Bowdoin Waterfowl Refuge, now just foul

There seems to be a bit of confusion out at the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge. Apparently the folks in charge there – if anyone is -- thought the state’s Clean, Drain, and Dry program didn’t pertain just to boats, but to the refuge as well.

However, while the Montana program is an effort to combat aquatic invasive species, the feds appear to have taken it to another level, rendering the refuge inhospitable to nearly all species except livestock. The place has been logged, burned, grazed and dried.

Lake Bowdoin has shrunken to a putrid mud flat, so foul that the residents of Malta, seven miles to the west, have begun complaining about the smell.

Perhaps if the feds had bought water rights instead of funding a program to cut down Russian olive trees, the place wouldn’t smell like a sewer.

They even burned much of the refuge over the past few years, proudly erecting a sign explaining the benefits of wildfire following a controlled burn last March. I too, understand the benefits of wildfire but I wasn’t aware it was a thing in early spring.

Neither did the moose that had been living on the refuge at the time. One showed up at my house in town the next day, and another was hit by a vehicle on Highway 2.

As the summer progressed and the lake dried up it was replaced by an expansive alkali flat that spawned clouds of white dust devils when the wind blew.

At one time the refuge offered arguably the best public-land pheasant hunting in the country. So many hunters would show up for the opener that extra federal game wardens were brought in to help the warden stationed there full-time. It was the favorite place for a lot of bird hunters.

But that apparently didn’t sit well with the powers that be, who over the past decade have destroyed the best habitat and replaced it with nothing. The full-time warden is gone, as are the opening-day crowds.

I took a drive on the auto-tour route at the refuge recently. Even with the windows up and the air-conditioner on, the smell almost made me gag, and I can tolerate some nasty odors.

Originally designated a waterfowl refuge, the Bowdoin now is simply foul, and a bad neighbor to boot.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]