Hopefully I’m not jumping the gun by sending this email, but I wanted to share this with people who care. My wife and I are in the process of buying a house on 160 acres south of Stillwater and plan to create a wildlife refuge there. We shouldZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerStart External Email ZjQcmQRYFpfptBannerEndHopefully I’m not jumping the gun by sending this email, but I wanted to share this with people who care.
My wife and I are in the process of buying a house on 160 acres south of Stillwater and plan to create a wildlife refuge there. We should close by the end of the month but are trying to get it done within the next week or two. The property is 1 mile long north to south and 1/4 mile wide east to west. It has a large permanent pond, a seasonal pond, and a wet-weather creek that runs the entire length of the western boundary. The land is heavily wooded with two large meadows in the center and some smaller meadows on the edges that are getting overrun with red cedars. It’s teeming with bird and wildlife activity. In fact, there’s a recently created eBird hotspot called "68th St. Ravine" that’s literally just the northern boundary road of the property. We had no idea the hotspot existed when we made an offer on the place, and only found out about it after I recognized the street names in a description on a rare-bird alert. During May and June, people logged 59 species. Last time we were there, we saw several Acadian Flycatchers and Kentucky Warblers. I think this land has potential to become something special.
Over the next couple of years, we plan to improve the habitat by removing invasive species, thinning out the red cedars, planting more native trees, grasses, and wildflowers, and restoring the ponds with aquatic vegetation. We also want to build insect hotels and bird nesting boxes as well as create walking trails throughout the property. We hope to attract as many species as possible and, once established, we’re thinking we might open it up at designated times for people to bird the trails.
At this point our plans include the following:
(1) Apply for grants through ODWC and Partners for Fish and Wildlife for help with removing invasives, planting natives, and improving the wetlands.
(2) Possibly apply for grants and/or seek help with removing some cedars and doing controlled burns.
(3) Get involved with Payne County Audubon Society for advice and/or to see if they want to possibly do occasional birding field trips or other activities on the property.
(4) Talk to OSU to see if students might be interested in using our land for conservation projects or studies.
Again, we haven’t even closed on the place yet, so it’s going to take a while to get this stuff going, but we’re excited about protecting the habitat. Because it’s just a private residence rather than a nonprofit or something along those lines, I’m not going to ask for donations or volunteers, but it’s possible that people may want to help with building nesting boxes, planting trees, etc. at some point in the future.
I’ve never undertaken anything like this before, so I will be learning as I go and am open to any advice anyone wants to offer. It’s going to be a lot of work, but I’ll do my best to actually see it through. I wanted to let the group know about our plans because we’re so excited about it but also because I’m all ears if anyone has suggestions for other resources or strategies.
