Wayne Hall: Rare birds find refuge in Shawangunk

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Volunteer David Standert helps out to build a temporary blind, which offers a panoramic view of the refug, this is one of several projects to in an effort to make improvements for the refuge along a new trail through the Shawangunk National Wildlife Refuge in Galeville Wednesday afternoon. Refuge director Mike Horn, staff and volunteers work on a temporary blind,Kelly Marsh for the Times Herald-Record

Just about everybody and his brother has run over the old farmland called Galeville in the rural, rolling hills of Shawangunk.

Police chase cars, military aircraft trainers, you name it.

But it's now a 590-acre haven for migratory birds called the Shawngunk National Wildlife Refuge, which means you can't shoot the birds. You can't even bother them.

It's perfect for threatened and endangered birds like short-eared owls, whose huge yellow eyes and moth-like flight draws hundreds to the refuge each year.

Spring brings declining grassland bird species like hundreds of nesting black, buff and white bobolinks, singing their hearts out after migrating here all the way from Argentina.

Threatened grasshopper sparrows and elegant upland sandpipers raise families in the runways of shadowy, grassy tunnels honeycombing the refuge.

Which is why so many people come here to simply watch them.

People such as New Paltz naturalist Tom Crepet.

"Sometimes," he says with relish, "the threatened northern harriers (hawks) get into that's-my-mouse tiffs with endangered short-eared owls."

The annoyed owls, he recalls, "can make a sort of bark."

You get the idea. The area has migratory birds galore.

And that's why birdwatchers are on the warpath — again — to save the refuge from losing ground.

Shawangunk town officials are seeking a special state permit to "take" or possibly kill some of the refuge's endangered or threatened birds while constructing what they insist is a much needed, enhanced sports field in the existing town park that neighbors the refuge. They need 9.3 acres from the refuge to do this.

Local birdwatchers and big umbrella environmental organizations are up in arms.

All seek denials of a state permit to "take" habitat from the refuge. And they want public hearings, plus more comment time.

"Our 1,800 members urge that an environmental impact study (in detail) be required," writes Joanne Steele, chairwoman of the mid-Hudson Sierra Club chapter.

That's just one of "about 100 comments" received so far, says state Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach.

Audubon NY's 50,000 members weighed in, along with many local bird clubs.

So what's the big deal? Kids want more sports fields and they don't have enough, says Shawangunk Supervisor John Valk, who says he's been angling for this project "for a very long time (more than 12 years)."

He's providing many givebacks, says Valk, such as bathrooms for the refuge, which doesn't have any; maps; observation posts; nature trails; and a 31-acre replacement plot that's near but not on the refuge. Also, dogs would not be allowed in the area, as is the refuge rule.

But this is dangerous toe-in-the-door stuff that's ruined other grasslands, say environmentalists. That's why they battled model-airplane enthusiasts who went to the mat to be able to launch their models at the refuge years ago. The model-airplane folks lost.

It's the kind of peaceful kingdom all kinds of people love because its quiet, huge, teeming with life and you can make contact there with species you may never see elsewhere — including rare plants like spiky Bush's sedge, discovered long ago by Kansas City, Mo. mailman botanist Benjamin Franklin Bush.


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