Waterfowl & Upland Game Bird Hunting Lotteries
September 9, 2016
The health and safety of our visitors and staff is important to us. The Refuge is evaluating procedural changes to the 2020/2021 waterfowl hunt season to provide a quality and safe hunting experience consistent with State and local COVID-19 guidance. The Refuge is no longer accepting applications for the Umatilla McCormack Unit hunting lottery. Additional information about any changes to the hunt program will be announced by email and website once finalized. If you entered the lottery, you can expect to see an email with your results by the end of September. There will not be a lottery for opening weekend of upland game birds this year. Permits will be available on a first-come first-served basis at the Hunter Check Station. Remember, upland hunting on the Umatilla McCormack Unit will commence at 12:00 noon on opening day of waterfowl season, October 17, 2020. Good luck and thank you for supporting your National Wildlife Refuge.
Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder . . .
. . . or if you have to try to live there. Many plants that people think are “pretty” are, ecologically speaking, disastrous to wildlife. Plants, such as purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus), false indigo (Amorpha fruticosa) and even phragmites (Phragmites australis), are considered by many to be desirable landscaping plants. That would be fine, if they stayed in your backyard landscape. However, when they escape into the wild, they can out-compete native plants, forming monocultures where before a wide variety of plants provided for native wildlife. Often, these foreign escapees have no forage value for native wildlife, or they create habitats that have a different physical characteristic than wildlife can use (e.g., they may be tall, whereas native birds need low bushes for nesting). So, when you see a colorful field of plants on the refuge, beware that they may mask a terrible problem.