New national wildlife refuge coming our way?

[whiteymac]

Hi all,

I read recently that the USFWS is considering establishing a new refuge at Wapato Lake (between Newberg and Forest Grove near to Gaston). A proposal has been drafted and public comment is being collected. Has anyone hunted there? I hunted there several times back in the 70's and actually shot my first duck there in 1976.

Whitey

[horseskull]

If's it anything like the refuge near Sherwood, that was made a few years ago, it will be no hunting and no public access.

[Flathead]

The "no hunting" refuges are definently the trend. A really great waterfowl hunting area down here was annexed into the Finley Refuge. Now there's no access. I wish they would open up a part of Finley to controlled public access hunting. Sauvies is a long way to go to wait in line, and Fern Ridge is always crowded.

[Dave Smith]

Wapato was established at least 4 years ago. Maybe they are expanding and even going as far as letting the locals know they are not allowed to hunt there?

[Get Bit]

The last I heard was the USFW owned only about 6o acres in the Wapato Lake area. Some Local landowners are pushing for the feds to buy it all and establish a refuge. I spoke to the man in charge of the project last fall and he told me that when they establish a new refuge they always try to take into consideration the traditional uses. Since hunting is a tradition there, he felt like there was a good chance that it would continue. He also told me that they will solicit public input prior. Sure would be nice to have hunting.

Get Bit

[GutshotApe]

Originally posted by Flathead:
The "no hunting" refuges are definently the trend. A really great waterfowl hunting area down here was annexed into the Finley Refuge. Now there's no access.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">Are you referring to the Snagboat Bend annex above Peoria? It so, you're right, the annexed 300-400 acres is "no hunting"...but the surrounding river & sloughs, including Lake Creek slough, can still be hunted. Under the previous ownership that wasn't always possible due to blocked sloughs and interference by the previous owner (in my opinion)...and the area now annexed was always posted and not open to the public, either. So overall, J.Q.Public is better off than before. :smile:

[ 09-28-2003, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: GutshotApe ]

[Critr Gitr]

And yes dear friends - Fern Ridge is in the process of becoming a "satellite" NWR. The feds have already purchased a substantial tract of land due east of East Coyote. Feel free to check with Wayne Morrow who manages Fern Ridge.........

[Flathead]

gsa,

I started hunting the Snagboat Bend sloughs and ponds when I was 10. The 2 previous owners prior to the people who donated it to USFWS allowed hunting to the general public and did not post the property. Also, yes there is still hunting around the edges of the area, but now that USFWS has heavily planted the area with food crops that they don't harvest there is only the occasional bird that comes out of the refuge. Instead of the birds being well distributed through out the area they will now begin to concentrate in the refuge.

Don't get me wrong, I support the refuge system that has helped to increase our waterfowl populations, but again the traditional uses of the property were not taken into account in this instance. Even after significant public input from many of us who live here and several of us that had worked that property over the years.

[GutshotApe]

FH - I bought my first jetboat in 1985 and liked to run the river from Peoria upstream past Snagboat Bend. The 350 acres was purchased by a Californian about 1983 and by 1985-86 three apparently illegal (IMO) rock berms had been built across the mouths of sloughs...topped with barbed wire fences (blocking navigation and trapping ESA-listed chinook fry behind them when the river receeded)....and an unauthorized, illegal but official-looking floating bouy was put at the mouth of Lake Cr slough proclaiming "Wildlife Refuge - No Hunting" although the sloughs are state-owned navigable waterways. There were many 8' steel fence posts driven into the Willamette river bed at low water with No Trespassing signs...even though the river bed and the banks there are state-owned. The landowner was apparently setting up a leased hunting operation and didn't like the competition from freelancers. One morning before daylight as I ran my boat upstream past this land someone standing by a pickup truck on the shore shined a powerful spotlight in my face...ruining my night vision...a voice yelled out, warning me off "private property" even though I wasn't even near the bank. This happened to other boaters passing by there, too. If you set up decoys in one of the sloughs, hunting out of an anchored boat, the landowner or his employee would walk over and stand nearby in view of any ducks...and would skybust any ducks that looked like they might come in to your deeks.

The landowner and/or hunters he harassed called the OSP out 17 times in 1995...yet no citations were issued for trespass because no trespass occurred. The landowner was warned about continued harassment of legal hunters. The persistence of one hunter who refused to take no for an answer led the landowner to try to have the state administratively ban hunting & fishing on the sloughs & waterways around his acreage in exchange for a quitclaim deed to the state for ~40 acres of floodland, most of which (~35 ac) he didn't really own in the first place, IMO. The quitclaimed land could never be opened to the public or it reverted to the "donor" or his heirs.

And the guy didn't donate the 350 acres, either...it was a cash sale at the appraised market price, as I recollect...possibly with an intermediary taking title briefly then transferring to the feds.

The present situation with federal ownership may not be as desirable as things were there when you were a kid...but I think its better now than what existed for many years under the previous owner...for the average public hunter.

[ 09-29-2003, 09:15 AM: Message edited by: GutshotApe ]