RIDGEFIELD — Nobody has said boo about the environment during the current presidential election campaign, Ruth Phillips noted. Meanwhile, environmental problems are mounting — locally, nationally and globally.
That’s why Phillips and her husband, Roger, were on hand Saturday representing the Vancouver Audubon Society during BirdFest and Bluegrass, the annual autumn celebration of avian beings and earthy music hosted by the Friends of the National Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge.
Audubon, which works “to make sure the community protects wildlife,” Phillips said, does everything from hosting friendly birding trips to lobbying local policymakers about environmental issues. For example, she said, Vancouver Audubon has been registering its concerns regarding a proposal to breach the dike that currently keeps Lake River from flooding Refuge land.
“That would really affect wildlife, and we believe it would be a mess,” Phillips said
If you go
What: BirdFest and Bluegrass, a celebration of wildlife, Native American culture and bluegrass music.
Where: Downtown Ridgefield and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.
When: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. today.
Cost: Free; outings and workshops that required fees are sold out.
Information:http://ridgefieldfriends.org/events/birdfest-bluegrass
And that would be a major shame, she added, since the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge is “one of the best ones in the world.”
Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service want to make it even better. On Saturday, they were collecting comments and ideas from visitors about a future Refuge visitors center. Within the next few years, a multifaceted new facility is expected to replace the little trailer where Refuge staff now squeeze in; the new building will be downhill to your left as you drive into the northern Carty Unit of the Refuge.
The public is driving the whole visitor center process, according to project leader Christopher Lapp of USFWS, and suggestions have so far included everything from an environmental library to on-site day care so parents can drop off their kids and go explore. With suggestions like that, this visitor center will definitely be different from your standard generic design, Lapp said.
All of which reflects a changing reality across the nation: Many more people live in urban and urbanizing areas — like the formerly tiny country town of Ridgefield, now growing quickly — than ever before, and wildlife refuges need to try to meet them where they live.
A draft design should be finished by next spring, Lapp said, and after that it’s a matter of raising private and community funds to enhance what the federal government will pay for.
“The great thing is, this community is all in,” he said. “Ridgefield loves this refuge, and that makes it so much easier.”
Indoors
Saturday afternoon’s open bluegrass jam got booted indoors — into the Sportsman’s Steakhouse and Saloon on North Main Avenue — because the cool, damp weather made outdoor picking and plucking a little tough for frigid fingers.
Also indoors — but spilling out of the Ridgefield Community Center and onto the grassy lawn next door — were the Birder’s Marketplace and the Family Zone, where you could admire and purchase all sorts of avian arts and crafts, and get some instruction on making your own.
Ridgefield pen-and-ink artist C.A. Olson was showing off a series of drawings she’d done specifically for this occasion: colorful renditions of exotic birds and the classic locations where they like to hang out. For example, she offered a neotropical quetzal and a Temple of the Sun pyramid in Mexico; a death-black raven and the Tower of London, famous for executions and torture in historical times; and a sulfur-crested cockatoo and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
Other artists and craftspeople came from much farther afield — like Patrick Hannigan and his business Nice Nests, based in Twisp, in north-central Washington.
Let’s be clear here: Hannigan does not make “bird houses.” Those tend to be “random, nonfunctional, not-well-thought-out, cutesy yard art,” he said. They’re airless, lightless and filthy; also, they often let predators right in after the intended inhabitants.
Hannigan works at a different level altogether. He makes “functional, species-specific, science-based nest boxes” that feature the right dimensions, ventilation, drainage and size of access to make them comfortable, sustainable homes for birds, he said.
He’s been to BirdFest and Bluegrass twice, he said, because “it’s one of the best bird events I know about.”
More today
BirdFest and Bluegrass continues today, with guided refuge hikes and other activities including a traditional Chinook salmon bake at 3:30 p.m. at the Cathlapotle Plankhouse in the Carty Unit; so will festivities downtown and at View Ridge Middle School including the Birder’s Marketplace, a live Audubon bird show, many kids activities and a 1 p.m. screening of the film “Promised Land” at the Old Liberty Theater. “Promised Land” is about Pacific Northwest Indian tribes’ fights for treaty rights and the whole question of tribal sovereignty.
Venture into the southern River-S Unit, off Hillhurst Road, to connect with Vancouver Audubon Society birders at a “scoping station” that’s not usually open to the public. With luck, you’ll get a rare glimpse of dancing sandhill cranes.
