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Volunteers Help Revive Steigerwald Lake Refuge
Pacific Region, May 5, 2005
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As the Comprehensive Conservation Plan for Steigerwald Lake, Franz Lake and Pierce Refuges nears completion, local volunteers are beginning to help refuge staff breathe new life into Steigerwald Lake NWR. Between January and March 2005, a Ridgefield NWR Friends member coordinated with the refuge (land base); Lower Columbia River Estuary Program (who arranged for several school groups) and Boy Scouts (vegetation planters); and Georgia Pacific (provided vegetation) to plant approximately a thousand willow shrubs along Gibbons Creek, replacing invasive blackberry vegetation which had been removed by a refuge contract. In May, refuge staff was joined by five local volunteers to wrap wire around the lower portions of mature cottonwoods along Gibbons Creek to protect them from beaver, who had begun to cut them down after removal of the blackberry understory. A multi-agency partnership was coordinated by the same Friends member to begin erection of new, durable white plastic nesting gourds for purple martins on the southern edge of the refuge near the Columbia River. Funding was donated by Vancouver Audubon for 94 new gourds, new lightweight fiberglass poles were donated by Durapole, and two refuge volunteers assisted refuge staff in erecting the first two poles. Because the martins have arrived and are ready for nesting, the rest of the nest boxes will be erected next fall after they have migrated south. The purple martin project was on the front page of two local newspapers, increasing awareness in the community of the refuge and its needs for assistance.

As funding decreases, refuge staff will rely increasingly on volunteer groups, and is initiating the creation of a Refuge Friends Group to assist implementing the actions identified in the Comprehensive Conservation Plan.

No contact information available. Please contact Charles Traxler, 612-713-5313, charles_traxler@fws.gov


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