In 1998 I went on a road trip with my friend Mary to the top of the state of California to visit a place called Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. I was already known as a bird photographer on the Central Coast of California, and other photographers encouraged me to visit what they felt was a premier location for bird photography, Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

 

The best time to visit California wildlife refuges for migratory birds is during winter months so we were there in January. Tule Lake Refuge was something of a disappointment for me, although we did see Swans and both Golden and Bald Eagles. I had expected a larger abundance of geese and ducks, but in truth, they were there, it is just that this is a large wetlands area, so birds are more spread out and we didn’t see them in large groups.

 

A decision to take more rural roads home brought us to driving back through California on Highway 99 rather than Interstate 5. Somewhere beyond the city of Chico the need to find a restroom became important. Mary voiced it, “We need to find a biffy!”

 

Other than stopping at a restaurant where we would fill ourselves with more coffee and then be back in the same predicament, we hoped for a rest stop, but none were found. It was then that I saw a small brown sign by the side of the road, and I knew it indicated a nearby wildlife refuge. Figuring there had to be restroom facilities, I took a road leading west almost to the Interstate, where another sign pointed to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge complex. This was the most important and enlightening discovery of our trip.

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The hour was late, and it appeared that the refuge was closing when we ran in and headed straight into the restroom. Upon coming out I peered cautiously toward a large room with glassed-in displays of waterfowl and other animals. When Mary came out of the restroom, I hissed at her that we had to look around. That’s when a ranger found us gaping at the display.

 

To our delight, he told us that while the visitor center was closing there was time for us to drive around the auto refuge route where we would see in the flesh, the birds we were viewing in the displays. If we did this, we would be very late in getting home that night to Morro Bay, but if we didn’t do it, we knew we would regret it mightily.

 

We never made it home that night. We didn’t because after our first drive around the six miles of the refuge road, we kept going back around and around until the sun had disappeared and darkness was descending. No gates kept us in the refuge, and we could have kept driving around and around all night long. Instead, our decision was to beeline into the nearest town and find a motel because we knew we would be back the next morning at the crack of dawn to continue driving that auto route.

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Nothing had prepared us for the profusion of Ross’ and snow geese, Canada geese, and every species of duck we could think of that greeted us. They were flying in from feeding on the surrounding rice fields to land upon the ponds of the refuge. We didn’t then know about the rice fields but learned about them on successive visits to this refuge.

 

This first discovery of the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge opened up further discoveries of the six refuges in the Sacramento Valley along with state wildlife areas. Then the discovery of refuges in the San Joaquin Valley which is a closer travel from Morro Bay was welcomed– San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, Kern and Pixley National Wildlife Refuges. These, along with the North Grasslands Wildlife Area and the Los Banos and Mendota Wildlife Area have given birders like me experiences we will never forget and a better understanding of the importance of these wetlands.

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​How important are these wetlands? I don’t have the words to tell you. I cannot imagine not seeing the hundreds of thousands of snow geese suddenly taking to the air off the ponds of the Merced National Wildlife Refuge or the tens of thousands of sandhill cranes winging across the sky to the cornfields planted for them by refuge personnel. I would miss seeing the graceful arch of white against the deep brown feathers of pintail ducks, or the butt of the northern shoveler as this duck upends into the water to feed.

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​​The US Fish and Wildlife Service is the administrator for all wildlife refuges. Currently they, like National Parks, are being decimated by the federal government’s Department of Government Efficiency with a loss already of about 5% of the agency’s workforce. This includes personnel who manage the intake and outflow of the central valley available water which keeps the ponds at necessary levels for all the waterfowl. It also includes scientists who are studying the effects of climate change.

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While National Parks are places most people like to visit, I encourage those of you who have not visited a National Wildlife Refuge to do so. Learn about the importance they are not only to the wildlife they assist but to the quality of our lives and the lives of the next generation. Please contact your legislators and plead for the end to this harmful process and remember this at the time of elections.

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Published in Medium .Com

https://medium.com/@yeswecanpeacebuilders1

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