W. Finley National Wildlife Refuge

Finley Wildlife Refuge is for the birds.

Folks who aren’t skiers or snowshoers can get restless in the winter months because they don’t know about the incredible hiking opportunities right here in the Willamette Valley.  In the early spring when the Cascades are usually quiet and still under a deep blanket of snow, the William Finley Wildlife Refuge south of Corvallis is a riot of sights and sounds.  A number of easy hikes, tons of wildlife, and a short drive (just about thirty minutes) make this a great destination for people with kids.  And if you’re a bird watcher, you’ve found paradise.

Directions:  Take Highway 99W north from Eugene for approximately 25 miles.  Right next to milepost 93, take a left onto a gravel road at the sign for the refuge.  Drive 1.3 miles and take another left on Finley Wildlife Refuge Road.  On this road, it’s another mile and a half to the refuge headquarters.  From here you can make up your own tour traveling along the refuge’s road system (there’s no traffic).  Major attractions are Cabell Marsh, Cattail Swamp and the Beaver Pond. 

There are three major recommended hikes that are described in brochures you can pick up at viewing areas on your drive in.  If you’ve been to Finley before, you’ll notice that a number of new viewing areas, educational panels and other recreational facilities have been added in the past year.   

The Woodpecker Trail begins less than a mile past the refuge headquarters.  This 1.2 mile loop will take you through a bog, oak woodlands, and grassy meadows filled with flowers to an observation deck built around a giant Oregon white oak with views across the Willamette Valley to the Cascades beyond.  Other loops will take you from 2 to 4 miles over much of the rest of the refuge, which consists of former agricultural lands managed to produce food for migrating water fowl, oak savannahs, bottomland ash forest, some second-growth Douglas fir, old-growth big leaf maple and the largest tract of native Willamette valley wet prairie left in the state. 

Almost all of this type of habitat has been paved over or converted to agricultural uses over the past century.  Finley, along with the Ankeny and Basket Slough refuges near Salem, are some of the only real estate left that harbor endangered species like Fender’s Blue Butterfly, Kincaid's lupine, Willamette daisy and Bradshaws lomatium.  A particular focus at Finley is providing habitat for Canadian dusky geese, which are notable for their narrow range—they summer only in the Copper River Delta, and winter exclusively in the Willamette Valley.

On a good day you’ll see herds of Roosevelt elk, bald eagles and western meadowlarks.  The Finley Refuge is peaceful, but it’s not quiet.  Honking geese and shrill songbirds are ubiquitous.  Most days this time of year, it’s one of the noisiest and exciting places in the valley.