Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

The Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife refuge located next to Ridgefield, Washington, in Clark County. It was established in 1965 as part of the National Wildlife Refuge system, to protect birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway from the Arctic to the Tropics, as well as to provide a habitat for local mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. The refuge is about 5300 acres, or a little more than 8 square miles. If you look on a map, the reservation is basically an island, about six miles from north to south, and a few thousand feet from east to west, lying between the Columbia River, and the Lake River, a slow-moving channel that drains Vancouver Lake. However, what might be shown on a map is probably inaccurate, because the area is a wetland, where depending on the time of year, meadows might become lakes and peninsulas might become islands. Along with its natural features, the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge also has cultural history, in the form of a reconstruction of a Chinookian plankhouse, a recreation of indigenous villages that were once in the area.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge is one of only three National Wildlife Refuges in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area. Despite the environmental consciousness of the region, most of the natural floodplain and wetland habitat in the area has been lost, and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge is one of the best places to see what remains of it.