Conboy Lake

Conboy Lake NWR https://www.fws.gov/refuge/conboy_lake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conboy_Lake_National_Wildlife_Refuge Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains at the base of 12,281-foot (3,743 m) Mount Adams in southern Washington state. It encompasses lakebeds of the historic Conboy and Camas lakes, a shallow marshy wetland area drained by early settlers. Conifer forests, grasslands, shallow wetlands, and deep water provide homes for raccoon, deer, marten, elk, coyote, muskrat, skunk, cougar, beaver, porcupine, river otter, small rodents, and 150 species of birds, as well as numerous amphibians, reptiles, and fish. Bald eagle, greater sandhill crane, and the Oregon spotted frog are species of concern. Refuge visitors enjoy the scenery, hike the Willard Springs trail, and observe wildlife from the county roads that surround and cross the refuge.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge A Hidden Treasure Picture a rustic cabin in a grassy meadow bursting with colorful blooms. The smell of tall, ruddybarked ponderosa pines fills the air. The distinctive trumpeting of sandhill cranes echoes throughout the Refuge as they descend to their valley home. Calm water reflects the rich and varied greens of meadows and forested hills. Dancing glints of sunlight catch the eye as a stream Elk in the spring on winds its way from hill to lake. Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Left: Camas with Mt. Adams in the background. ©Darryl Lloyd 5 SEATTLE 90 OLYMPIA This, in part, is the experience of Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and you are welcome here. In fact, people have been coming here for millennia. Native Americans found life-sustaining resources in abundance, and nineteenth century settlers could see its tremendous potential as a place to call home. All the while, SPOKANE the wildlife lived here, too. 90 This blue goose has become the symbol for the National Wildlife Refuge System. YAKIMA 5 VANCOUVER GLENWOOD 97 395 82 KENNEWICK WHITE SALMON Yakima Toppenish Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge Trout Lake White Salmon Hood River Glenwood Goldendale A Diversity Of Communities ©Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles Although much of the refuge is open meadowland, it does contain forested areas of lodgepole (bottom) and ponderosa pine — essential habitat for animals like the Steller’s jay (top). Precious homes are found on Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Many are in stream, lake or wetland areas. Others are in the uplands, where ponderosa and lodgepole pines, bitterbrush, snowberry or sagebrush grow. Some homes are in the grassy prairie that sweeps in and out of the trees and up to the water’s edge. Rainbow and brook trout live in the streams. Tundra swans, pintail, teal and mallard ducks need the lake for food and rest. Frogs, salamanders and toads grow in the adjacent calm pools. A rich variety of meadow plants host colorful dragonflies and butterflies. The prairie grasses feed both elk and cranes. Jays, grouse and squirrels find homes in the forest. Some animals rely on only one habitat. For example, woodpeckers nest, forage and rest in the trees. In contrast, some wildlife need more than a single habitat type. Although they nest in tree cavities like woodpeckers, wood ducks also rely on nearby streams or canals. This need for two habitat types just begins to show the complex network of life on a refuge. ©Jim Cruce ©Dr. Lloyd Glenn Ingles The habitats protected and managed at this Refuge are home to so much life that it is difficult to identify it all. There are 7 amphibian, 10 reptile, 40 mammal and 165 bird species known here. This does not include a myriad of invertebrates and the many plants, fungi, lichens and other organisms. Now, consider this diversity. Suppose the streams all vanished. How much life depends on a stream? How many species are homeless in its absence? Some effects are obvious — the trout would disappear. Others are more subtle — the wood duck would go as well. In many ways our knowledge of the interaction of habitats just scratches the surface. The value both for us and for wildlife, of this complexity, seems to increase with each new discovery. A few refuge residents (from top to bottom): marsh wren, yellow-bellied racer, deer mouse, American kestrel, snowshoe hare and coyote. There’s No Place Like Home Imagine returning from a trip to find your home has vanished. Year after year, migrating pairs of greater sandhill cranes faithfully return to the same nesting sites, sites found suitable by untold generations of cranes. The problem for cranes is that suitable nesting sites are scarce. Greater sandhill cranes need isolated, open, wet meadows or shallow marshes on the edges of rivers or lakes. Open meadows allow them to see predators from a distance, but there is some indication they select nest sites near interspersed groves — perhaps for wind and storm protection. Each family — parents and young called “colts” — may actively defend a territory of as much as 250 acres. From egg to adolescence cranes are vulnerable, but a flighted adult has few enemies — loss of habitat is the biggest concern for greater sandhill cranes. Because of this, they are listed as endangered in the state of Washington. Left: Crane parents and one foraging crane ©Jim Cruce For centuries, the Conboy Lake region has provided homes for cranes, but what is an ideal home for wildlife is often desired by people, too. Early settlers found the “Camas Prairie,” as they called it, ideal for farming and cattle. To increase hay production and pasture land, Conboy Lake was partially drained. Loss of habitat to such activities, along with hunting, took its toll on wildlife. By the end of the 19th century, journal entries indicate a scarcity of game — ducks, geese and swans — in this area. Easily disturbed, cranes also di