William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge

Management Techniques

To help plants and wildlife, refuge staff uses a variety of habitat management techniques to maintain, recover or enhance plant and wildlife values. Refuge staff carefully considers any management techniques and employs them in varying degrees according to the situation. 

Water levels are carefully monitored and controlled to foster desired plant growth. Sometimes, sensitive areas are closed to the public so that the land can recover more quickly. Prescribed burning, mowing, and seeding are also some of the techniques used to help native plants recover on National Wildlife Refuges.

Standardized ground and aerial wildlife surveys and vegetation surveys are conducted on some refuges throughout the year to inventory populations and document habitat use. Units are evaluated by how well they met habitat and wildlife use objectives.

Rare Habitats

At William L. Finley NWR, carefully evaluated management techniques are vital due to the rare habitats found here. For example, wet prairie habitat was once the most widespread type in the Willamette Valley, now less than 1% of this area is left intact. Wet prairie habitat supports birds such as the western meadowlark, streaked horned lark and Oregon vesper sparrow. Several threatened and endangered plant species can also be found there.

Another rare habitat type found on the refuge is the oak savanna. Historically, the oak savanna was the primary habitat type in the Willamette Valley. The cavities of large Oregon white oak trees provide vital nest sites for cavity nesting birds such as the acorn woodpecker and white breasted nuthatch. Associated with this habitat are rare plants such as Kincaid's lupine and golden paintbrush, which are both listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Resource Management:

1. Habitat Management
2. Managing For Geese
3. Hunt Program
4. Conservation Planning

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 in passively. The management tools used are aimed at ensuring a balanced conservation approach where both wildlife and people will benefit.

1. Habitat Management

Prescribed Burning 

The Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex (NWRC) has an active prescribed burning program. The objectives of these burns are to restore and maintain native prairies and oak savannas, enhance populations of threatened and endangered species, improve food crops for Canada geese, and reduce the risks for severe wildfire. Most burning takes place in the late summer or early fall.

Agricultural lands

Through cooperative agreements with local farmers, refuge fields are planted to grow ryegrass, fescue, corn and pasture mixes. These crops are the preferred food for wintering geese. During the winter months thousands of geese feed on the crops planted by farmers. These farming operations help reduce off-refuge crop damage by migratory birds. 

Weed Control

Control of non-native, invasive weeds is an important management operation. Weeds present the single most significant threat to native plant communities and rare species. The refuge uses a combination of mowing, burning, slashing, hand pulling and herbicides to keep weeds in check.

Prairie Restoration

Throughout the refuges, former croplands are in different stages of being restored to native habitats. This process, which takes a number of years, includes clean-up of the fields of weeds and residual crops, site preparation for planting of native species and maintenance of the developing habitats.

The refuges are actively restoring both wetland and upland prairies and are working to enhance existing prairies that have been invaded by shrubs and small trees. The woody vegetation is cut and piled off-site where it is burned. Most treatment areas are selected to provide benefits to threatened and endangered plant species.

Water Management

Seasonally flooded wetlands require continual management to produce plants favored by waterfowl and other water-birds. Water levels are usually “stage-flooded” in the fall and winter using water control structures that allow variable levels. This helps maximize the food availability for migrating waterfowl. Managed levels are also important in the spring to prevent the establishment of undesirable non-native plants, like reed canary-grass. In the summer, most managed impoundments are dry, a natural cycle that native plants have adapted to.

Oak Habitat Restoration

The suppression of fire following European settlement in the Willamette Valley has dramatically altered oak woodlands and savanna. The refuge complex is selectively restoring these areas by removing invading Douglas fir trees that will eventually overtop and shade out the oaks. In addition, oak trees and shrubs are thinned in order to maintain an open grassland understory. Management of these sites is accomplished in concert with adjacent prairie habitats and benefits rare species. 

2. Managing For Geese

The Willamette Valley Refuges provide migrating geese with what they need to survive during the fall and winter and make the trek back to Alaska in the spring. To prepare for the spring flight and subsequent nesting period, geese need food, water, and sanctuary.  All of these items are provided on the Willamette Valley Refuges where thousands of geese spend the winter.

Food

Under cooperative agreements with local farmers, fields are planted in the spring with nutritious grasses preferred by geese, such as ryegrass, fescue, corn and pasture mixes. Farmers are responsible for all maintenance and care of the crop during the growing season and in the summer, they benefit from the harvest of these Refuge fields. The baled hay is generally used as feed for livestock, and once the farmers have harvested, the remaining stubs of grass are left to grow again.

In early fall these stubs start to green up as the fall rains provide necessary water to jumpstart their second growth. As the crops grow the geese are returning to the Refuge where they begin to appear in large numbers on the Refuge fields. Exhausted from their long flight south, the geese can then replenish their energy reserves on these nutritious greens.

By providing the geese with high quality food, the amount of off-Refuge crop depredation is reduced, thus benefiting not only the birds, but also the surrounding private lands.

Water

The Willamette Valley was once a vast wetland during the winter months due to flooding of the Willamette River and its tributaries. Since European settlement, dams have been built, and fields have been drained and tiled for crop production. The number of wetlands and wet prairies in the Valley have dramatically declined, resulting in smaller areas suitable for the geese.

Geese need water for resting and foraging habitat. The Willamette Valley Refuges have wetlands and wet prairies that provide both food and resting areas for wintering geese. Many Refuge wetlands occur naturally, while dikes and levees impound water to create others.

Seasonally flooded wetlands require continual management to produce plants favored by wintering waterfowl. Water levels are usually “stage-flooded” in the fall and winter using water control structures that allow for variable water levels. This helps maximize the food availability for migrating waterfowl including Canada geese.

Water levels are also important in the spring to prevent the establishment of undesirable non-native plants. In the summer, most impoundments are dry--a natural cycle that native plants have adapted to.

Sanctuary

Wintering waterfowl start to arrive on the Willamette Valley Refuges in early fall and stay until early spring. During this time the Refuges close the interior sections to public use to provide undisturbed habitat for the wintering waterfowl.

By resting in undisturbed areas on the refuges, wintering geese replenish their energy reserves required for migrating and nesting. The birds are able to browse Refuge fields, and forage and rest in the wetlands without being disturbed. This undisturbed sanctuary also makes the Refuge preferable to the geese than surrounding private lands, which serves to further prevent unwanted crop depredation.

3. Hunt Program

Black-tailed Deer:

Deer hunting is allowed at William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge and the Snag Boat Bend Unit each year, per Refuge and State hunting regulations. Check our website in May for the upcoming Fall and Winter deer hunt information, details and maps.  

Click here for the 2025 Deer Hunt information at William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge.  

Click here for the 2025 Deer and Waterfowl Hunt Information at Snag Boat Bend Unit . 

Roosevelt Elk:

Elk hunting is only allowed at William L. Finely National Wildlife Refuge for two months each year (~Sept and Oct).  Only antlerless elk may be harvested.  In order to hunt on the Refuge, you must be awarded a special Refuge elk hunt permit in addition to a current Oregon hunting license and valid state-issued elk tag. Check our website each May for that year's elk hunt details.  Applications for the limited Refuge-issued elk permits are due July 1st.  

Waterfowl:

At Snag Boat Bend, waterfowl hunting is allowed for part of the year, per State waterfowl regulations.  

Click here for the 2025 Deer and Waterfowl Hunt Information at Snag Boat Bend Unit.

4. Conservation Planning

The Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex manages a variety of native habitats: wet prairie, oak savanna, upland prairie, mixed forest, oak woodland and hardwood riparian riparian
Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas.

Learn more about riparian forest. Decisions on the habitats we provide, the wildlife they support, and how we manage them were part of the development of our CCP, or Comprehensive Conservation Plan.  

Beyond the 10,000+ Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex acres, the Private Lands Program works to conserve native habitats on private lands. Creating, restoring and maintaining native Willamette Valley habitats up and down the Valley - whether it be on a national wildlife refuge national wildlife refuge
A national wildlife refuge is typically a contiguous area of land and water managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  for the conservation and, where appropriate, restoration of fish, wildlife and plant resources and their habitats for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans.

Learn more about national wildlife refuge or private parcel - is what we work hard to achieve for wildlife and the American people. Read more about our conservation efforts in the Willamette Valley Conservation Study.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is embarking on an exciting plan that will help preserve key conservation areas in the middle and southern sections of the Willamette Valley. The Service developed a Land Protection Plan, which created the Willamette Valley Conservation Area (WVCA). 

Conservation

Comprehensive Conservation Plan

A conservation and management plan for Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge was completed in 2011. The plan, known as a “comprehensive conservation plan” (CCP) was written for all three refuges in the Willamette Valley Refuge Complex (Ankeny, Baskett Slough, and W.L. Finley). The purpose of a CCP is to specify a management direction for the Refuge for the next 15 years. The goals, objectives, and strategies for improving Refuge conditions—including the habitat and public use facilities we will provide, partnership opportunities, and management actions needed to achieve desired conditions – are described in the CCP.

National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act

For almost a century, the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System had been managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under a variety of laws without an "Organic Act" or comprehensive legislation spelling out how it ought to be managed and used by the public. On October 9, 1997, President Clinton signed the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-57). The Act amends the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 in a manner that provides an “Organic Act” for the Refuge System.

National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997: The NWRS Improvement Act defines a unifying mission for all refuges, including a process for determining compatible uses on refuges, and requiring that each refuge be managed according to a CCP. The NWRS Improvement  Act expressly states that wildlife conservation is the priority of System lands and that the Secretary shall ensure that the biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health of refuge lands are maintained. Each refuge must be managed to fulfill the specific purposes for which the refuge was established and the System mission. The first priority of each refuge is to conserve, manage, and if needed, restore fish and wildlife populations and habitats according to its purpose.

The Act was passed to ensure that the Refuge System is managed as a national system of related lands, waters, and interests for the protection and conservation of our Nation's wildlife resources.

The only system of Federal lands devoted specifically to wildlife, the National Wildlife Refuge System is a network of diverse and strategically located habitats. More than 545 national wildlife refuges and thousands of waterfowl production areas across the United States teem with millions of migratory birds, serve as havens for hundreds of endangered species, and host an enormous variety of other plants and animals. Over 39 million people visit units of the National Wildlife Refuge System each year to enjoy a wide range of wildlife related recreational opportunities.

The passage of this Act gave guidance to the Secretary of the Interior for the overall management of the Refuge System. The Act's main components include:

• a strong and singular wildlife conservation Mission for the Refuge System;
• a requirement that the Secretary of the Interior maintain the biological integrity, diversity and environmental health of the Refuge System;
• a new process for determining compatible uses on refuges;
• a recognition that wildlife-dependent recreational uses involving hunting, fishing, wildlife observation and photography, and environmental education and interpretation, when determined to be compatible, are legitimate and appropriate public uses of the Refuge System;
• that these compatible wildlife-dependent recreational uses are the priority general public uses of the Refuge System; and
• a requirement for preparing a comprehensive conservation plan for each refuge.