Wildlife helpers keep a low profile at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.
Visitors get help from signs in the parking lot on how to behave.
No running, no dogs, stay on the trail, and don’t upset the wildlife by being wild.
It’s plain and simple: take a walk in nature and leave.
Bring your sense of wonder with you.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages an unparalleled network of public lands and waters called the National Wildlife Refuge System.
With more than 570 refuges spanning the country, this system protects iconic species and provides some of the best wildlife viewing opportunities on Earth.
To travel back in time, to see America the beautiful how it used to be, go to Yellowstone Park.
Or save time and money and take Hwy 99 south between Tigard and Sherwood and look to the right.
Just past the junk yard you’ll see the sign.
To the uninitiated, the intentionally ignorant, and the ‘who gives a damn’ people, the refuge is a marsh, a swamp, a mud bog, and they bring that attitude with them.
How else to explain the loud phone conversations in the middle of what feels like nowhere.
Go there to get lost and find a reminder of why you went in the first place, whether it’s getting away from obnoxious people, catch a breath of fresh air, or to watch the birds land while geese cry from their overhead formations.
Modern Facility
You’ll find a charging station for your electric ride in the parking lot, along with spaces reserved for hybrid cars.
In other parking lots you find spaces reserved for senior citizens, but out here the seniors are hearty enough on their own.
This rig was parked there on my last visit:
The Man was on the job.
Was it for show, or just checking in?
Either way, they were flying their colors.
There was something comforting about the official truck on the grounds.
It felt like wildlife helpers had the tools for the job.
The refuge was worthy of the investment.
Wildlife Helpers For One And All
There are places, and if you’ve been round enough you know it’s true, that you just won’t go.
Or shouldn’t.
A dark city alley, an unstable ocean cliff, a dead tree.
Whatever the possible benefits might be, there’s a bigger downside.
You may find people in a dark alley who think your presence means they’ve got a green light to do whatever they want.
A boulder, or landslide, might break loose above your head.
A branch in a dead tree might break with you standing on it.
The rules of the Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge are not complicated.
Go out, soak it in, go home.
One of my favorite wildlife photographers has captured its many moods.
If you go out on a trail with Charlie Sandbo, one thing happens consistently: Animals come to him.
At least that’s how I think he gets his shots, they sense something in common in the wild.
If we like to be known by the company we keep, you’ll find that company on a quiet stroll in your local wildlife refuge.
It may be closer than you think.
About David Gillaspie
Thank you, David, for letting more folks know about this nature next door.
If you love the refuge, please support our National Wildlife Refuge system that is being attacked and destroyed by under funding and under staffing.
Find out more by getting involved with Friends of Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
Thank you again for helping us protect this magical place.
This the sort of interaction a blog can inspire.
My readers come from far and wide, from next door, and a world away.
If I think I know one thing about them, it’s that they’d all like a walk on the wild side.
“Find out more by getting involved with Friends of Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge Complex:”
https://www.friendsoftualatinrefuge.org/page-1863745
Good job, Cheryl, thanks for coming in.
Oh, and one reason FWS wildlife helpers have a low profile is that there are 5 of them.
To manage 3,000 acres of wildlife habitat.
From the main unit, the only unit of the Tualatin River Refuge open to the public, in Sherwood to Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge 40 minutes away in Gaston.
And the guy that drives that Law Enforcement truck covers an area that includes our refuges as well as Ridgefield and Steigerwald Lake in Washington.
Yep, they are spread very thin!
Thanks again. Please keep getting the word out.
Most people are like someone shopping for their first guitar.
They don’t know what they want, but they’ll know when they play it.
I like to tell them what my kid tells me, “Do your homework instead of letting a salesman do it for you.”
As a salesman for my local wildlife refuge, I look at it this way:
There’s a thing called the ‘Tai Chi walk.’
The Chi Walking technique emphasizes walking form—the proper and effective biomechanics of walking and draws from the movement principles of Tai Chi to make walking easier on the body by promoting energy efficiency and injury prevention. How you walk dictates how stress moves through your body while walking.
Apply the Tai Chi walk to the trails of the wildlife refuge for a magical experience.
If you see someone ‘cat walking’, they are in their wildlife zone.
One of my dreams as President of Friends of Tualatin River has been a “Mindfulness Trail” where one can get away from the cell-phone talking and kids screaming (although I love that the kids are screaming on the refuge instead of in front of a screen someplace inside). Thank you!
Sometimes it all hits just right with the low sun reflecting off water, invisible geese calling out, and watching a heron stalk the pond.
Agree on the kid noise. Getting them outside shows good parenting.