RIDGEFIELD — Two additional waterfowl hunting blinds, a study of reintroducing endangered whitetail deer and a new bridge-entrance road are planned at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge in the next 15 years.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted its new Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the 5,150-acre refuge in December. The approval by the agency’s regional director in Portland completes a planning process started in 2006.
The refuge in nothern Clark County is an increasingly popular spot with visitor use jumping from 22,000 a year in the 1980s to 162,000 annually this decade. Most of the increase is for wildlife observation and photography, along with environmental education from local schools.
RIDGEFIELD — The new plan for Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge is a disappointment, offering no significant addition to hunting opportunities, says a leader in the Washington Waterfowl Association.
RIDGEFIELD -- The new plan for Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge is a disappointment, offering no significant addition to hunting opportunities, says a leader in the Washington Waterfowl Association.
Doug Hargin of the association's lower Columbia chapter, said sportsmen had been led for years to believe there would be more hunting, possibly on Bachelor Island, when the new Ridgefield plan was completed.
"We don't feel we were given anything,'' Hargin said. "We faithfully rallied hunters to attend and give their input at every meeting in the planning process and the final result is we are lucky just to have hunting.''
Environmental interests simply have more political clout than hunters, he said.
"We feel like we were led down the road, then pushed off the bridge,'' Hargin said. "We'll still keep volunteering out there, we'll still clean the blinds in February. But it would have been nice to have something tangible. There's no joyous reaction from us.''
Doug Hargin of the association’s lower Columbia chapter, said sportsmen had been led for years to believe there would be more hunting, possibly on Bachelor Island, when the new Ridgefield plan was completed.
“We don’t feel we were given anything,” Hargin said. “We faithfully rallied hunters to attend and give their input at every meeting in the planning process and the final result is we are lucky just to have hunting.”
Environmental interests simply have more political clout than hunters, he said.
“We feel like we were led down the road, then pushed off the bridge,” Hargin said. “We’ll still keep volunteering out there, we’ll still clean the blinds in February. But it would have been nice to have something tangible. There’s no joyous reaction from us.”
Bob Flores, manager at Ridgefield and three other Southwest Washington refuges, said some measures in the new plan can be completed with existing staff and budget, while others — such as a two-lane bridge and one-mile entrance road accessing the River S unit at a new location — will be expensive.
Here’s a summary of the plan:
HUNTING: Waterfowl hunting will continue on the 790 acres of River S unit where it currently exists. A draft plan alternative proposed opening some of Bachelor Island to hunting, but that is not in the final plan.
Bachelor Island is good habitat for dusky Canada geese, a species on a long-term decline, plus is an important foraging and roosting area for sandhill cranes.
The waterfowl hunter check station will be moved to the current River S unit visitor entrance and up to two new blinds established in the Teal Marsh area.
Teal Marsh and the existing hunter check station site will be rehabilitated, which will offer greater flexibility in the spacing of blinds.
One hunting blind will be lost eventually when a new entrance is built to the River S unit from Port of Ridgefield property.
The plan calls for changing the refuge’s water management practices to allow for a gradual flood-up in the fall. This will create more shallow water areas favored by dabbling ducks such as mallards, pintails and wigeon.
Ridgefield’s current practice of pumping water into the refuge during early fall, then out during late fall and winter, results in deeper than desired ponds.
These deeper ponds favor less-popular ducks such as shovelers and scaup. When the refuge was established, wigeon were 40 percent of the harvest, followed by mallards and pintails.
Now, shovelers are 30 percent of the hunter harvest.
The refuge gets about 2,000 hunter days per season. It has a reservation system for the limited number of blinds. Applicants have about a one-in-nine chance of being drawn.
AUTO ROUTE: The automobile tour route will be shortened from 4.3 to 4 miles to reduce disturbance to dusky geese and sandhill cranes.
A small jog protruding into Swartz Field will be eliminated.
The refuge was asked by hunters to close the automobile tour route during hunting season, but opted to leave it open in the plan.
ACCESS POINTS: A new access point to the River S unit will be developed, including a bridge and entrance road, from Port of Ridgefield property to the north.
The new access will be expensive and is contingent on other agencies, primarily the port district, Flores said.
The existing access road has a grade-level crossing of the BNSF railroad tracks plus an aging wooden bridge. The current River S unit access will be abandoned, but a pier on Lake River retained.
Access to the refuge from the south via the Ridgeport Dairy and Roth units was considered and rejected for several reasons, including disturbance of geese and cranes.
NEW TRAIL: A 1.5-mile dike-top wildlife observation trail will be built on the River S unit at the north end. The trail will be open May through September.
HABITAT IMPROVEMENTS: Crops and wet meadow acreage will be increased to help dusky Canada geese and sandhill cranes. Wetlands will be managed to increase their productivity and reduce invasive species.
Floodplain forest and oak woodlands will be restored, mainly in old field areas.
WHITETAIL DEER TRANSFER: Columbian whitetail deer are a federal endangered species, with the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge at Cathlamet the core habitat for their preservation.
Ridgefield refuge is within the historical range of Columbian whitetails and has been posed as a possible transfer site. The goal for recovery and delisting of the deer is to have at least three self-sustaining subgroups on secure habitat.
The plan calls for a study to determine if the refuge has appropriate habitat to support a self-sustaining population.
The study would also examine if whitetails would conflict with other management goals for Ridgefield and the ramifications if the deer moved off the refuge.
