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Nearly 20 members of Oregon Hunters Association Klamath Chapter, with help from Hamilton Metals, spent Saturday, June 19 fixing two wildlife guzzlers on the Fremont-Winema National Forest near the Williamson River headwaters area so they will once again provide water for wildlife.

Wildlife guzzlers are structures designed to collect and store water for wildlife and are especially critical for animals inhabiting areas with little or no surface water or during periods of drought. They consist of a flat surface or apron that collects rainwater and funnels it into storage tanks containing a basin out of which wildlife can drink. They often experience some weather damage over the course of the winter, requiring maintenance and repair in the spring when melting snow permits access.

The concrete drinking trough of one guzzler was cracked and leaking, requiring chapter members to haul in a concrete mixer, jackhammer, 20 bags of cement and water to complete the onsite repair.

“They brought everything they needed with them into the woods,” said chapter president Rick Vieira. “They jack-hammered the broken trough out and poured a new one. We’ll go back when it sets up to fill the guzzler with water.”

The second guzzler needed its underground PVC pipe replaced. Mike Hamilton, of Hamilton Metals, donated his time and backhoe to dig out the old pipe so the guzzler’s plumbing could be replaced.

Chapter volunteers checked on other guzzlers in the area as well, cleaning them out, making minor repairs and placing salt blocks to provide important minerals for deer and elk that visit the guzzlers.

The chapter also donated about $600 for the cost of materials, which came from funds raised at its 2010 annual fundraising banquet.

Members of the Klamath OHA chapter go out each spring to check on the guzzlers in the forest, make repairs as needed and monitor them once a month throughout the summer to make sure they are functioning properly.

OHA restores three aspen groves and a meadow for wildlife on Malheur National Forest

More than 20 volunteers from the Capitol Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation spent last weekend in the Logan Valley area of the Malheur National Forest restoring aspen groves and a meadow to benefit wildlife. The Capitol Chapter has been working on aspen conservation projects on the Malheur National Forest for more than 10 years.

Aspens have been declining on the Malheur National Forest, as well as in many other parts of the West for years, due to a variety of factors including the encroachment of conifers that shade out the aspens, lack of fire that aspens need to stimulate new growth and over-browsing by deer and elk, which keeps them stunted.

This year the volunteers felled encroaching lodgepole pine from three aspen groves and fenced them with four-wire strand fence to keep out deer, elk and livestock. The volunteers also cut conifers that were making inroads on a meadow, an important type of habitat for big game and other wildlife species.

The chapter’s past aspen work on the forest is beginning to pay off.

“In a few more years we hope to remove the fences from past projects as the aspens become tall enough, large enough and numerous enough to withstand browsing,” said Ryan Falk, environmental coordinator for the Malheur National Forest’s Prairie City Ranger District. At that point the aspens will provide foood, shelter and nesting habitat for a variety of wildlife species.

OHA builds new fence at White River Wildlife Area

More than 45 volunteers from the Hoodview, Columbia County and Portland chapters of the Oregon Hunters Association spent the second weekend of June helping staff of the White River Wildlife Area replace a decaying corral, haul away old fences and remove fire hazards. OHA members have been volunteering at the wildlife area for the past 12 years.

The 40,877-acre White River Wildlife Area is located on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains near Wamic. It was purchased by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in the 1950s and provides habitat for a variety of wildlife including deer, elk and wild turkey.

This year, the volunteers cut down and piled old, dead trees for burning, replaced the fence around a deer feeding station that had fallen apart and rolled up old fence material so that wildlife won’t become tangled in it.

“We really appreciate OHA’s help, especially cleaning up the dead trees as that was a fire hazard, ” said wildlife area assistant manager Kenneth Martin. “There is still a lot of work to do but this gives us a good start.”

OHA volunteers put in a total of 368 work hours over the course of the weekend.

Bend Chapter OHA plants 2,000 cottonwood trees for wildlife habitat in Deschutes National Forest

Project restores habitat damage from 2003 B&B Fire

Thirteen volunteers from the Bend Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association spent Saturday morning, June 5, planting about 2,000 cottonwood saplings in the Link Creek basin above Suttle Lake in the Deschutes National Forest as part of an ongoing effort to restore wildlife habitat burned during the B&B Complex Fires.

The B&B Complex Fires, named after Bear and Booth buttes, started on August 19, 2003 and were officially contained on September 26, 2003 after burning 90,769 acres.

“Over the past three or four years, we’ve been looking at cottonwood stands within the B&B fire area to determine how to restore them,” said Monty Gregg, wildlife biologist for the Deschutes National Forest’s Sisters Ranger District.

Normally, cottonwoods regenerate themselves naturally after a disturbance such as wildfire, but that was not happening with cottonwood stands within the burn area.

“Most of the cottonwoods were old-growth trees and the B&B fire burned so hot that it killed their root systems so they weren’t regenerating on their own,” said Gregg.

According to Gregg, cottonwoods are important for wildlife that uses hardwood forest habitat such as grouse and many species of songbirds. Because cottonwoods often grow near water, the groves provide good places for elk and deer to give birth to their young.

Because of the scope of the burn and its impact on cottonwoods Gregg plans more restoration work next spring and beyond, relying on continued help from the OHA.

“The Forest Service asked us if we’d like to continue this project every year and we said ‘yes, that would be great,’” said Rod Adams, Bend OHA chapter project/volunteer coordinator. “So we will be going up there again next year.”

“Although there were only 13 OHA volunteers on Saturday, they were a force to be reckoned with,” said Gregg. “We finished planting all 2,000 trees before noon.”

OHA nurtures a new generation of outdoorsmen and women through youth events sponsored by local chapters

Studies show that the best way to get people involved in hunting and other outdoor activities is to get them started early in life. Each year, during spring and summer, local chapters of the Oregon Hunters Association hold a variety of youth events in communities throughout the state designed to entice kids away from computer screens, television sets and cell phones and introduce them to hunting, shooting and outdoor skills that will provide a lifetime of enjoyment.

“We donate our time to bring the youth out and get them interested in constructive activities rather than getting into trouble,” said Elizabeth Roberts, of Hermiston, who helps organize an annual youth bow shoot sponsored by the Columbia Basin OHA Chapter and Northeast Bow Hunters Range. “These are things they can do with mom, dad or a best friend.”

Many of these events focus on shooting skills, such as the annual Spring Youth Day organized by the Pioneer OHA chapter and held at the Canby Rod & Gun Club. This year, the May 1 event attracted nearly 60 kids ages 8 to 15 and 20 OHA volunteers and featured shotgun and archery clinics along with an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife hunter education instructor.

“We want to get the kids out of the house and give them the opportunity to practice archery and shotgun skills in a safe environment,” said Paul Askew of the Pioneer Chapter. “Hopefully, it will encourage kids to look at hunting and being outdoors as activities they will choose to pursue.”

One of the biggest youth outdoor events is the Youth Outdoor Day at E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area near Corvallis. Held in late May it is put on by a number of outdoor organizations including OHA’s Salem-based Capitol Chapter. This event focuses on teaching youth about hunting, fishing and conservation, and offers several dozen outdoor related activities such as sporting clays, a fishing derby, hunter education and decoy painting. It attracts close to 1,000 kids and adults, and about half the participants are girls.

“We also give prizes away for the purpose of providing the kids with some gear to motivate them to get back out into the outdoors after the event is over,” said Sam Dufner, Youth Outdoor Day chairman and a member of the OHA Capitol Chapter.

Another major youth event is the Youth Turkey Clinic, partially sponsored by the Mid-Columbia, Portland and Hoodview OHA chapters and held each April at the White River Wildlife Area in Tygh Valley just before the start of the spring youth turkey season. Now in its eighth year, this clinic focuses specifically on turkey hunting skills and includes turkey-calling instruction along with lessons on turkey hunting techniques, turkey behavior and biology, and hunting safety. Shotgun and archery ranges are also available where participants can practice their shooting skills. Held on April 3 this year, it attracted more than 250 people, including about 100 kids.

“We see these turkey clinics as an opportunity to introduce kids to hunting and the outdoors, and specifically wild turkey hunting,” said Fred Walasavage, a member of the Mid-Columbia Chapter of OHA who helps organize the clinic. “The success and effectiveness of the event continues to surprise me.”

The popularity of all these OHA-sponsored events demonstrates the interest is there among young people if only opportunities to learn about hunting and the outdoors are made available. The youth events OHA offers today are key to creating the hunters and conservationists of tomorrow.

OHA completes outdoor education and recreation pavilion at Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge

More than 50 volunteers from the Oregon Hunters Association’s Lakeview, Klamath and Hoodview chapters completed construction work on the education and recreation pavilion at Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge last weekend, May 8 and 9.

Located at the Civilian Conservation Corps campground along the access road to the refuge north of Plush, the 32- by 36-foot covered pavilion will be used as a facility for public education programs about the refuge’s wildlife and mission, and picnic area for visitors.

The 278,000-acre Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, situated about 35 miles northeast of Lakeview, is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Established in 1936 primarily to protect pronghorn antelope habitat, it currently provides a home for more than 300 species of wildlife.

Over the course of the weekend, OHA volunteers completed trim work on the pavilion, filled gaps in the walls, painted it, and covered the inside of the structure so the rafters aren’t exposed, which were attracting birds and resulting in a guano problem.

OHA members began work on the pavilion last year that included volunteer labor, $28,000 in funding provided by a dozen OHA chapters and picnic tables donated by the Lake County and Klamath chapters.

“It still needs a little finishing work,” said Bob Sweet, vice-president of the Klamath OHA chapter, who, along with Keith and Shari Reed of the Lake County OHA chapter, helped coordinate the project, “but it is ready to use. It’s really nice.”

In addition to completing construct work on the pavilion, a group of OHA members were dispatched to help eradicate non-native, noxious weeds near the refuge’s Hot Springs Campground.

Donations to construct the pavilion included $10,000 each from the Lake County and Klamath chapters, $1,000 each from the Emerald Valley, Umpqua, Redmond, Clatsop County, Yamhill and Columbia County chapters, and $500 each from the Baker, Rogue Valley, Ochoco and Josephine County chapters. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided $20,000 and the Order of the Antelope contributed $2,000.

Redmond Chapter OHA continues wildlife habitat restoration and improvement along Bridge Creek

More than 70 volunteers from the Redmond Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association and Central Oregon Quail and Upland Wildlife Federation spent last Saturday and Sunday restoring and improving wildlife habitat on former agricultural plots along Bridge Creek just west of Mitchell.

Now in its third year, the project is part of a 10-year partnership between the OHA Redmond Chapter and the Bureau of Land Management to increase the value to wildlife of about 300 acres of land acquired by BLM in a past land exchange. The area is important winter range for deer, elk and pronghorn.

Over the course of the weekend, the volunteers replaced about a mile of old barbed wire fence with more wildlife friendly smooth strand fence, planted 325 native shrubs and 30 fruit trees, seeded four pastures with plants valuable for wildlife forage and set up 1,000 feet of irrigation pipe.

“This is a three fold project,” said Redmond OHA chapter member John Crafton who helps organize the effort. “We are restoring wildlife forage, getting rid of noxious weeds and reducing soil erosion into Bridge Creek so it’s a good situation for fish, wildlife and the land.”

Later this year, the group will go back and plant wildlife forage along the fields bordering the creek to minimize soil runoff.

OHA volunteers improve big game habitat in Willamette National Forest

About 70 volunteers, including members of the Capitol Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association, spent Saturday, May 1 improving and maintaining forage habitat for deer, elk and other wildlife on the Detroit Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest. The project took place within the Bonneville Administration-Portland General Electric power line right-of-way along the Breitenbush River and in several meadows near Marion Forks. This is the ninth year that OHA has been involved in this ongoing wildlife habitat project.

The effort began in 2001 when invasive, non-native Scot’s broom that had infested the power line right-of-way was out-competing native vegetation and was eradicated. Since then, volunteers from OHA and other groups have been working with the U.S. Forest Service to maintain the power line right-of-way and meadow habitat in young tree, shrub and grass growth, which provides superior forage for deer and elk than deep forest.

“This type of habitat is very limited here, especially since we stopped clear cutting,” said Daryl Whitmore, wildlife biologist for the Detroit Ranger District, who oversaw the project.

This year’s work included fertilizing existing forage plants, planting grass seed, trimming ceanothus – an important big game forage shrub – to stimulate new growth and picking up garbage on a total of about 100 acres. Later in the year the Forest Service will return to the areas to spray encroaching Scot’s broom with herbicide.

In addition to the OHA volunteers, other project participants included members of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Mid Valley Crawlers and students from the Santiam School District. OHA and the Black-tailed Deer Foundation donated fertilizer for the project.

Josephine County and Rogue Valley chapters OHA restore meadow wildlife habitat on Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest

Volunteers from the Oregon Hunters Association, including 22 members of the Josephine County Chapter and 6 from the Rogue Valley Chapter, spent last Saturday, April 10, cutting and piling conifers that were encroaching on about 3 acres at Burnt Timber Creek Meadow in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest just south of Galice.

“The goal of the project is to increase forage for big game, upland birds and non-game wildlife,” said Brett Loper, president of the Josephine County Chapter of OHA.

To accomplish that goal, the volunteers cleared out the conifers that have been slowly making inroads into the meadow. Open, grassy meadows comprise only about one percent of the habitat on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, but elk, deer, wild turkey, grouse and other wildlife species use them heavily. Over time, conifers and brush will encroach on the meadows, eventually converting them to forest. To maintain the meadow habitat, the invading vegetation must be removed on a regular basis either by cutting or through controlled burns.

OHA members have been working to restore meadow habitat on the forest for many years, but have recently increased their efforts.

“We’ve been doing more meadow enhancement work over the past two or three years,” said Loper. “We did some good projects at Dasher Meadow and Butcherknife Creek last year and we are looking at some other meadow projects for next year.”

OHA has also contributed $5,000 to help pay for burning the slash piles at Burnt Timber Creek Meadow and for some controlled understory burning.

OHA rebuilds two guzzlers destroyed in Juniper Mountain Fire

Ten members of the Oregon Hunters Association Lake County Chapter spent last Saturday rebuilding two wildlife guzzlers that were destroyed in the Juniper Mountain Fire, which burned about 80,000 acres in 2002. The guzzlers are located in Mule Springs Valley and Juniper Draw, about 11 miles west of Juniper Mountain.

"It went really well," said Gerald Slay, OHA Lake County chapter president. "We were able to rebuild both guzzlers within a day." In addition to the OHA volunteers, staff from the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife also participated. The guzzlers are located on land managed by the BLM.

The Juniper Mountain Fire actually burned four guzzlers. "We've gotten two rebuilt now, so we have two more to go," said Lakeview-based ODFW district wildlife biologist Craig Foster. Foster hopes to organize another volunteer project to re-construct the other guzzlers in the near future.

According to Foster, the guzzlers provide an important additional water source for bighorn sheep, mule deer, pronghorn, chukar and a host of non-game wildlife.

OHA repairs wildlife guzzlers on Fremont-Winema National Forest

About 40 members of Oregon Hunters Association Klamath Chapter spent last weekend maintaining and repairing about 30 wildlife guzzlers on the Fremont-Winema National Forest near the Williamson River headwaters area.

"We gave each one a check-over and clean up, dropped off a salt block and did minor maintenance," said Rick Viera, the chapter's guzzler project coordinator. "For guzzlers that need major repairs, we will develop a timeline to go back and work on them later."

A wildlife guzzler is a structure designed to collect and store water for wildlife and are especially critical for animals inhabiting arid regions or during periods of drought. They consist of a flat surface or apron that collects rainwater and funnels it into storage tanks containing a basin out of which wildlife can drink. They often experience some weather damage over the course of the winter, requiring maintenance and repair in the spring when melting snow permits access.

In addition to returning later this year to make more extensive repairs on some guzzlers, chapter members are also working with the U.S. Forest Service to identify each guzzler's coordinates using the Global Position System. That information will be used to develop a map that will make it easier to locate the guzzlers in the future for maintenance and repair work.

OHA awards $15,000 grant to Coquille Tribe for road project

The Coquille Indian Tribe has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the Oregon Hunters Association for a road and motor vehicle management project on its forest lands on the south coast intended to protect wildlife from harassment, prevent habitat damage and provide for a better quality hunting experience.

The project is located on the Coquille Forest, a 5,400-acre block of timberlands southeast of Myrtle Point, which is owned by the Coquille Indian Tribe and is also open to public access, including hunting. During the fall, excessive motor vehicle traffic on forest roads causes serious wildlife disturbance, off-road vehicle use damages habitat along with contributing to increased vandalism and garbage dumping.

The grant is being used to install gates to keep about 2,500 acres of forest off-limits to motor vehicles, except for forest and wildlife management purposes. Horseback, bicycle and walk-in public access will still be allowed.

"There is beautiful timber and lots of wildlife on the forest," said Darren Cagley, natural resources technician for the tribe, who is managing the gate installation project. "But from September to December we have a constant parade of vehicles out here." That has resulted in increased poaching activity on the forest along with other problems.

"We don’t want to reduce people's hunting opportunities," said Cagley. "It's all open access and limiting motor vehicle access will increase the quality of the hunting experience."

OHA provides $3,800 in grants for Youth Outdoor Day at E.E. Wilson

The Oregon Hunters Association provided a total of $3,800 in grants to help fund last Saturday's Youth Outdoor Day, held at the E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area located north of Corvallis. The State Chapter of OHA contributed $3,300, and several local chapters contributed $500.

The annual event is intended to teach youth about hunting, fishing and conservation, and offers nearly three dozen outdoor related activities such as sporting clays, a fishing derby, hunter education and decoy painting. Volunteers from the Capitol Chapter of OHA offered laser shoots and predator calling lessons at the event, which attracted nearly 750 kids and about 200 adult volunteers from various outdoor organizations. Participant ages ranged from four years to 16, and about half were girls.

"We also give prizes away for the purpose of providing the kids with some gear to motivate them to get back out into the outdoors after the event is over," said Sam Dufner, Youth Outdoor Day chairman and a member of the OHA Capitol Chapter.

Oregon Hunters Association Redmond Chapter Farms for Wildlife

Nearly three dozen volunteers from the Redmond Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association spent last weekend farming for wildlife on several agricultural plots just west of Mitchell as part of a 10-year partnership with the Bureau of Land Management to improve wildlife habitat in the area.

The work included discing and seeding 12 acres with cover crops, planting fruit trees, installing irrigation pumps and pipes, and planting winter wheat on another 12 acres. Volunteers will return regularly over the next six weeks to irrigate the crops.

"Eventually, it will produce food and cover for a variety of bird species as well as deer, elk, antelope and other wildlife," said Harold Duncan, one of three Redmond OHA Chapter members who helps coordinate the project. The crops will also divert deer and elk from neighboring private agricultural lands to help reduce wildlife related damage to those properties.

The agreement, now in its second year, includes about 300 acres of agricultural lands off Burnt Ranch Road that were acquired by the Bureau of Land Management in a past land exchange. To date, the Redmond OHA chapter has contributed $10,000 for irrigation pumps, $5,000 for a tractor and about $1,400 for seed and fertilizer. Central Oregon Quail Unlimited is also involved in the partnership and has donated $5,000 along with another $7,000 from that organization’s national office.

"It's already working," said Duncan. "We saw all kinds of elk tracks and droppings in the fields, and when I went out on Saturday I saw five antelope bedded down in the winter wheat we planted last year."

OHA improves wildlife habitat on Umpqua National Forest

Members of the Umpqua Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association are working on several wildlife habitat improvement stewardship projects in the Umpqua National Forest while raising funds to help the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Umpqua District purchase a new tractor to use for additional wildlife habitat enhancement projects.

"This is a three-way partnership between the Umpqua National Forest Diamond Lake Ranger District, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Hunters Association," said ODFW Umpqua District wildlife biologist Tod Lum. "OHA volunteers do the work and the Forest Service pays OHA, with the money going towards the purchase of a habitat tractor."

Most recently, 13 OHA volunteers removed a quarter-mile of old fence from around an abandoned tree plantation at Brodie Creek on Saturday, April 25. The fence was originally installed to keep elk away from the plantation trees. Now overgrown and dilapidated, it is a hazard to the elk herds that frequent the area.

"The elk use the meadow at the old plantation, but the fence around it makes them to prone getting tangled in it and they are more vulnerable to predation because it interferes with their escape routes," said OHA Umpqua Chapter member Marnie Allbritten, who helped coordinate the project.

Earlier this year the chapter also installed a pipe from a spring to a new pond constructed at Thorn Prairie, also located in the Umpqua National Forest Diamond Lake Ranger District, to provide a new water source for wildlife. The chapter plans to remove old fence at several additional former plantations later this spring when melting snow makes them accessible.

The total cost for the new tractor is $30,000. The Umpqua and Tioga chapters of the Oregon Hunters Association have donated $7,000. In addition, the stewardship project work will bring in another $10,000. The remaining funds will come from the ODFW Game Bird Stamp Program and the ODFW Umpqua District Office.

The new tractor, to replace an older failing one, will be used for a variety of wildlife habitat restoration and enhancement projects such as seeding abandoned logging roads to provide forage and cover for grouse and quail, invigorating the growth of shrubs used by big game by cutting them back, mowing bracken fern to encourage a greater variety of native plants to grow and for tilling areas to be planted with crops beneficial to wildlife.

"OHA has been a tremendous resource on this and other wildlife projects," said Lum. "They have some great people."

OHA removes piles of garbage from private and state timberlands

About fifteen volunteers from the Clatsop County Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association, along with a few members of the Saddle Mountain Archers, spent last Saturday and Sunday removing trash from local state and private forests along Highway 26, including timberlands owned by Hampton Affiliates, Longview Fibre and Weyerhaeuser.

"Most of the garbage was dumped between Highway 26 and the gates leading into the forest," said Clatsop County Chapter member Norm McLaren. "We found everything from old mattresses to worn out tires." Deeper in the forest the volunteers retrieved mainly smaller trash items such as discarded bottles and cans. One group of volunteers found a bag of used syringes.

McLaren estimates they picked up about 20 cubic yards of garbage over the course of the weekend. The dumpster they rented was so overflowing that the refuse company had to make two trips to haul it all away.

Chapter members are planning another clean-up weekend later this summer.

OHA receives Wildlife Society’s Annual Conservation Award

The Oregon Hunters Association has received the Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society’s Annual Conservation Award, which was presented to OHA President Fred Craig on Feb. 12 at the chapter’s annual meeting in Gleneden Beach.

OHA received the award in recognition of its ongoing work in Oregon supporting wildlife law enforcement, wildlife habitat and hunters rights.

Craig was one of the featured speakers at the conference and presented a lecture on the decline in the number of Oregonians who hunt.

The award came as a surprise. “I didn’t know about it until they called me up on stage the night of the banquet to accept it on behalf of OHA,” said Craig. “I was kind of flabbergasted.”

The Wildlife Society is a professional organization composed of people working in the wildlife management field. It is based in Bethesda, MD and has state chapters throughout the U.S.

Hunters pack hearing at State Capitol for Hunters Day testimony

Nearly 200 hunters packed two hearing rooms at the State Capitol in Salem on Thurs. evening to attend and testify before the House Committee on Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Communities at a ‘Hunters’ Day’ hearing. More than 60 hunters testified before the committee.

Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) initiated the 'Hunters' Day' hearing after attending the January board meeting of the Oregon Hunters Association. Clem, an avid hunter himself, held the hearing to find out more about the concerns and needs of hunters, and the positive impacts of the hunting experience in Oregon.

During the three-hours of testimony, youth and adults described their first hunts, the rewarding experience hunting offers and the opportunities for families to spend time together in the outdoors. Hunters also told Committee members about their involvement volunteering for wildlife habitat restoration projects and the need for the State Legislature to support hunting in Oregon. Other issues currently of concern to hunters in Oregon include public hunting access opportunities, impacts of predators on big game populations, continuing decline of mule deer numbers, landowner preference tags and the potential for sage grouse to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. Staff from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife also gave a presentation on the economic benefits of hunting to the state’s economy.

“This was an unprecedented opportunity for hunters in Oregon when the chairman of this powerful committee is holding a hearing to learn about the issues of concern to hunters,” said Fred Craig, President of the Oregon Hunters Association.

In addition to Rep. Clem, other members of the committee are Suzanne VanOrman, (D-Hood River), Wayne Krieger (R-Gold Beach), Terry Beyer, (D-Springfield), Vic Gilliam, (R-Silverton), Arnie Roblan, (D-Coos Bay), Mike Schaufler, (D-Happy Valley) and Matt Wingard (R-Wilsonville).

The Oregon Hunters Association is the state’s largest pro-hunting organization, with more than 10,000 members and 25 chapters statewide. Its mission is “to provide abundant huntable wildlife resources in Oregon for present and future generations, enhancement of wildlife habitat and protection of hunters rights.”

OHA Hoodview Chapter improves wildlife habitat and saves native flowers at Powell Butte Nature Park

About 20 volunteers from the Hoodview Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association spent a rainy and windy first Saturday in March planting oak trees and rescuing a plot of native wildflowers from the path of an upcoming construction project as part of the chapter’s ongoing work to restore habitat at 600-acre Powell Butte Nature Park, located off S.E. Powell Boulevard in Portland.

The project is part of an annual watershed-wide series of habitat restoration projects sponsored by the Johnson Creek Watershed Council where for the past 11 years community volunteers from throughout the Portland area come together to remove invasive vegetation, plant native plants, pick up garbage and participate in other environmental restoration activities within the Johnson Creek watershed. The Hoodview Chapter, which has about 680 members, is the coordinating organization for restoration work at Powell Butte Nature Park.

“We’re getting Powell Butte back to its natural state and to help protect the Johnson Creek watershed, which is home to a variety of wildlife and fish species,” said Gerry Rondo, a Hoodview Chapter member who organizes the Powell Butte project volunteers.

The chapter has been removing invasive, non-native English hawthorn from the park and planting native vegetation in its place for the past seven years.

“OHA has been a valuable partner in removing non-native plants from the park,” said Mart Hughes, an ecologist and biologist with Portland Parks and Recreation. “I have been able to remove much more of the hawthorn than I had originally anticipated because of their help.”

This year, in addition to planting native trees, the OHA volunteers also moved a patch of pearly everlastings, which is a native wildflower belonging to the sunflower family usually found in high mountain areas but had managed to take root in the park. Unfortunately, the flowers were growing on the site of a planned 50-million gallon water storage tank with construction slated to start this spring.

“We dug them up and moved them away from the planned construction site to preserve them,” said Rondo. “It was kind of cool.”

Last year the Hoodview Chapter received a ‘Riffle Award’ from the Johnson Creek Watershed Council in recognition of its restoration work at Powell Butte Nature Park.

OHA Emerald Valley Chapter nurtures meadow habitat for big game near Lookout Point Reservoir

Elk and deer will have more to eat at Buckhead Seed Orchard in the Willamette National Forest thanks to a half-dozen volunteers from the Emerald Valley Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association along with U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff who spent Saturday, March 25 planting about 150 native shrubs that will increase the amount of available forage for big game animals. The seed orchard, which is no longer operational, is located near Lookout Point Reservoir west of Oakridge.

“Elk use the meadow a lot, so we are working to restore the area to give them more forage to eat,” said John Nagy, an Emerald Valley Chapter OHA member who helped coordinate the project.

The seed orchard planting is part of an ongoing multi-year project the chapter is involved with to improve wildlife habitat in the Lookout Point Reservoir area. The chapter also purchases fertilizer every other year to enhance the meadow’s grass and forb growth.

“We’ll be back later to cut out the Scotch broom and Himalayan blackberry that is encroaching on the meadow,” said Nagy. In May, the chapter also plans to complete a split rail fence around the orchard to keep off-road vehicles from damaging the fragile meadow habitat.

The shrubs for this project were purchased by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife through its Green Forage program.

OHA Rogue Valley Chapter enhances oak woodland habitat along Elk Creek

About 25 volunteers from the Rogue Valley Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association cleared encroaching conifers from oak woodlands along Elk Creek several miles upstream from Elk Creek Dam that if left unchecked would reduce their value to wildlife. The project took place on Saturday, March 14.

“There are a lot of oak woodlands there that were being encroached upon by small pines and firs growing within them,” said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife habitat biologist Vince Oredson, who coordinated the project. “Eventually, they would grow up and overshadow the oaks and reduce acorn production and other wildlife values.”

To restore the woodlands, OHA volunteers went in with chainsaws and handsaws and cut out the small firs and pines that ranged from 2 to 4 inches in diameter and 5 to 15 feet high. The cut trees were piled and left to be utilized as habitat by birds and small mammals.

“Oak woodlands are very important wildlife habitat,” said Oredson. “They produce lots of acorns, which is great wildlife food, and the older trees provide cavities for many species of nesting birds.”

In addition, when the oak woodlands are opened up by removing encroaching conifers more sunlight light comes in, which promotes the growth of grasses and forbs that are also important food sources for wildlife.

Elk Creek has some of the best winter deer range in the region. A large herd of resident elk roams the area along with good populations of mountain quail, wild turkey and numerous other wildlife species.

Capitol Chapter OHA builds homes for wood ducks

Wood ducks in the Salem area will have plenty of new nesting sites to choose from this spring thanks to nearly 100 nesting boxes members of the Capitol Chapter of the Oregon Hunters Association built during a workshop held locally on Sat., Feb. 7. About 40 people, including children and adults, participated.

Several chapter members precut the parts and created kits that the volunteers assembled, completing more than 90 boxes in a couple of hours. “Participants took the boxes home with them and they will put them up in areas with wood duck habitat to provide the birds with more nest locations,” said Joe Purdy, a Capitol Chapter board member who coordinated this year’s workshop. About 25 of the boxes went to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The OHA Capitol Chapter has been conducting wood duck nest box building projects for 17 years.

Wood ducks build their nests in tree cavities near rivers, lakes and marshes usually within 1,200 feet of the water and breed beginning in April into early August, when the young leave the nest. Wood ducks will also nest in human-made nest boxes, which are often used to help increase populations in areas with good habitat. Wood duck nest boxes are typically about 2’x1’x1’ in size with a 3” diameter entry hole and placed in deciduous trees over water for best results.

OHA members clear brush on Butcherknife Creek.

OHA restores meadow on Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest

Two-dozen members of the Josephine County Chapter Oregon Hunters Association spent the second Saturday in January cutting and clearing brush and trees from Butcherknife Meadow in the Siskiyou National Forest near Selma. The project is part of a multi-year effort to improve forage for big game and other wildlife species on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

"Our goal is to clear about 200 acres of meadow habitat each year to enhance big game forage," said Brett Loper, president of the Josephine County OHA chapter. "We gave $5,000 for the project last year and are contributing another $5,000 for 2009."

Grasses and forbs found in meadow habitat are a major food source for a variety of wildlife species, especially for deer and elk. But over time, conifers and shrubs begin to encroach on meadows and will eventually convert them to forest habitat. To keep the meadows open, they need to be cleared of trees and brush then maintained with controlled burns every three to five years.

For the Jan. 10 project, OHA volunteers cut encroaching brush and conifers from Butcherknife Meadow, accumulating 64 piles that the Forest Service will burn. Last year, OHA helped the Forest Service open up nearly 300 acres of meadow at Waters Creek, also near Selma.

Healthy meadow habitat is extremely important for wildlife.

"These open, grass meadows make up only about one percent of the forest, but they get very heavy use by deer, elk, wild turkey, grouse and other wildlife species," said David Austin, supervisory wildlife biologist for the Wild River and Siskiyou Mountains ranger districts of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

Meadow habitat enhancement projects have been conducted on the Siskiyou National Forest for the last five years. In addition to OHA, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife have also been working with the U.S. Forest Service on the meadow enhancement projects.

OHA offers $200 reward to catch Lookout Point Reservoir gate thieves

The Oregon Hunters Association is offering a $200 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the theft of six metal gates from lands managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the North Shore of Lookout Point Reservoir near Lowell sometime in early December. The number to report information is 1-800-452-7888.

The North Shore of Lookout Point Reservoir is a focus of ongoing wildlife habitat restoration work over the past several years by a number of government agencies and organizations, including the Oregon Hunters Association. Last September, OHA volunteers and others completed a noxious weed eradication project in the area.

Illegal off-road vehicle use has been an ongoing problem, especially by mud boggers who have been causing extensive damage to areas where habitat has been restored. The stolen gates were used as part of a road management program to keep motor vehicles out of environmentally sensitive areas.

The gates are estimated to have cost between $600 and $3,000 each. Officials suspect the gates were stolen for their scrap metal value.

Anyone with information on this incident should call 1-800-452-7888. If the information provided results in an arrest, the tipster will receive a $200 reward.

OHA members built a split rail fence at Lookout Point Reservoir to curb off-road vehicle damage.

OHA Shores Up Habitat at Lookout Point Reservoir

About 30 members of the Emerald Valley, Portland and Capitol chapters of the Oregon Hunters Association, along with volunteers from the Eugene Chapter of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, gathered on the north shore of Lookout Point Reservoir just north of Blue River this past weekend to improve wildlife habitat by removing non-native invasive plants that are choking out native vegetation.

"This project is in the Bonneville Power Administration power line right-of-way within the Willamette National Forest,” said John Nagy, habitat coordinator for the Emerald Valley OHA Chapter. “This year, we removed blackberry bushes and other noxious weeds to improve forage for deer and elk.”

Project work included spraying undesirable plants with herbicides, cutting blackberry bushes and scotch broom, and construction of a split rail fence to protect sensitive areas from off-road vehicle traffic, which has been a problem in the past.

This is the third year that OHA has been involved in improving wildlife habitat in the power line corridor and plans to continue it as an ongoing project. In addition to volunteer labor, the Emerald Valley Chapter has donated about $4,500 and the Capitol Chapter has contributed about $1,000 over the past three years to help fund the restoration work.

Other participants in the project include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages Lookout Point Reservoir, Bonneville Power Administration, the U.S. Forest Service and Jensen’s Tree Service.

Their efforts have been paying off. “Deer and elk are using the right-of-way like crazy,” says Nagy. “Every time we go up there we see lots of deer and elk. It’s become like a beautiful woodland meadow.”

OHA helps Oregon’s aspens branch out

Without the brilliant yellows of quaking aspens, autumn would be a visually drabber season in Oregon. But for wildlife, the loss of these trees, which many animals rely on for food and shelter, would be devastating. Unfortunately, aspens have been declining for years throughout the West, including in Oregon. For the past decade, members of the Oregon Hunters Association have been actively working with U.S. Forest Service foresters and wildlife biologists to stem the decline and restore these beautiful and valuable native trees to health.

“Aspen groves are a unique community,” said Rod Adams of the Bend OHA chapter, who helped with a recent aspen restoration project in the Deschutes National Forest. “A lot of us hunt in aspens. They are great habitat for big game and all kinds of wildlife, and we want to protect them.”

Quaking aspens grow along streams and in wetlands and mountainous areas of central, northeast and southeast Oregon, as well as in pockets in the Cascade Mountains. Although not all the reasons for their decline are understood, a major cause has been the suppression of wildfires, which has allowed conifers to encroach into many aspen stands and crowd them out. In addition, wildfires encourage aspens to grow by burning up older trees and stimulating the emergence of new saplings. A lack of fire has choked new growth needed to maintain the groves.

Young saplings are especially vulnerable to over-browsing by deer, elk and livestock that can prevent them from reaching maturity and helping an aspen grove sustain itself, so forest managers often fence vulnerable groves to keep hungry animals out until the trees have grown tall enough to stand on their own.

For the past 10 years, volunteers from the OHA have been on the frontline of the effort to restore Oregon’s aspen groves by providing muscle power and funding to procure and build fences around groves suffering from over-browsing by big game and livestock. Over the past month, OHA members from various chapters around the state have fenced off aspen groves in the Deschutes, Ochoco and Malheur national forests. Last year, OHA volunteers helped fence a two-acre and seven-acre grove in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, where aspens are rare.

On the first weekend of June, members of the Bend OHA chapter fenced a two-acre grove on the north shore of Davis Lake in the Deschutes National Forest with a 7 ½-foot tall nylon fence held up with 10-foot poles. The work was challenging.

“We had eight-foot stepladders and two or three people would hold it on the side of a slope while another person would be perched on top, driving the posts in,” said Adams.

June also found members of the Salem area-based Capitol Chapter, along with the Bend, Ochoco and Redmond OHA chapters, variously helping fence aspen groves in the Malheur National Forest near Prairie City and in the Ochoco National Forest near Paulina.

“For the first few years we worked on aspens that were the least healthy and productive to make sure we didn’t lose them,” said Ryan Falk, Environmental Coordinator for the Malheur National Forest Prairie City Ranger District, who along with district wildlife biologist Andy Daniels has been coordinating these projects. “Now we’re protecting the older stands that are a little bigger and healthier.”

This was the 10th year of aspen projects on the Prairie City Ranger District using volunteers from OHA and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. In that time, they have fenced about 30 aspen groves, ranging from a few struggling trees to stands of nearly 30 acres.

Both the Malheur National Forest and the Ochoco National Forest, which hosted its second OHA aspen-fencing project in early June, use buck-and-pole fences to keep big game and livestock out of the groves. The fences last about 10 years before they deteriorate, which is about how long it takes aspen to grow big enough to withstand browsing – about two inches in diameter and eight feet tall. “Then we can give them back to the big game,” said Falk, who estimates that will happen in a year or two for some of the earliest projects on his district.

“The hard part about restoring aspens is protecting them from big game animals that really want to get in there,” said Wayne Branum, a wildlife technician and OHA member who oversaw the Davis Lake project in the Deschutes National Forest. “We’ve fenced several aspen groves on the Crescent Ranger District now, and it’s working.”

OHA pledges $20,000 for forensics work aimed at bagging poachers

The Oregon Hunters Association has pledged up to $20,000 toward a proposed partnership with Idaho Fish and Game to perform DNA work for Oregon State Police for a period of two years at a cost of $25,000 – a big savings for Oregon compared to the estimated cost of $300,000 to start OSP’s own program.

OHA pledges:

OHA State, up to $10,000 to complete the program funding
Capitol Chapter, $2,000
Klamath Chapter, $1,500
Ochoco Chapter, $1,500
Rogue Valley Chapter, $1,500
Josephine County Chapter, $1,000
Hoodview Chapter, $500
Lincoln County Chapter, $500
Pioneer Chapter, $500
Columbia County Chapter, $500
Yamhill County Chapter; $500

Other groups:

Oregon FNAWS, $2,500
Mule Deer Foundation, $1,500
Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, $1,500
Oregon Bow Hunters, $500
Traditional Archers of Oregon, $500
SCI Santiam Chapter, $500
Benton Bowmen, Inc., $200

OHA's latest grants should improve hunting opportunities for mule deer and game birds.

OHA approves project funding aimed at improving habitat and hunting in the Columbia Basin

The Oregon Hunters Association has recently awarded two grants totaling $27,400 for wildlife research and habitat improvement projects.

The Morrow Soil and Water Conservation District will use a $25,000 grant to improve upland bird and mule deer habitat primarily on private agricultural lands in Morrow, Umatilla and Gilliam counties.

North-central Oregon has long been a favorite destination for pheasant and other upland bird hunting. Bird populations have declined in the region over the years due, in part, to more intensive farming techniques that make less habitat available. Habitat technician Dennis Newman has been working with landowners in those three counties to help them develop and implement habitat projects such as planting forbs, shrubs and trees to provide food, cover and nesting sites and water development projects such as wildlife guzzlers, spring development and fencing riparian areas. As of April 2008, 65 landowners had inquired about developing projects on their lands and 11 contracts for projects had been signed.

Says Newman, “There has been a tremendous amount of interest in project involvement from landowners.”

Currently, there are about 124,000 acres of private lands open to public hunting in Morrow and Gilliam counties through the ODFW Upland Cooperative Access Program and the Access and Habitat Program.

The A&H Program and Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation have also contributed funds to the project.

OHA has also provided a $2,400 grant to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for the purchase of dart guns for a study within the White River Wildlife Area to determine the summer range of a herd of about 4,000 black-tailed deer and their migration routes. The Mid-Columbia Chapter of OHA has also contributed $950 to the project.

The 40,877-acre White River Wildlife Area, located near Tygh Valley in north-central Oregon, is managed by ODFW. It provides important deer winter range as well as a variety of big game and upland bird hunting opportunities.

The study involves using the dart guns to tranquilize six mature bucks and fitting them with radio collars so their seasonal movements can be tracked.

Currently, these animals are not typically available to hunters because their whereabouts during hunting seasons are not known. Determining the herd’s migration routes and patterns will help ODFW better manage deer tag numbers in the White River Wildlife Management Unit and assess the potential for creating a new late season White River buck hunt.

OHA’s statewide organization and local chapters regularly contribute funding for a variety of projects that benefit wildlife and hunting opportunities. Other recent donations include $3,700 for a moose population survey in northeast Oregon, $18,475 for a bighorn sheep survival study in the lower Deschutes River canyon, $20,000 to improve waterfowl hunting access to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and $33,500 for pronghorn migration research in southeast Oregon.

OHA funds hay purchases to divert elk from ranchers’ haystacks

The Oregon Hunters Association has come to the rescue of several Grant County ranchers whose haystacks were being devoured by hundreds of hungry elk that were driven from their winter ranges by heavy snow and cold temperatures. To help those affected ranchers, three OHA chapters have donated $5,900 to purchase hay for use as a diversionary food source for the animals. The funds include $2,000 from the Grant County OHA chapter, $2,100 from the Salem-area Capitol Chapter and $1,800 from the Portland Chapter.

“Ranchers can tolerate elk for awhile, but if they start eating all their hay they start calling for kill permits, and we don’t want that,” said Don Schaller, OHA Northwest Director-at-Large who helped organize the fundraising effort.

According to Ryan Torland, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife district wildlife biologist based in John Day, about 300 elk began moving down onto four ranchers’ haystacks in mid-January. That many elk can do a considerable amount of damage including knocking down fences, toppling haystacks and eating as much as two tons of hay per day. And because last summer’s drought conditions resulted in a decrease in the hay cut, with some ranchers reporting up to a 40 percent decrease, there is much less tolerance for hay depredations by elk than usual.

“We did some manual hazing, set up hazing cannons around the haystacks and started an emergency hunt, but none of those methods worked,” said Torland.

ODFW then purchased 25 tons of hay and set up diversionary feeding stations several miles away from the affected ranches. As that hay has been devoured, the OHA funding has allowed ODFW to continue the effort, which recently purchased another 22 tons.

Torland emphasized that the diversionary feeding will continue until weather and snow conditions permit the elk to resume their natural diet but is not intended to become a permanent, ongoing program.

OHA buys corn to help game birds survive harsh winter

Game birds in Union, Baker, Umatilla and Wallowa counties will find getting through a tough winter a little easier thanks to $1,700 donated by five chapters of the Oregon Hunters Association to purchase corn for private landowners to feed the beleaguered birds. OHA Chapters contributing funds include the Yamhill, Josephine, Lincoln, Klamath and Portland chapters.

“We’ve had a real bad winter and I was getting calls from people who wanted to help them,” said La Grande resident Jim Ward, an OHA member, who along with the La Grande OHA Chapter, have been helping supply local farmers with corn to feed game birds on their properties for the past seven years.

Due to this winter’s especially harsh conditions, Ward had been observing flocks of wild turkeys in the Elgin area that were not doing well, looking cold and haggard and huddled under trees trying to keep out of the wind.

“I e-mailed all the OHA chapters in the state and five responded with enough donations to buy seven tons of corn,” said Ward.

The corn was distributed to selected landowners who had flocks of birds moving onto their properties in search of food and shelter in north Union County, the Meacham area and several locations in Baker and Wallowa counties.

Oregon Hunters Association contributes $3,700
for moose monitoring project in northeast Oregon

Seven local chapters of the Oregon Hunters Association contributed $3,700 to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife towards the cost of capturing four moose cows in northeast Oregon during the week of January 14 and fitting them with radio tracking collars for a monitoring project.

Moose have been wandering into northeast Oregon from Washington and Idaho in recent years and appear to have established a small permanent population, primarily within the Umatilla National Forest and Wenaha Wildlife Management Unit. The ODFW monitoring project is intended to learn more about the moose, including their distribution and population size.

“The Oregon Hunters Association’s interest is two-fold,” said OHA president Fred Craig. “First, it is very exciting to have moose move into our state and the chance to go out and see one. Secondly, there is the potential that one day we can have opportunities to hunt moose here in Oregon.”

OHA chapters contributing to the moose-monitoring project include $1,200 from the Josephine County Chapter, $500 from the Yamhill County Chapter, $500 from the Lincoln County Chapter, $500 from the Pioneer Chapter, $250 from the Columbia Chapter, $500 from the Rogue Valley Chapter and $250 from the Baker County Chapter.

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