An Overlooked Jewel

Warm days, cold nights, and no new precipitation are making this an odd winter.

Week in Review

It's been a slow week in the Methow Valley, with days of dense fog and few wildlife observations of note. If anything, the only fun observation this week has been watching the thick coatings of ice crystals covering branches and stems due to the freezing fog.

For a change of pace and to escape the icy grip of winter, I finally decided to do something completely different and head downvalley to see how things are going at Cassimer Bar.

We tend to overlook Cassimer Bar and forget that this incredible treasure is a near-neighbor to the Methow Valley. In fact, I drove past it for years before finally stopping and discovering what a gem this place is.

So, what is Cassimer Bar, and why is it special? Cassimer Bar is the delta where the Okanogan River joins the Columbia River, and here, at the meeting of two great rivers, lies a remarkable expanse of floodplain forests, grasslands, ponds, sloughs, and marshes.

In the winter, a phenomenal number of water birds and bald eagles gather to rest and feed here, along with owls, other raptors, and many types of songbirds.

In the summer, the forests and marshes buzz with the songs of countless nesting birds, and a large colony of nesting great blue herons and double-crested cormorants dominates the landscape.

Cassimer Bar is a place where you can walk long distances along the shoreline, or wander at will across meadows and through jungle-like stands of trees, and you're likely to have the entire place to yourself.

This is a very rare, and almost unheard-of experience anywhere along the Columbia River. I pored over Google Maps and it looks like you'd have to go 410 miles downstream to find the next large patch of Columbia River forest at the Sandy River delta near Portland, or upstream at least 500 miles to find riparian forests in the Columbia Valley west of Banff National Park. And neither of those other places has the type of habitats you'll find at Cassimer Bar.

Sadly, being overlooked means that Cassimer Bar seems to be viewed as a throwaway site despite being a formal wildlife area. The place could really use a "Friends of Cassimer Bar" group (I'm assuming there isn't one because there's so much trash in the area) and greater recognition as a place of regional significance.

This combination of quiet waters where a major river joins the Columbia, together with a sprawling expanse of floodplain meadows, marshes, and forests, is incredibly valuable ecologically.

There's virtually no other place like this along the entire 1243 miles of the Columbia River, and it just so happens to be right in our neighborhood!