Sitting Ducks

What is a wildlife refuge? You would think it is a shelter where wildlife can live free and undisturbed in their natural environment. Not so in the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northern California. If you are a farmer you can lease this land from the government and grow corps. Fifteen thousand of the 39,000 acres of Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge is leased farmland.

Previously Tule Lake was a 100,000 acre wetland. It was the prime resting and feeding area for waterfowl migrating south. Six million ducks stopped at Tule Lake during October and November. But from the mid 20's to mid 50's the Bureau of Land Management drained the wetland area to 1/6 its original size. The wetland ecosystem has been reduced to two sumps, called Sump 1-A and Sump 1-B. The number of waterfowl using the area has since dropped to one million.

The farm leases are justified by claiming that the waste grain and potatoes from the lease program provide a major food source for migrating and wintering waterfowl. It seems to me that the ducks were doing just fine before.

This formerly beautiful lake was home to the Modoc Indians for thousands of years. They hunted and fished the area without destroying the rich wildlife environment. By draining the lake some of the last marks of the Modoc Indian's history are being destroyed. The petroglyphs marking a cliff which was once graced by water are now being sandblasted by the dry barren landscape which lays before them.

What remains of Tule Lake is still rich in wildlife, and there is a canoe trail through parts of the refuge. I asked at the visitor center if I could go canoeing to see the ducks during peak migration. The attendant responded, "What are you crazy! Canoeing during hunting season,. I wouldn't recommend it."

"You hunt migrating ducks in the refuge?" I replied in shock.

"Of course, that's when the ducks are most plentiful!"

So much for assuming that the hunting brochure on the counter was about how hunting in the refuge was strictly prohibited. Upon browsing the brochure, it revealed that even 16 year olds are allowed to blast ducks in the refuge. I thought we were suppose to be teaching children how to preserve the environment. The brochure did mention that you just can't shoot blindly into the air and watch the ducks fall from the sky. You are suppose to have a specific target. Not much of a consolation for a duck. To my dismay, another brochure containing a summary of our National Wildlife Refuges, reveals that most of them allow hunting.

This multi-use use approach in our National Wildlife Refuges is disturbing. Somehow hunting, farming and grazing in a wildlife refuge doesn't provide much of a sanctuary. It seems to me that the valuable wetland habitat lost in Tule Lake and other National Wildlife Refuges isn't worth a few acres of farmland. If our National Wildlife Refuges are truly refuges, then we should refrain from shooting wildlife in their sanctuaries and instead begin restoring some of what we have taken away.