Wild Goose Tales

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Save the Date -- Friends Annual Meeting

The Friends of the Willamette Valley Wildlife Refuge Complex is scheduled for October 5, 2024 at the Finley Refuge Headquarters. This is an opportunity to meet and share your thoughts the Friends Board of Directors and hear updates about the refuge complex. Stay tuned for more details!

Willamette Valley Refuge Complex Staff recognized with Department of Interior Honor Awards!

Samantha Bartling received the Department of Interior’s Diversity Award from Secretary Deb Haaland during the U.S. Department of the Interior 77th Honor Awards Convocation in Washington, D.C. in May 2024. Photo by Deb Bills.

The Willamette Valley Wildlife Refuge Complex has amazing and dedicated staff! We are delighted to share that Sam Bartling and Damien Miller were recently honored with awards recognizing the impact of their work!

Excerpts from the U.S. Department of Interior 77th Annual Awards Convocation Honor Ceremony Program:

Sam Bartling: Ms. Bartling excels in connecting with the local communities and environmental educators to spread her enthusiasm for the refuge, its wildlife, and the wetland and oak savanna habitats in the Willamette Valley. For one event, her efforts involved 30 partners and provided programming to 1,200 individuals across 3 refuges and 4 counties in 7 languages during an entire month.

Damien Miller: . His collaborative work with FWS and its partners on endangered species recovery within the Willamette Valley contributed to delisting four species, including the endemic Oregon chub, the first fish species ever to be recovered in the United States. Mr. Miller spearheaded a lengthy land protection planning effort involving multiple partners, including the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, which culminated in the establishment of the Willamette Valley Conservation Area. His efforts will ultimately protect an additional 22,650 acres of important oak and prairie habitat for the American people.  

Damien Miller received the Department of Interior’s Distinguished Services Award from Secretary Deb Haaland during the U.S. Department of the Interior 77th Honor Awards Convocation in Washington, D.C. in May 2024.

Ankeny Motus Receiver

The Ankeny MOTUS receiver site is made possible by a generous grant from the The Oregon Conservation & Recreation Fund and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and with the support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Salem Audubon Society and the Friends of the Willamette Valley Wildlife Refuge Complex.

The receiver detects animals with special radio tags. These tags have been attached to birds and bats by researchers around the world. The most recent bird detected was the Swainson's Thrush. Curious about what is passing through our refuges? Check out the Motus receiver data:

Motus Receiver at Ankeny Hill Nature Center

Learn about our Willamette Valley Refuges!

Visit the WVNWRC Friends

 YouTube Channel

The Friends present bilingual videos for viewing

Link to Friends YouTube Channel

In 2021 the O’Brien prize, a $2,500 award offered by the NWRA board, went to the Friends of Willamette Valley NWR Complex for their project ‘Bilingual Trail Videos.’

Native Pollinators and Plants

 in the Spotlight at the Ankeny Hill Nature

Hundreds of visitors to Ankeny Hill Nature Center (AHNC) enjoyed participating in a Bioblitz, a second annual Homeschool Day and the third annual Bees and Blooms celebration in June! Oregon State University students organized an early June Bioblitz.



53 observers identified 158 species of plants and animals at AHNC in a few short hours. Homeschool Day was sponsored by the Marion Soil and Water Conservation District for the second year. More than a dozen partners and almost 20 AHNC and community volunteers delighted children and their families with science, discovery, and crafts at this event!

Community Volunteer Days at the Ankeny Hill Nature Center

Where: Ankeny Hill Nature Center - 130 Ankeny Hill Rd. / Jefferson, OR 

When: Every 3rd Saturday of the month from 10 am - 12 pm

What: No sign-up required and no experience or tools needed! We have all you need and plenty of projects we need help with. You'll help with everything from weeding, water and mulching to interpretation, brochure folding and event support.

Volunteers and staff from Marion County Master Gardeners, US Fish and Wildlife and

Marion Soil and Water Conservation District help visitors on Homeschool Day.

Homeschooled students loaded fabric pots with clean compost and native plants to take home to make mini-habitats for pollinators. Photo courtesy of Marion Soil and Water Conservation District.

Refuge Updates

Purple Martin Boxes!

Norm Miller, an extraordinary refuge volunteer and an industrious carpenter, stopped by one day with 40 purple martin boxes and donated them to the refuge. Why 40? Norm had some old wood slats from a fence he removed that he wanted to repurpose into something useful. Well, the purple martins in the valley will find them useful. You may have seen 3 boxes in the Finley parking lot, now there are 6. The south valley Partners for Fish & Wildlife program had placed 30 martin boxes at 7 private land sites over the past few years…and have now installed more new boxes. Seth Ontiveros, a Partners program biological science technician, has spearheaded the effort this year and has documented 12 nesting pairs out of the original 30 boxes! Thanks to Norm and Seth for helping increase the purple martin nesting options in the valley.

Homer Campbell Trail Reopens – Maintenance Program….the destruction of the boardwalk on the Homer Campbell Trail from the double ice storm in January, we are happy to report that the trail reopened in April. After removing more than a hundred ash trees that fell on the boardwalk causing damage to about 30% of the hand rails and sideboards, Refuge maintenance staff including two Great American Outdoors Act team members, spent much of three weeks repairing the boardwalk. The trail was reopened to the public on April 23rd.

It is summer on the refuges!

Make a trip out to the Refuge Complex this summer!  

Where were you during early May when one could see the aurora borealis from the Willamette Valley? In case you missed it, here is a picture of the phenomenon from the McFadden Marsh at William L. Finley NWR. Thank you to a group of Friends visiting on May 10th for this interesting image.

Apparently, more opportunities will be available this summer to see the aurora borealis from the valley. Though the refuges are closed at night, many county roads bisect the refuges and allow access to these areas with little or no light pollution.

If you have yet to see the summer flowers, get up and get out and Take a Hike! Find a butte or a nature center and discover the beauty right here in the valley. Enjoy!

Need another reason to visit the refuges?

Finley in Focus: OSU Extension Benton County 4-H Photography Workshop Gallery

Benton County 4-H youth, who participated in a five-month photography workshop series, spent a day at William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge. Each themed workshop from the series had an affiliated service project to bring into focus how the youth could positively impact their community through photography. As part of the landscape-themed workshop, the 4-H members visited the Refuge to capture moments and scenes that meant something to them. The youth produced and matted their favorite images to share with you. This "Finley in Focus" photography exhibit hopefully brings your Refuge to life and into view in ways you might never have seen before.

Come see the incredible youth photography, swing through the store, watch the Purple martins and Acorn woodpeckers, and then picnic or find your favorite trail or birding spot. A perfect summer day!

THE WILD GOOSE STORE IS OPEN!

Photo by Lena Proebsting

Join Us!

News from the Friends Board

The Friends Board gathered for the Dave Marshall Classroom ribbon cutting in March 2024.

The Friends Board of Directors strives to maintain an inclusive and dynamic board. We have various positions open for a 3-year term.

Outreach Coordinator: Quarterly Outreach Events, Nature walks, Coordination of events with Outreach Committee, Webinars.

Membership Coordinator: Participate in researching ways to connect & grow our membership.

We extend our invitation to you as active users of WVNWRC.

If you are interested in joining our board, please contact Ron Forrester at secretary.friends@gmail.com . I will send you a board member application packet and we will move on from there. We hope you consider this opportunity to help us maintain our mission statement.

Friends Mission Statement:

Promoting the conservation of the natural resources of the refuge complex. Fostering awareness and appreciation of the complex through educational and recreational opportunities. Participating in activities that help the complex achieve its goals.

Thank you,

Ron Forrester, Secretary

Your Membership Matters!

Contribute Through BottleDrop to Support the Friends and your Refuges

Contribute through Bottle Drop

You can donate funds from your BottleDrop account balance to Friends of the WVNWRC account by logging into your account.

Log into your Bottle Drop account. Click Donate and search for Friends of the WVNWRC. Choose the amount from your balance that you would like to donate and Click on Donate Now!

If you don't yet have an account you can create one: BottleDrop

We are : Friends of the WVNWRC