of your programs and the National Wildlife Refuge Association.
To find out more about Wayne’s work and upcoming events, please visit Urban American Outdoors TV!