The Northwest's

BEST KEPT SECRET

by Butch Goodwin Familiarity with a pop-up blind and remaining steady are necessities for the well-trained goose dog. Like many hunters of my generation, I grew up reading the pages of Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and Sports Afield magazines. I hung on every word as the writers described the Rocky Mountain area as alive with big game and upland gamebirds.   I learned about hunting bighorn sheep, elk, and deer from the dean of outdoor writers, Jack O’Connor, who had moved his family from Tucson, Arizona, to Lewiston, Idaho, in the late 1940s to take advantage of the outstanding big game and upland hunting opportunities that Idaho afforded.   From reading Elmer Keith — the outfitter from Salmon, Idaho, who knew Civil War veterans and old West gunfighters when he was a youngster on the frontier in the early days of the 20th century, I read about large caliber rifles and handguns.   On the pages of Field & Stream magazine, I read what Boise, Idaho, native Ted Trueblood wrote about big game, upland and waterfowl hunting, and fishing all over the Northwest. (I even remember the debate that steamed through the magazine’s pages and spilled over to some newspapers when another writer jokingly questioned if there really was someone named “Ted Trueblood” or if the name was a pseudonym, simply a creation from the fertile minds of the editors of Field & Stream! By the way — everyone who called or wrote to Ted questioning his existence during that controversy got a personal answer from him — Ted Trueblood was, in fact, a real person!)   When I moved to Idaho from Colorado, I was familiar with Idaho’s tremendous reputation as a big-game state. I had learned all about Idaho’s upland bird and fishing opportunities. But I wasn’t totally prepared for the outstanding waterfowl hunting that’s available within just a few hours’ driving time, from almost any place around the Northwest. Let me explain the dynamics of how ducks and geese migrate through the Northwest by refreshing your memory with a quick geography lesson. Dig out your road atlas and follow along.   The “Northwest” as I am describing it is comprised of primarily three states — Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The Rocky Mountains form a natural barrier on the east, running from British Columbia in Canada, along the Idaho-Montana border, through western Wyoming and Colorado, and south into northern New Mexico.   For waterfowl hunters, west of the Continental Divide is, for the most part, considered to be the Pacific Flyway.   Several large rivers flow through these three states, their waters eventually spilling into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake River flows out of the mountains in western Wyoming and curves west for about 800 miles across southern Idaho (called the Snake River Plain) and then turns north along the Oregon/Idaho border, flowing into the massive Columbia River in southeastern Washington near what are called the Tri-Cities — Pasco, Richland, and Kennewick. The Columbia is also joined in this same area by the Yakima River, which originates on the east side of the Cascade Range and flows southeast to meet the Columbia. The Columbia itself, which begins in British Columbia, winds its way south through eastern Washington and turns west just beyond the confluence with the Stake and the Yakima, continuing along the Oregon / Washington border, past the city of Portland, Oregon, reaching the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon.   Running the length of Washington and Oregon from north to south, inland from the coast, rises the Cascade Range of mountains. The Cascades continue into northern California, farther south becoming the Sierra Nevada Mountains.   The Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges are what cause the tremendous difference in vegetation growth between the east and west sides of the mountains. The west — along the coast — is famously lush and green. Inland, on the east side of the mountains, is the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah, the high deserts of southern Oregon and southern Idaho, and dry areas of eastern Washington. These high mountain ranges create what is called a “Rain Shadow,” causing major storms to break down in the mountains; the precipitation is largely dissipated by the time the storms move east. Big Canada geese are plentiful along the Snake River. Can you see the boat that Jeff and Tony were hunting out of? Neither could the geese! For crop irrigation, the lands behind the Rain Shadow depend primarily on the rivers and the underground aquifers that are replenished by the rivers and snowmelt runoff from the mountains. As a result, these dry areas are crisscrossed with irrigation canals usually originating from one of the many reservoirs, which have been built to impound the river water. The most famous of these impoundment projects in the Northwest also happens to be the largest concrete structure in the United States — the Grand Coulee Dam, which backs up the Columbia River in eastern Washington to form 150-mile-long Lake Roosevelt.

  Ducks and geese follow the water and follow the feed as they move south. Because of the system of reservoirs, irrigation canals, and flooded fields, waterfowl following their southern migration patterns from Canada funnel down between the mountain ranges along the rivers — because where there is “big” water and good irrigation, there is generally abundant food.

  The chain of reservoirs and associated irrigation and crops act as a magnet, pulling migrating waterfowl south through Washington and west along the Columbia, or on south through the 113-mile-long Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge along the southwestern Idaho-southeastern Oregon border. From there they continue along a system of reservoirs across southern Idaho’s Snake River Plain, some wintering in this area of relatively ice-free water, and others continuing south into the marshes of Utah west of the Wasatch Mountains.

  A huge number of geese (particularly snow geese) pass to the west through the southern Oregon desert where they stage on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and Summer Lake State Wildlife Area before continuing their southern migration to the valleys of central California. And, if it is possible to believe, an even larger number of ducks and geese pass through the series of Klamath National Wildlife Refuges just east of the Cascades, extending south to the Oregon-California border.

Now, I can almost hear you thinking, If there are truly that many birds migrating throughout the Northwest, there must be a tremendous number of hunters, or much of the access to the best hunting must be closed off to the general public.., right?

  Despite the abundant numbers of waterfowl (there are 11 subspecies of Canada geese, nine of which pass through or call the Northwest home; and that doesn’t include snows or any of the other species of geese that pass through the area), the Northwest remains largely overlooked by outsiders. As I mentioned at the beginning, the state of Idaho, for example, is renowned primarily for its mountains and big game; Idaho’s waterfowl hunting has long been merely a postscript. Over the last few years, there have only been approximately 23,000 federal duck stamps sold annually in the state of Idaho. For a state that encompasses more than 80,000 square miles and has a waterfowl harvest of roughly 250,000 ducks and 50,000 geese, there are still plenty of wide-open spaces to hunt and an abundance of ducks and geese to shoot at.

  And, although I don’t have the figures for the federal duck stamps sold in Oregon and Washington or their annual harvests, Ducks Unlimited figures that 12-18 million ducks, geese, and swans utilize the “Intermountain West” wetlands areas (which includes eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and eastern California) during the fall migration. And keep in mind that those figures don’t even include the legendary coastal hunting regions west of the Cascades and Sierras.

  But where does this actually leave the hunter who wants to take his dog and a bag of decoys and spend the day hunting? Just how difficult is it to gain access to an area where a hunter out for the day might actually have a chance of getting some birds?

  Well, that may just he the best news of all: The three states that comprise the Northwest have lots of public access and open lands to hunt — many of which get little hunting pressure. A quick count of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game hunters’ access areas for waterfowl hunting numbered more than 90; Oregon shows nearly 80 state and federal wildlife refuges and public hunting areas for waterfowl. I don’t have a similar count for Washington, but there are a large number of public access areas along the Columbia River and across the state.

  Several of the legendary Northwest duck and goose hunting areas open to the public along the Columbia are in the previously mentioned Tn-Cities area. According to Terry Holmes, who is a teacher in Toledo, Washington, and has been hunting the Columbia River and the Tn-Cities areas for 18 years, the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge is second to none. The Umatilla takes in both the Oregon and Washington sides of the Columbia. For most of the areas on the Refuge, it is first-come, first-served hunting where walking in, sometimes a mile or more, carrying a large number of decoys is necessary (a gear cart would probably be in order). Terry says that although not a necessity, a seaworthy boat is a big help when hunting some parts of the Umatilla since the wind can come up on the Columbia, causing high waves and possibly dangerous conditions.

  Terry also suggests the McNary National Wildlife Refuge just south of Burbank, Washington, close to where the Snake River flows into the Columbia. He says that this is one of the best goose hunting areas in the entire Northwest, but it is on a drawing basis and is closed several days during the week. Hunters often put in well ahead of time to draw a particular blind on certain days. But, as he explains it, if someone has reserved a blind for a particular day and doesn't show up, then the blind is assigned on a first-come basis to the next hunter standing by. Terry says that he hunts there quite a lot and almost always gets a blind. But, he says, McNary is also a walk-in area necessitating long treks to the blinds and pits with large spreads of goose decoys.

  Hunting information about the McNary, Umatilla, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and the Klamath National Wildlife Refuges in southern Oregon; or the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge along the Snake River in both Idaho and Oregon, is available from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service website online.

Before I close, I want to tell you about another unique Northwest hunting opportunity I stumbled across while researching information for this column.

Several of the towns in Washington have begun programs to raise money for various charities by forming “hunt clubs.” This idea was initiated in 1992 by the Royal high School Booster Club in Royal City, Washington (just south of Potholes Reservoir, one of Washington’s fabulous duck and goose hunting impoundments), and other towns have subsequently followed their lead. Here is how it works:

Local farmers donate access to their land to the Booster Club. The club then sells a limited number of season-long memberships and some three-day passes to hunters (largely from out of the area) to access the properties. The hunters are given an up-to-date map and sticker for their car so that the property owners know that the person hunting on their property is a member. Over the years, the money has gone to the Marching Band, the purchase of new bleachers and lighting for the football field, a new track, and to build a fourplex baseball field.

This is such a great program that I thought if anyone around the Northwest would like to join or even consider starting a similar program in your area, I would pass along how to get information. Mike Meseherg is in charge of the program and has been involved since its conception. The Royal Booster Club is currently building a website, but until its done, you can find out everything about the hunt club or reach Mike through his website and click on the tab on the left that says "Boosters." Check it out - hunters need to develop and support more programs like this, not just in the Northwest.

The Northwest might be a little tricky to get to and the country so vast as to give you a "where do I begin" feeling, but with the right maps and the right research, you could drop in on some waterfowl hunting you never thought existed on the far side of the Continental Divide.  

Northwest Waterfowling often requires long walks with large spreads of decoys. Dog blinds are a way of life.

jeff hajjar photo