New Ebey Island Release Site

[SnowDog]

Called the Region 4 office today and was told there will be a press release out by the end of day Friday announcing the details on the new Ebey Island pheasant release site. They told me it would be open with birds for the 10/2 opener.

I took a drive out there to look around today, and there is no access posted or anything on any of the property. If they are going to open this to the public on Saturday, they have a bunch of work to do to get it ready. Not holding my breath.

Cheers!
SD

[pjb3]

Ebey Island between  Snohomish and Everett under the trussels?

[SnowDog]

Yes. That is the place

[Fishnclifff]

Is that gonna replace Stanwood? Please tell me they are closing stanwood  please pretty please

[PatoLoco]

Stanwood/Leque island/Smith farm is intertidal. Has been since spring or so. Dike failures.

[PatoLoco]

Oh, and the ebey area is basically that large pasture area to the south of rhe hwy 2 trestle. Dfw has owned it for a few years but haven't had the money or permits or whatever to develop an access. Wsdot is reluctant to let them officially develop that area under the east end of the trestle that everybody uses to walk the dike, so that isn't an official parking area as far as I know. And the guy that farms on the south end and runs the cattle on the place you can bet will not be keen on hunters parking next to his barns. But the gun club to the south (snowater I think) could probably make a buck or two lettin guys shoot pheasants off their property!

[sled]

  Oh Boy here we go!  This is going to be a busy, dangerous place to be hunting.  Will be popular thats for sure.

[Goldeneye]

Does anyone know if they actually planted birds?  I was down by there this morning, around lunch, and this evening.  Never saw any birds being planted.  Although they made a small designated parking area (it'll fit about 8 rigs)...

[jeepster]

press will have a hayday when some slackjawed jokel shoots and the shot rains down on the highway- i dont know exactly where it is going to be at, but i know the area and the thought just has me shaking my head...

[PatoLoco]

They usually release birds in the evening, and they're probably driving them down from skagit headuarters so, no, they probably hadn't released yet.
As far as the boundaries on the site, I know the south end has a newer barbedwire fence running east-west, and I think the property goes pretty well up to the trestle to the north. That big slough you see from 2, which kind of runs north-south through the pasture, goes right through the property. There were wdfw property boundary signs out there at one point last summer but they were likely used as scratching posts for the cows so I wonder if there are any left?

[Gobble Doc]

I was driving over the trestle this weekend toward Snohomish and looked off to my right and saw someone out there with a bright hunter orange vest on and it looked like they had a gun so figured they were looking for birds.  Tonight it looks like there is a blind of some sort out in the middle now.  It seems to me like it will be hunting in a fish bowl with Hwy2 and houses looking down. 

[Waldo84]

That place has been open for 2-3 years for ducks, been out there a couple of times but never shot anything. Used it for training my pup this summer a few times but had to dodge the cows. This is the first i've heard of it being a release site now though. You're right, its going to be busy if it is!

[D-Rock425]

My house is just up the road from this site I thought I saw those diamond shape shooting boundary sighs out last week.  I have duck hunted the site many times but I think it is a bad idea for a release site it is not that big and is covered in water most of the season.

[Goldeneye]

One of those Diamond shaped buffer zone signs is right next to that blind someone has built in the middle out there too.  There's plenty of water out there right now.  A friend told me he was in water up to the mid thigh crossing one area out there this weekend.  Said there were about 40 guys in the field Sunday morning.  Definitely crowded as far as I'm concerned.  Gonna be real interesting once the duck hunters and pheasant hunters try to hunt at the same time.       

[D-Rock425]

Have they already started to release birds?