Birds back at charred Bateman Island. Still no people allowed

Grass is growing again and new leaves are showing on Russian olive trees on Bateman Island in Richland six weeks after a fire burned 70 acres, mostly in the center of the island.

The public still is not allowed onto the island, but the island is expected to recover more quickly than it did after two fires swept across the island in 2001. Then the public waited two years for new vegetation to be planted and the island to reopen.

This time “nature is coming back on its own,” said Joe Schiessl, Richland city parks and public facilities director.

The fire was not so hot and fast as to burn everything in its path and cook plant seeds still in the soil.

The city, which leases the island from the Army Corps of Engineers, has told the Corps it will evaluate plant growth through the fall to see if the island could be reopened in the winter.

Both agencies see the 160-acre natural area as a resource belonging to the people and want to allow people back on the island as soon as possible without damaging the island and its resources, Schiessl said.

In the meantime, visitors, including bird watchers, will have to go elsewhere for their nature experience.

The island has been designated one of two “Important Bird Areas” in the Tri-City area by the National Audubon Society. The island and nearby water and delta area are included in the designation.

The other is the 580-square-miles of the Hanford nuclear reservation, where birds have flourished with no people living there since World War II.

Bateman Island is different, an oasis of natural land in the middle of the Tri-Cities.

Migrant and resident birds feed on the mud flats when the water is low, finding bugs and worms to eat, said Dana Ward, conservation chairman of the Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society.

In the center of the island, where most of the fire occurred, small song birds nest.

For decades the Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society has been leading monthly bird walks open to the public from fall through spring on the island.

People on the walks can see as many as 60 to 65 species in three to four hours, particularly during the fall when there is overlap between some breeding birds and migratory birds on the island.

There are always multiple types of gulls to see, and visitors also may see raptors, osprey, pelicans and sandpipers. Some years bald eagles nest nearby. This week Lisa Hill, who leads the Audubon bird walks, saw a migrating phalarope, a slender-necked shore bird, near there.

Just as some people visit the island when it is open to find solitude, birds also like the isolation.

The island also has biodiversity, of both bugs and plants, providing shelter and food for nesting and migratory birds passing through the Tri-City area.

The island is home to native shrubs, like wild roses and wild currants. The nonnative Russian olives offers small silvery gray fruit for birds to feed on in the winter.

The fire was not expected to drive off the birds. They should be able to find bugs in burned areas and dead snags provide perches, Ward said.

With the monthly bird walks starting up Sept. 2, the Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society will be moving its first walk of the season to the W.E. Johnson Park in Richland.

Although participants will not have the advantage of the Yakima River Delta and the Columbia River to increase waterfowl sightings, the group does expect many migrant songbirds and some recently arrived winter residents to be spotted.

Expert birdwatchers will be available to guide participants, who should wear comfortable walking shoes and bring binoculars. Children are welcome. To find the park, go west on Van Giesen Street and turn left on Hall Road at Wood’s Nursery.

Locations for more bird walks until Bateman Island reopens will be announced monthly.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience,” Schiessl said.

This story was originally published August 30, 2017 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Birds back at charred Bateman Island. Still no people allowed."