ST. LOUIS -- Bud Hartman? of Portland and Roy Elicker, director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, share a dream.
And they shared a concrete, vandal-proof picnic table Wednesday at St. Louis Ponds as they laid bookends to their vision of a rich, vibrant public fishing and wildlife recreational area in the Willamette Valley.
St. Louis Ponds is a 260-acre state-owned parcel adjacent to Interstate 5, southwest of Woodburn and about halfway between Portland and Salem. Billed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as a warm-water fishing area, the maze-like labyrinth of ponds is rich with wildlife, a frequent destination for anglers, picnickers, dog trainers, hikers and bird watchers.
The ponds were dug between 1973 and 1975 to help widen I-5 (as were many others up and down the valley). "Back then this was all open land," Hartman said. "You could see the freeway."
His snapshots verify the lakes' genesis in miles of flat, open grassland. Busy traffic is mostly unseen now, barely heard through an insulating canopy of trees, snags and brush, a haven for birds, amphibians and other critters that "just happened by itself," Hartman said.
Well, sort of. Hartman, 74, and his equally active wife, Marsha, 72, and dozens of volunteers from the Oregon Bass and Panfish Club (among many others) donated countless hours of time and effort over the years to turn the area into a park-like setting.
They scrounged old concrete (blocks, pipes, etc.) and tires to create fish structure in each pond. They built a floating dock, cleaned, weeded and raked shorelines and patrolled for trash.
Despite all efforts, though, the area became such a magnet for thieves, vandals and drug users that not many years ago it was more of a dump.
Today, after renewed attention from the department (steel fenceposts and concrete tables don't burn), a full-time seasonal volunteer host from March to October and maintenance of the 21-acre core by Marion County Parks, St. Louis Ponds is slowly but surely enjoying a resurrection.
A half-mile asphalt path winds around six of the seven ponds and wheelchair-accessible docks and turnouts along the shoreline (one built as a Boy Scout Eagle project) help everyone get close to the fishing.
All of the ponds offer a variety of panfish, two have catfish up to nearly 30 pounds and three are stocked with trout in the spring. (A hint for anglers: Department managers say pond No. 7, southeast of the others and without direct access from the asphalt path, is the least used and has the best fishing.)
Elicker, 59, and the department's director for four years, sees St. Louis Ponds as a key element in his own vision of encouraging more families to get outdoors with their children.
"This is a great piece of property for us," he told a gathering of department officials and representatives from the Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation.
The Foundation funds an array of fish and wildlife projects across the state and wants to get more involved in St. Louis Ponds.
Needs include a second volunteer host site, all-weather and vandal-proof structures for on-site teaching and events, more docks, rest-area quality bathrooms and additional fish stocking.
Elicker's personal support, attention from the Heritage Foundation and tireless volunteerism like that of the Hartmans, Bass and Panfish Club members and others, certainly make the vision realistic.
"I want to go to my grave knowing I made it a little bit better," Hartman said.
In so many ways, he already has.
Enter the young: William Anson Monroe V came into the world June 21 to chase all the dreams he and his mother and father (Kaitlyn? and Bill Monroe? Jr.) can imagine.
He got the same head start as his three cousins on at least one: A fishing license and a juvenile tag.
I've always paid for my grandkids' fishing and hunting. Tyler Grant,? the oldest, gets one more free pass before he turns 18 and his 12-year-old sister, Kayla Grant,? has fished since she could reel and hunted since she was 10.
No one expects either of this spring's infants (Amelia Sabine Jebousek? was born in May) to put a fish on their tag in the near future, but there's no minimum age to hold one.
Oregon law even allows license-holding parents to help their children land fish, but this daydream is more philosophical than practical.
They'll both be able to say they've had Oregon license and tags since birth. Amelia, who lives in Corvallis, had to wait two days for hers, but the newest junior got his the day he was born.
Gary Waterhouse,? owner of Great American Tackle Co. in Clackamas where I picked up both documents, was at first skeptical, then amused to find he could issue Amelia's on his Point Of Sale computer system.
Bill V's was a bit trickier, since he wasn't yet a day old and the computer screen balked: "Date of birth must be prior to today."
Gary called the agent hot-line in the Salem headquarters of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and quoted the reaction: "That's the first time this has ever come up."
Assured the baby was indeed born and had a valid Oregon address, his new hunter/angler identification number was issued and the tag produced.
May all dreams come true as easily.
Bill Monroe is a freelance outdoors writer.
He can be reached at nwbill@aol.com.
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/bill_monroe/index.ssf/2011/07/the_resurrection_of_st_louis_p.html
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