Ducks Unlimited helps improve habitat

Standing atop Paradise Hill overlooking Highway 97, Upper Klamath Lake and acres of farmland, an inviting network of wetlands sprawls below. At the base of the hill, water intermingles with emerging browns and yellows on flooded pasture.

The yellows are invasive grasses, reducing the productiveness of the pasture that is leased out each season for livestock to graze. Irrigation controls installed last year have made it possible for landowner Rick Rodgers to once again use water as a biological control for weeds and pests.

Many travelers on Highway 97 see groups of bald eagles feasting on mice and other underground pests driven out by the flooding, said Ducks Unlimited Regional Biologist Mike Shannon.

His organization worked with Rodgers to fund a project on the approximately 300-acre field using a combination of Ducks Unlimited money and federal grant dollars, he said. Ducks Unlimited will have its annual banquet later this month to help raise funds for more projects.

Using Ducks Unlimited funds as leverage, grant money from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency assisted in getting the $160,000 project completed. The grants from the federal agencies were obtained based on the benefits to water quality upon return to the river.

The project

Water from the flooded pasture is funneled through a semi-permanent wetland constructed as part of the project to reduce the nutrient load before it is returned to the lake, Shannon said.

“If you do good wetland work, it’s benefiting a wide variety of resources,” he said. Water drained from the irrigated pastures was rich in phosphorus, one of the pollutants identified as a major contributor to algae blooms in the lake. The landowner’s primary goal was to provide increased waterfowl habitat while keeping his land productive.

Each year, Ducks Unlimited completes projects totaling about 3,000 acres in Klamath, Lake and Harney counties, where Shannon works. Last year, all those acres were in Klamath County, he said.

“Those projects cost close to $800,000,” Shannon said. Of that, Shannon estimates some $500,000 stayed local.

In all, Ducks Unlimited raises about $500,000 a year in Oregon , but spends about $3 million on restoration projects, not including federal and state grant dollars, Shannon said. The group’s primary goal is and has always been protection and restoration of wetland habitat, he said.

“Over half the projects I do are with private landowners, enhancing habitat that’s already there,” Shannon said.

Other Basin projects

South of Klamath Falls near Midland, the Tule Smoke Hunt Club, better known as the Rat Club, Ducks Unlimited helped restore the natural movement of water through the marshy lands. Dense stands of bulrush and other wetland plants closed off access to the Klamath River.

"No water could get to it," said Ducks Unlimited Regional Biologist Mike Shannon.

"It would be 2.5 feet below river level and dry."

Ducks Unlimited, with the assistance of the Bureau of Reclamation, dug out 34,000 feet of channel to get water circulating through the area again.

Banquet and fundraiser

The annual Ducks Unlimited banquet and fundraiser will be March 27 at the Klamath County Fairgrounds. Doors open at 5 p.m. with dinner catered by Yummy's Cowboy Cuisine at 7 p.m. Contact Matt Cottingham, committee chairman, to purchase advance tickets for $45, which includes an annual membership, at 541-884-6833.