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July 12-18
This Week's Local Forecast
Weather Trivia What is a heat burst?
Thursday
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Partly Cloudy
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Precip Chance: 0%
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Answer: It is air that is forced downward in a thunderstorm and heated by compression.
Klamath Falls 7-Day Forecast
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JULY 11, 2018 • Number 18, Volume 28
Trail connects Alturas with Refuge By LEE JUILLERAT for the Herald and News July 6, 2018
ALTURAS — Unfamiliar faces are becoming familiar sights at the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge thanks to a newly built multi-use biking-walking trail. “It’s brought in a lot of new faces to see the refuges, people I hadn’t seen in 17 years,” says Steve Clay, who managed the 7,000acre refuge since 2001. “We’re definitely seeing people we’ve never seen before. It’s been a great boon to the community.” Officially opened in June, the 1.6-mile long trail connects the refuge with downtown Alturas and the Modoc County Museum. The section outside the refuge runs along county roads while the section in the refuge is a dedicated two-lanes segment. The paved 10-foot wide asphalt surface also includes a spur trail to the Desert Rose Casino. It was built to provide a safe, paved travel corridor for walkers, runners and bicyclists along Modoc County Roads 56 and 115 to the refuge entrance road.
Jim Cavasso, an Alturas businessman whose holdings include the Niles Hotel, just a block away from the Modoc County Museum, said proposals to create a trail had been discussed for several years and agrees the trail has generated surprising numbers of users. “It gives bikers and foot traffic a safer pathway from town to the refuge. It’s not uncommon to see people using it,” Cavasso said, adding with evident pride, “We’re one of the few communities in the U.S. that has a national wildlife refuge bordering the city.” The project was a combined effort that included the refuge, Modoc County Road Department, City of Alturas and Federal Highway Administration, which provided most of the $1.4 million. Construction began in mid-September and was substantially complete last November.
“Once the asphalt surface was done,” Clay said, “people were using it.”
The prime contractor was T.L. Peterson, Inc. of Red Bluff, Calif., although Eagle Rock, a Modoc County contractor, was also involved.
Sean Cross, assistant refuge manager, said use has been greater than expected, noting, “The use is crazy. It’s amazing. Every time I travel by I see three or four people,” including people pushing baby strollers and walking to and from the casino, often at all hours. “It’s more for public safety than just visiting the refuge.”
“It’s been a great partnership,” Clay said, crediting the contractors — “They just whipped right into it” — and Modoc County for signage, sweeping, weeding and snow removal. “It’s been great that they’ve taken it on.”
What to see at the Modoc Refuge What’s there to see at the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge, a 7,000-acre wetlands within biking and walking distance of Alturas. “The big draw are the sandhill cranes,” says refuge manager Steve Clay, noting interest spikes when the young, called colts, are seen in meadows and grain fields.
Because the refuge is located along the Pacific Flyway, the corridor used by migrating birds between Southern California and Alaska, it seasonally attracts thousands of waterfowl, shorebirds and songbirds. Because of its variety of habitats, more than 250 species have been counted, including ducks, geese, grebes tundra swans, cranes, bald and golden eagles, northern harriers and red-tailed hawks. Clay regards mallards, cinnamon teal and gadwalls as “the Big Three.” But he quickly reels off a list of others - ruddy
Modoc National Wildlife Refuge Manager Steve Clay is proud of the new trail and new visitor center-office. The site is attracting a lot of traffic.
For now the trail is unnamed but is informally called the Refuge Access Trail. “We’d like to get public participation,” Clay said of devising a name. So far, a leading contender is Koseallekte,” the name of the local Achumawi, or Pit River Indians. People using the trail are also visiting the 3-mile long auto tour loop route, which includes a hiking trail that weaves through a section of the refuge, and the newly built refuge office-visitor center. The 3,470-square foot center is built on the site of the former center was destroyed ducks, pintails, white faced ibis, blackcrowned night herons, bufflehead, merganser, white-fronted geese, warblers - as species who make the refuge home or a place for temporary stopovers. “There’s a pretty broad spectrum,” he says, noting the varieties mimic those seen in the nearby network of Klamath Basin national wildlife refuges. “We have everything you see in the Klamath Basin but in a more intimate setting.” To get an eyeful - and earful - visitors can drive or bike a 3-mile long loop road
by an October 2015 electrical fire. “The layout is so much nicer that we’ve got a lot more functional space. We’re working out the kinks,” Clay said of the new office, noting plans call for indoor and outdoor displays, picnic tables and a native plant pollinator garden. “We’re excited with the good things that are happening, We’re infinitely better and people are much safer than we were without the trail.” Interpretive signs provide information on the area’s cultural heritage, pioneer settlement and notable wildlife and bird species. The Kaye Johnson Wildlife Trail is loop hike around a section of the Teal Pond and includes a wildlife viewing area. The refuge headquarters is open 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays and features displays and brochures about regional birds and mammals. The refuge is open daily during daylight hours. For information call 530-233-3572 or visit the website at www.fws.gov/refuge/modoc.