Like it or not, change is an inevitable part of our world. Things never stay exactly the same. This seems to be particularly true this year
One change is that I’m back writing this monthly note for the Malheur Musings. The board of directors of our Friends group has the healthy habit of rotating responsibilities, and I’m stepping up for another term as board president, a volunteer position I last filled during 2023-2024.
Since I last wrote for these pages, much has changed. Let’s start with the good news. One thing we humans do not control is the erratic cycle of droughts and floods that drives the biological systems of the Harney Basin. Only a few years ago, during a prolonged period of low precipitation, the standing water in the Malheur lakebed almost disappeared, replaced by square miles of arid mudflats. This year could not be more different. Now that last winter’s generous snows in the Aldrich country to the north and especially on Steens Mountain has largely turned into runoff, our treasured wetlands are receiving the most water they have enjoyed in more than a dozen years. The same is true, of course, of the other interior basins in our region, places like Summer, Abert, and Tule lakes. All are brimming with water as the summer of 2025 begins. The birds could not be happier.
In the not-so-good news department, our National Wildlife System continues to be challenged in unprecedented ways. We’ll leave it to each of you to judge how well the current effort to reduce our national government is going, but one thing is clear – the National Wildlife System is not getting the attention it deserves. Making refuges work requires staff – employees who manage habitat (at Malheur this means especially distributing water), maintain visitor and operational facilities, answer visitor questions, enforce the law, and much, much more. Right now, with serious talk about additional cuts on the table, the Wildlife Refuge staff nationwide is down about one-third from levels a decade ago. Even Malheur, a large and iconic refuge, has numerous “vacant positions,” many of which have very little chance of being filled in the foreseeable future. To put it bluntly, these reductions make it much harder for the refuge to succeed in carrying out its mission.
But even as Malheur faces these challenges, there is more good news – our refuge has “friends.” Because of increasing support from people like you, the ability of the Friends of Malheur to provide critical assistance to the refuge this year is at an all-time high. Our
membership has risen to record levels, and donations are on the same track. The result, of course, is that we can now do even more to protect this very special refuge. And that’s just what we intend to do. Stay tuned.
– W. Tweed
