JAMES JOHNSON
BY JAMES JOHNSTON
Where Eagles Fly
Klamath National Wildlife Refuge is for the birds
T
he Pacific Northwest has hundreds
of National Wildlife Refuges of
every size, managed by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service for the benefit of every-
thing from antelope to butterflies. There’s a
best time of year to visit each, depending in
part on the type of the wildlife for which the
different refuges are managed. The grand-
daddy of them all — sometimes called the
Everglades of the West — is the Lower
Klamath Wildlife Refuge. The best time of
year to visit is the dead of winter, when al-
most three quarters of Pacific Flyway water-
fowl flock to this giant 50,000-acre sanctu-
ary.
Although the refuge itself is just across
the border in California, the nearest town of
any size, and your jump off point for refuge
adventures, is Klamath Falls, county seat of
Klamath County and the largest town in
south-central Oregon. The quickest way get
there is to drive Hwy. 58 east of Eugene over
Willamette Pass and turn south on Hwy. 97.
The trip will take you approximately 3 hours
if pass conditions cooperate.
Unless you’re prepared for cold weather,
reserve a motel room in Klamath Falls and
proceed south on 97 for approximately 17
miles. Just across the border, turn east (left)
on Hwy. 161 at the sign for the Lower
Klamath Refuge. In 9.8 miles, turn south
(right) on a wide gravel road. This is the start-
ing point for an auto tour.
Before European settlement, the headwa-
ters of the Klamath River formed a massive
wetland complex composed of almost
200,000 acres of shallow lakes and freshwa-
ter marshes stretching almost a hundred miles
from Tule Lake in California to upper
Klamath Lake on the Oregon side of the bor-
der. Over six million birds visited the basin
during their migration.
In 1905, the US Bureau of Reclamation
launched the Klamath Reclamation Project,
which drained more than 75 percent of his-
toric wetlands to create farmland. As home-
steaders rapidly ate up prime farmland, mar-
ket hunters swarmed the Klamath Basin,
slaughtering huge numbers of ducks, herons,
grebes and egrets for meat and plumage.
Today, bird populations peak at about a mil-
lion.
In 1908, Teddy Roosevelt leaped into ac-
tion, designating the remaining unclaimed
lands as the nation’s first waterfowl refuge.
Today, most of the refuge is very flat and cov-
ered with water for all or part of the year. The
rest is grassy uplands and cropland that is in-
tensively managed to produce forage and
habitat for birds. Much of what appears to be
shallow marshland and streams is, upon
closer inspection, controlled by a compli-
cated network of canals and irrigation gate
valves. The entire Klamath Basin, in fact, is a
vast, man-made plumbing system. Most of
the water goes to farmers; some of it goes to
the birds.
The 10-mile driving tour takes you
through the heart of the refuge and a variety
of habitats. Tundra swans and geese are most
prominent in the winter. Spring brings avo-
cets, stilts, teals, American bitterns, curlews
and American white pelicans.
The most impressive winter spectacle is
the sunrise “flyout” of hundreds of bald ea-
gles from the woody slopes of the nearby
Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuge to their
perches on gnarled cottonwoods at the Lower
Klamath Refuge. To see it for yourself, posi-
tion yourself on the Ward-Keno Road, a cou-
ple miles west of Hwy. 97. The eagles travel
from as far north as the Yukon and scavenge
on a veritable smorgasbord of frozen bird and
animal carcasses. In a good year, more than
500 eagles roost at night on old growth snags
at Bear Valley.
A smaller but equally attractive destina-
tion for bird viewing is the Tule Lake Refuge.
To get there, continue east on Hwy. 161 and
turn south (right) on Hill Road (the corner
store at the junction has one of the best col-
lections of arrowheads anywhere). Tule
Refuge is a system of marshes and swamp-
lands built around Tule Lake. At 13,000
acres, it’s just 13 percent of its pre-settlement
size. Like the Lower Klamath, an auto tour is
the best way to experience the birds. And like
the Klamath, a number of short trails lead to
wildlife blinds, excellent habitat for wildlife
photographers.
Continuing south from the Tule Lake
Refuge takes you into Lava Beds National
Monument, a bizarre volcanic moonscape
with prominent views north to the wildlife
refuges. The lava beds feature numerous
caves and tunnels, from which the Modoc
war chief Kintpuash (often known by his
moniker Captain Jack) and 53 of his warriors
held off a thousand cavalry troopers for seven
months between 1872 to 1873 during one of
the more interesting and bloody conflicts in
California’s history.
As fabulous as the wildlife viewing and
scenery is today, it’s hard not to think about
how much more spectacular the scene would
have been 140 years ago.
ew
JANUARY 25, 2007 29