What We Do
The National Wildlife Refuge System is a series of lands and waters owned and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wildlife conservation is at the heart of the refuge system. It drives everything we do from the purpose a refuge is established, to the recreational activities offered there, to the resource management tools we use. Selecting the right tools helps us ensure the survival of local plants and animals and helps fulfill the purpose of the refuge.
Management and Conservation
Refuges use a wide range of land management tools based on the best science available. Some refuges use prescribed fires to mimic natural fires that would have cleared old vegetation from the land helping native plants regenerate and local wildlife to thrive. Other refuges contain Wilderness areas where land is largely managed passively. The management tools used are aimed at ensuring a balanced conservation approach where both wildlife and people will benefit. At this field station our conservation toolbox includes: moist soil management, farming for wildlife, prescribed fire and invasive species management.
Washita National Wildlife Refuge was established to provide a feeding and resting area for wintering and migrating waterfowl and sandhill cranes. The refuge manages approximately 85 acres of moist soil units to provide food and resting areas for ducks and geese. A moist soil unit is a shallow, man-made pond designed to be flooded in the wintertime and dry in the summer. Moist soil units are sometimes planted with millet or milo to provide food for waterfowl. Our staff actively manages the moist soil units, performing activities such as dike construction and maintenance, controlling invasive species, maintenance of water control structures, and pumping water into the units when needed.
The refuge provides a wintering place for hundreds of thousands of geese every year. These birds rest on Foss Lake at nighttime and travel to nearby farm fields to feed by day. The refuge plants about 2,000 acres of small grains, including wheat, rye and triticale, for the geese to eat. Geese graze on the wheat while it is still green rather than eating the grain. Farming activities include cultivation, planting, weed control, and harvest - if any of the crops survive the hungry geese!
The refuge encompasses more than 2,000 acres of grasslands. The mixed-grass prairie native to western Oklahoma is a fire-adapted ecosystem. Grasslands existed for thousands of years with regular wildfires that helped maintain the open grasslands by keeping out many trees. The refuge conducts prescribed burns to keep grasslands open and free of invasive trees such as eastern redcedar. Staff from the Wildland Fire Service (WFS) along with Washita’s staff conduct burns according to burn plans. They also work with our local Volunteer Fire Departments in the event of a wildfire.
Exotic and invasive species are plants and animals that come from somewhere else and can take over an area by pushing out the native species. Some exotic invasive plants found at Washita National Wildlife Refuge are johnsongrass, saltcedar, plumegrass, giant reed and cheatgrass. These non-native plants do not provide good habitat for our native wildlife, and the refuge works throughout the year to control these species. Non-native animals can also be found on the refuge. Domestic dogs and cats are sometimes abandoned here and they can be extremely harmful to native animals. It is illegal to release domestic animals onto any National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge currently monitors feral pig activity and removes them before they can become established in large numbers.