A ceremony celebrating the reopening of Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge will be held starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The celebration is in recognition of the completion of the “largest habitat restoration project in the history of the lower Columbia River,” according to project officials.
The Steigerwald Lake refuge, which is part of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Complex, had been closed since August 2019. The $25 million project included reconnecting 965 acres of Columbia River floodplain, creation of new trails, more than 500,000 plantings of native species of trees, grasses and shrubs, and removal of infrastructure along Gibbons Creek.
The ceremony will feature a number of guest speakers, including refuge manager Juliette Fernandez from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Hugh Morrison, U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s acting regional director; Elaine Placido, executive director of Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership; David Ripp, CEO for the Port of Camas-Washougal; Washougal City Councilor Molly Coston and others.
