By Doug Barker, Contributing editor, 10/9/1996
Congress created the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge at Bowerman Basin in 1988, but for several years there was little outward sign that the swampy mudflats near the airport in Hoquiam held any special designation.
About a year ago, after several years of negotiations, the federal government completed the purchase of the largest portion of the refuge.
Now there are signs that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is more actively managing the refuge, a favorite feeding station for hundreds of thousands of birds and an attraction to birdwatchers every spring.
A crew is already building an 1,800-foot-long section of boardwalk that will keep birdwatchers out of the mud at the prime viewing spot in the refuge. The work should be complete some time in January, refuge officials say.
Birdwatchers still will have to walk about a half-mile to reach the point of land that sticks out
into the refuge, but once there, they will be able to walk around the point on the loop boardwalk trail, which will cost about $150,000.
The area where the boardwalk is being installed is closed during its construction.
ANOTHER sign of refuge management is that Fish & Wildlife has posted "area closed" signs along the Highway 109 edge of the refuge, which will keep some duck hunters away from an easily accessible hunting spot when the season opens Oct. 12.
Refuge officials know the closure may upset some hunters and say they are trying to head that off by being up-front about it.
Doug Zimmer, a Fish & Wildlife spokesman and an avid duck hunter, said the closure probably will affect about 20 or 30 hunters. Most of them, he said, are young people who get some of their first hunting experience there because it's close enough to town that they can walk there.
Hunting is prohibited in the refuge. And if someone were to hunt on the edge of the refuge, they couldn't retrieve their birds if they fell into the refuge, Zimmer said.
Jean Takekawa, deputy refuge manager, said the "no hunting" provision was arrived at when the management plan was drafted following a series of public meetings.
"This is the stuff the community wanted," Zimmer said.
On about half the country's national wildlife refuges, hunting is permitted, Zimmer said. Hunting isn't allowed on this one because of the refuge's small size and because the mud- flats are such a fragile environment, Takekawa said.
But this year they have posted- the area with signs and informed law enforcement officials, she said.
The closed area shouldn't affect those who want to hike along the abandoned railroad right of way between the mudflats and the highway, Takekawa said. That belongs to the state Department of Transportation and remains accessible to the public.
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