The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1965.
Friends of the Refuge, a group of volunteers, get together on Wednesdays throughout the year to restore habitats in the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Last year, a total of 174 volunteers dedicated 3,513 hours to the habitat program. According to Habitat Restoration Coordinator Keith Rutz, the two main focuses of the summer months are the habitats of Columbia White Tail Deer and the Canada Dusky Goose as well as invasive species control.
“We have quite a few invasive (species) here,” Rutz said, explaining how the summer months are a constant battle with blackberry bushes and thistles. “The main process we use is remove invasives and replace with natives.”
One of the group’s points of focus is on controlling the invasive Ricefield Bulrush, which came to the refuge in the late 1990s. The process involves removing valuable water from the Ridgefield wetlands so the volunteer group can work on Bulrush control.
“It’s one of the invasive species that kind of drives our operations out here,” Rutz said. “It limits the equipment we can use in those wetlands. We have to make sure everything’s clean and we don’t transfer (the bulrush).”
According to Rutz, removing the invasive species and introducing the native ones is part of building a healthy habitat for more than the Whitetail Deer and Dusky Goose.
“If you provide good habitat for those species, you’re generally providing a good habitat for other wetland species that come though or stay here year round,” he said.
The Habitat Restoration Program has been around since 2013 when the native species planting began, and about when the Whitetail Deer were first introduced. Now, a group of about 10 people meet weekly on Wednesdays with occasional Saturday meetings.
The group is always open to new people who would like to come and help out.
“The next couple months, primarily what we’re doing is invasive species control,” Rutz said. “This is our invasive removal season.”
Rutz also mentioned that the program is recurring and the winter months are dedicated to restoring the endangered oak tree habitats in the area.
