Not so long ago, Othello, Washington was just another sleepy agricultural town in an untrammeled part of the state. The lake-studded Columbia National Wildlife Refuge nearby was known more for hunting wildlife than viewing it. Today, the chance to catch sight of the red-capped, leggy sandhill cranes that stopover here on their seasonal migration between Alaska and California has attracted a whole new flock of visitors to the area.

The wildlife refuge was established as part of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project that diverts water from Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. Refuge biologist Randy Hill says the initial land was secured because no one else wanted it. It was wet, and unproductive for crops. Over time, additional areas for migratory bird habitat were acquired, and the refuge grew to include 23,000 acres. The numerous lakes and wetlands on the refuge are kept moist by tiny seeps through the dam on the Potholes Reservoir, just south of Moses Lake, and the irrigation canal that forms much of the east boundary of the refuge.

The refuge includes farmland that is cultivated to provide a year-round food supply for the birds. It plays an important role in helping migratory birds maintain healthy populations. Randy explains, “During the fall migration when the birds are heading south, we provide crops they can eat so they can get to their destination in reasonably decent shape.” If the birds are at the refuge in the winter, they can maintain their body weight and not freeze or starve to death. Randy adds, “In the spring, when they are heading to their breeding grounds in southeast Alaska, we want them to take up as much fat reserves as possible, because once they lay eggs, there is a lot that goes into sitting on those eggs for days on end.”

Ten years ago, the refuge’s service to migrating birds was not foremost in the public’s mind. Randy says, “We have always had a lot of users of the refuge, but people have thought of it as a place to go fishing or hunting. A lot of locals knew it as a place to get off the beaten track and unwind, but it never really was seen as a place to go see migratory birds.” Randy himself didn’t initially realize the potential of the avian attraction on the refuge. While he knew there was a sandhill crane migration going through the area, he didn’t think a lot about it.

Because the refuge is mainly shrub steppe, there were not a lot of sandhill cranes using it. Sandhill cranes prefer farmland because they can feed on waste grain. But there were a couple of crane roosts in the refuge, and Randy had taken a few people out to see the cranes. He says, “Word kind of gets out because they are a big showy species. They are communal, gregarious, and hang out in pretty big flocks sometimes.”

A birder in Moscow, Idaho heard about the cranes and drove over to the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge to see them for himself. When he wasn’t able to find any, he tried another tactic: he offered to lead a crane-viewing field trip through the University of Idaho’s adult education program. With Randy as their guide, a van full of Idahoans were able to see cranes roosting and feeding in and around the refuge in the spring of 1997.

At this time, Greater Othello’s Chamber of Commerce was looking for a way to generate more traffic for local businesses. Randy explains, “The chamber of commerce realized that other than agriculture, about the only thing the Othello area had to offer was outdoor recreation, and a lot of that was concentrated on the refuge.”

So the Chamber and the refuge manager, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, joined forces to create the first Othello Sandhill Crane Festival in the spring of 1998. The International Crane Foundation offered support, and the Washington State Audubon Society also got involved. Randy remarks, “That was excellent promotion because there are 25 Audubon chapters throughout the state and they all have newsletters. Audubon members are the targeted audience for a wildlife festival like this.” Local papers and birder’s websites provided additional free coverage, and that was about the extent of the advertising.

More than 400 people participated in the first festival, and Randy estimates as many as half of them were from the Othello area. The school district was one of the event partners so the high school facilities were used for hosting activities and school buses were used for the bird tours. That first year some of the challenges of balancing the interests of wildlife and tourists became apparent.

Randy recalls, “We realized that it was difficult to take people out every hour to view cranes because the birds are bimodal: they go out to the fields to feed at dawn and then go back to the roost area and sit there for the rest of the afternoon; they leave again in the late afternoon or early evening to feed in the fields again before going back to their nighttime roost.” Randy remembers that when they couldn’t see the birds in the fields, they took the buses to the roost to see them. He says, “I realized that first year that we should not have gone into the roost. People got great looks — the birds got up, they were flying and they made a lot of noise, but the reason the birds got up is that they were disturbed.”

The first year set the stage and was an opportunity to build awareness in the local community. Says Randy, “People sort of knew there were cranes around but didn’t really know anything about them. We opened a lot of eyes locally.” The festival organizers also realized they needed more local people involved in running the festival. Randy explains, “The first year we had wildlife guides on the buses, and they were getting a lot of questions about local agriculture as they drove through the fields. The next year we had wildlife and agriculture guides on each bus – locals that could talk about irrigation systems and different crops.”

Othello’s Sandhill Crane Festival has grown into a three-day event that attracts 1500 people. In addition to the crane viewing, visitors can participate in a wide array of specialty tours focused on other bird species and the unique geology of the area. Free lectures feature topics like owls, falconry, shrub-steppe flora and fauna, and the Missoula Floods. Young visitors can make crane masks or fold origami renditions of the birds. An author’s forum includes local naturalist writers and appearances by luminaries such as Peter Matthieson, who wrote a book recently on the 15 crane species of the world.

“When we started the refuge, fishing was king; I don’t think fishing is king anymore,” says Randy. “Not only has fishing declined somewhat, but with the publicity from the festival, people come to see the cranes, they go through the refuge, they find other neat stuff, they tell other people.” Changes in crop management on the refuge has also brought more cranes. “We get a crane flock that builds to over 5000 at one time. That is over 20 percent of the population in the entire flyway,” notes Randy.

Interest in seeing cranes has spilled over to other weekends, and tourist visits have increased throughout the migrating season. Hotels are happy with the business they get on other weekends and during the week as well. Explains Randy, “We’re at a point now where we can’t do it all in one weekend anymore. The festival will be on one weekend, but we are going to have to offer crane viewing on other weekends as well because the crane viewing resource is limited.” Randy concludes, “What started as a crane festival has expanded into broader ecotourism. It has worked out really well for the community!”

For more information, visit the Othello Sandhill Crane Festival website.

Contact
449 E Cedar
PO Box 542
Othello, WA 99344
www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org