The new Visitor Center at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge located at 32 Pleasant Plains Road in Harding Township, N.J., was formally dedicated to Helen C. Fenske at a program at the Center on October 2, 2010.

Helen Fenske played an integral role in saving Great Swamp from becoming a jet airport in the 1960s.  Helen was vital in the movement to convince people of the importance of conserving this land as a natural area for the enjoyment of future generations. She was instrumental in raising more than $1 million to purchase and donate nearly 3,000 acres of land to the U.S. Department of the Interior for what would become the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.   Several years after the refuge’s establishment, Fenske played a major role in the creation of the Great Swamp Wilderness Area, the first wilderness area designated on Department of the Interior lands.