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Author Topic: Ridgefield NWR Changes "Important"  (Read 1871 times)

Offline Planeguy4

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Ridgefield NWR Changes "Important"
« on: March 24, 2009, 10:52:33 PM »
The Ridgefield NWR is proposing changes (CCP) to the entire hunting area that will effect us all. We need your support to insure that the future of waterfowl hunting continues and that we don't get short changed on what has been promised over the years. This letter was sent to me by Doug Hargin of the Lower Columbia Chapter of the Washington Waterfowlers Assoc. It outlines our stand on the proposals on the table. If you cannot attend the meeting please go online at the link below and state your concerns to the future of our sport. Thanks....Scott (waterfowler and resident of Ridgefield, WA.)

http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/ridgefield/pdf/rnwrplnupdate3.pdf


For six years any requests or suggestions that WWA has made that would substantively effect the hunt area has been differed to this very time and the CCP process.  In short, the decisions made now will have a dramatic and critical impact on how the refuge looks and operates for years to come.   As consumptive users, on a refuge designed in its enabling legislation to allow hunting as one of its specified purposes, we need to actively participate down to a person.   
 
When the Ridgefield Refuge opened in 1965, hunting was allowed seven days a week with free roam hunting.  Around 1970 the fiberglass blinds we use today were introduced and hunting went to every other day with a lottery system to fill the blinds.  Sometime later hunters were asked to endorse closing Bachelor Island Slough to hunting with the promise of someday hunting Bachelor Island when bridge access became available.  The refuge has acquired Bachelor Island, Roth, Ridgeport Dairy and Steigerwald, more than doubling its original size.  These were all prime waterfowl habitat properties that were being hunted.  Hunter support was garnered with the promise of access at some point. 

With this huge increase in acreage what has the waterfowl hunter gained?  We have lost Bachelor Island Slough.  We lost three blinds to the tour route during the reconfiguration of the refuge.  At this same time we went to a three day a week hunt schedule slicing eight days off the season.  The refuge also began closing down for hunting on federal holidays costing us Thanksgiving and Veteran's Day each season and this year Christmas and New Years also.  In addition this year due to the bridge closure and weather closures we lost an additional six days!
 
The point is the hunt area opportunities have not kept pace with the growth of the refuge and increase in population.  The CCP process is our one chance to have some influence over the way our refuge will look and operate for the next fifteen years.  With that in mind here are some talking points for the Open House and comment period.
 
•   We favor the first alternative opening up the South end of Bachelor Island to hunting as promised by previous refuge Managers.  We do not endorse shutting down the south end of the current hunt area for goose or duck hunting and ask this be removed from the alternative.  The new entrance will cost us at least two, possibly three blinds.  It is time for the refuge to quit hording historical waterfowling properties while restricting and shrinking hunting access.  It makes no sense to tear up an established area when there are limited dollars and their is a need to expand the hunt area.  As the option to hunt Bachelor Island is on the table as a first choice it must be doable.  Considering the huge amount of land acquired in recent years and the loss of hunting blinds for new access to give up established hunting area makes no sense and would appear punitive.
•   We would encourage the refuge to plant more crops.  Currently they have hung their hat on sustainable native plants and mowing pasture.  Yet only a mile across the river is some of the best waterfowl habitat and hunting around on the farmed Sauvies Island State Wildlife Refuge.  We have talked for years with them and they are baffled by the lack of crops in the hunt area at Ridgefield.
•   We would like to reinstate the Federal Holidays in the hunt schedule.  This was implemented at a time when management was doing everything it its power to reduce hunt days.  I am not aware of another refuge that allows hunting that does this.
•   Close down or modify the tour route on hunt days to avoid the hunt area while in use.  The way the route was configured is one of the great travesties of the refuge.  There is no other refuge in the country that allows traffic to drive through the hunt area while hunting is in progress.  This absolutely degrades quality of the experience for the hunter.  Why would you direct non-consumptive users into a situation with gun fire and  dead birds dropping from the sky?  With the closures and holidays we only hunted on the refuge 37 days this season.  That's well over 300 days available for uninhibited touring! 
•   Hold Birdfest on the weekend prior to the season opener in mid October.  Again, why would you want to create this situation and ruin the quality of hunt as car after car drives by or better yet stops to watch?  The arguments I have heard for this date don't convince me it could not be held a week earler.
•   Increase the Dusky harvest limit at the refuge.  The current number of ten birds is too low and has no statistical relevance to the survival of the population.  The Shillapoo allotment has not been historically.  The state has repeatedly offered their unused quota over the years to keep the refuge open.  We ask that this arrangement be accepted as policy. 

In conclusion we think it is imperative to replace the three blinds lost to the tour route and probable loss of three more with the new entrance by opening Bachelor Island to hunting AND continuing to hunt the southern end of the hunt area for ducks and geese. This is in no way an indictment of the current management.  It is the culmination of being told for six years to wait for the CCP process to address the issues stated above.
 
Please make sure to attend and recruit other hunters into this process.  If you absolutely can't make it go on line and submit your comments before April 10th.  In fact we must all do this!
 
 
Doug Hargin
Sec/Treasurer WWA
Lower Columbia Chapter

Offline Planeguy4

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Re: Ridgefield NWR Changes "Important"
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2009, 11:03:55 PM »
BTW here is the info about the upcomming Public Open House Meeting this thursday and the info on sending comments. Thanks....scott


Public Open House Meeting:
March 26th, 2009, 6:00pm -8:00pm
Ridgefield Community Center
210 North Main Ave
Ridgefield WA, 98642

Comments may be faxed to (360) 887-4109
Or e-mailed to:
FW1PlanningComments@fws.gov
Please put “Ridgefield NWR CCP Alternatives”
On the subject line

Offline tntklundt

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Re: Ridgefield NWR Changes "Important"
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2009, 03:52:39 PM »
 :yeah:
All of your points are valid. That place has been built on the backs of waterfowl hunters yet the preference given to the non hunters continues to go on. Yes their is a collection system in place for the bird watchers but I doubt it comes close to what waterfowl hunters contribute through tax on sporting goods, licenses, duck stamps and blind user fees at the refuge. Of course we shouldn't expect a government agency to show any common sense. I have hunted no other refuge or wildlife area State or Federal that manages itself in this way. I will not make the meeting but will e mail my concerns.

 


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