Ridgefield NWR meeting

[Perfect Drift]

This came from the Refuge, anyone else going to this meeting on Thursday or have more info ?

****************
Incidentally, there is a group of Ridgefield hunters who have organized a club to resurrect Ridgfield Refuge. That refuge was purchased primarily with duck stamp money, but has been managed miserably in the last few years & has less than 15% in huntable lands. There is a meeting on this Thursday (12/18) at Woodland Middle School at 7pm. They have gotten the head of Ridgefield refuge to appear and set forth his policies on what he's going to do with the refuge next year. Then the group will meet to develop a strategy. If you hunt this area, you should come to the meeting. For more details, call Bob Mahitka at Fisherman's Depot.

[Lured In]

PD...I would be interested in finding out more info. I made a few trips out to Ridgefield last year, debating about whether or not to learn to hunt it. While it reminds me a lot of Sauvie, there are things are both better and worse than Sauvie.

What is the ultimate goal of these discussions? Increase huntable area? Improve habitat in the huntable area? Improve overall habitat in the area? I realize many of these may be on the table, but I am curious as to what folks are hoping will come out of this.

Feel free to PM or email me if that is easier.

[Perfect Drift]

Found the entire post.
**************

Ridgefield refuge was purchased primarily with duck stamp money, but has been managed miserably in the last few years & has less than 15% in huntable lands rather than the 40% mandated by law.

Many have just given up, but not everyone. There is a group of dedicated Ridgefield hunters who have organized a chapter of the WWA (Washington Waterfowlers Assn.) whose goal is to resurrect Ridgfield Refuge and add new hunting areas. They have submitted a questionnaire to the Refuge Manager who tried to ignore them, but was forced to respond by his area supervisor.

There will be a meeting on this Thursday (12/18) at Woodland Middle School at 7pm where he will appear to set forth Refuge policy for next year and answer questions. To show "political power" it's important to have as many interested parties AND their families attend this meeting as possible. The Chapter will meet in early January to develop a strategy in response to what they hear on Thursday.
If you hunt this area or if you care about waterfowling in our state, you should come to the meeting if at all possible. After all, what is happening to Ridgefield could happen to a refuge near you!! From what I understand this manager has managed to effectively shut down waterfowling on several California refuges.

For more details, call Bob Mahitka at Fisherman's Depot in Woodland (360-225-9900, 6am-6pm) or Tim Deaver at Bob's in Longview.

[ 12-16-2003, 08:26 PM: Message edited by: Perfect Drift ]

[billc_sbio]

So much of it depends upon the Refuge Manager and how "hunter friendly" as well as knowledgeable he is on "setting an area up FOR hunting", not to mention his budget!

In the mid-80s Umatilla NWR was blessed with having a manager that knew hunting and knew HOW to set up good hunting opportunities.

After he left, the next manager tried to make his own "improvements", one of the first things he did was to take OUT the best blinds and/or change them around...things started going down hill!

The most recent manager has spent BIG BUCK$ making the McCormack Slough area into a big "visitor's park" with all kinds of viewing stations, one-way road, and electronic gates that open and close on a time clock. There's been really NO effort to do much to help or improve the hunting that takes place there (Oh, I know they'll TELL you there has been). In contrast to the early-mid 80's hunting sucks there now!

Of course not all of it is the Refuge's fault. The birds aren't present in the numbers lately that they were at that time.

Still the Refuge Staff, under the Manager's direction, can make a LOT of difference!

Go get 'em! :grin: