Prescribed burn will take place at Ted Trueblood WHA sometime between April 8 and 17

Fish and Game and BLM staff will be conducting a prescribed burn on Pond 3 at the Ted Trueblood Wildlife Habitat Area sometime between April 8 and April 17, depending on weather conditions. The burn will be followed by the application of herbicide to reduce bullrush and cattail that have begun to choke out open water, making it difficult to hunt and reducing the quality of habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds.

A portion of the property will be closed to public access while the burn activity is taking place.

"Our goal is to open up around three-quarters of the pond with this treatment," said Samantha Suszynski, Regional Wildlife Habitat Biologist. "More open water means more opportunities for us to grow duck food through moist-soil management techniques, as well as better hunting access for waterfowl hunters."

Similar habitat-improvement work has been carried out on the other two ponds at the Ted Trueblood WHA over the past several years, which were also overgrown with cattails and bullrush. Following treatment on Ponds 1 and 2, habitat staff were able to plant and grow high-quality feed along the shoreline for waterfowl and shorebirds.

"Because of the recent habitat work we've done at the Trueblood ponds, there has been an increase in migratory birds using the ponds over the last two years," Suszynski said. "We are hoping to have similar results on Pond 3 once the work is complete. The idea is to create more food for ducks and improve opportunities for waterfowl hunters."