Umatilla Waterfowl Youth Hunt
November 10, 2018
Don't forget, Saturday, November 10, is reserved exclusively for youth hunters. Adults will not be allowed to hunt that day. Youths must be 10- to 17-years-old to participate in this hunt.
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.