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HUNTING & FISHING 2013
August 2013
PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP: STEVEN BROWN
Jack, a 3-year-old Lab, is dressed for success at a hunting blind in the Mudhen Unit of Sauvie Island.
By Steven Brown
Pamplin Media Group
I grew up in Northeast Portland, but spent
17 years of my adult life living in Pendleton.
If you’re a duck hunter in Oregon, you
know that living in Pendleton puts you close
to one of the best waterfowl regions of the
state.
Shortly after going to work for the newspa-
per in that town, I took advantage of the near-
by waterfowl hunting opportunities. From
my home, it was just a short drive to the Co-
lumbia River, where with only a little effort
any waterfowl hunter could land in the thick
of the action.
You had your choice of hunting the big wa-
ter of the Columbia River, or setting your
sights on state, tribal and federal wildlife ref-
uges scattered between Hermiston and
Boardman. In terms of hunter success, these
public access refuges ranged from poor to
excellent in terms of hunter success.
The early 1990s was a great time to be a
duck hunter. The duck population was on the
rebound from the slump of the 1970s and ‘80s,
thanks to restoration and preservation of
wetlands, better control of pesticide use and
better spring nesting conditions. Part of that
surge also resulted from a prohibition on
toxic shot. The resulting population surge
continued into the turn of the new century.
For a while, at least, it was like living in
duck-hunting paradise.
Then came a new job in 2008 and a reloca-
tion to my home turf in Multnomah County.
That was good for my family and career, but
for waterfowl hunting it was a cold slap in the
face.
It meant my duck hunting was limited to
the few days each season I could make the
cross-state drive to Umatilla County. (It’s
hard to give up on the past. And harder still
to give up on a good thing.)
But driven by equal shares of the unwel-
come expense of driving to far off Eastern
Oregon for a day’s worth of duck hunting,
and by the patient — but insistent — request
by my wife to find a hunting destination clos-
er to home, I finally mustered the nerve in
2012 to explore public-access waterfowl hunt-
ing on Sauvie Island near Scappoose on the
Oregon side of the Columbia River.
A traitor to my brethren
Coming from Northeast Oregon, hunting
waterfowl on Sauvie Island is a little like dat-
ing your best friend’s mother — you just
don’t do it.
The resident waterfowl hunters of Umatilla
County sneer at the idea of setting foot on
Sauvie Island, a shadowy place devoid of any
value to a true sportsmen. That’s the culture
that framed my impression of Sauvie Island,
and which caused me to wait until the 2012-13
season to give it a try.
I went to Sauvie Island like a kid heading
to the dentist: clinched jaw, heavy feet, eager
for any reason to turn eastward on I-84 and
head back to Umatilla County. I went to Sau-
vie Island feeling as if I had betrayed my best
friend. I felt like I should seek membership in
DHA (Duck Hunters Anonymous): “Hello.
My name is Steve, and I hunted at Sauvie Is-
land.”
It’s not what you think
SAUVIE ISLAND:
Reflections of a
veteran waterfowl hunter
regarding his first season
on the island
Continued on next page
