Being Wild

By James R. Harris

When nature regains its splendor…

Nature brings us a cloak of warmth and serenity to soothe our souls. Nothing could ever bring peace to our hearts more than the calming magnificence of the wild. Author James Harris invites you to celebrate the wonder of overlapping ecological niches within his acreage through the photographic images and narrative of Being Wild, a thirty-year story of the restoration of a totally destroyed habitat in Oregon.

All he ever wanted was to be a part of the natural world. A tour of duty in the Submarine Service etched his desire to be outdoors into his soul. After the military he tried working in the family business, but deeply desired to free himself from the intricacies of corporate life and enjoy nature.

His yearning for the outdoors led him to purchase a seventy-six acre parcel of land, which was affordable because it had been sorely abused. Through decades of hard work, this place has become a thriving and viable wildlife habitat – and home for many, many native wild species.

Harris’ years of observing his environment have taught him to comprehend the many facets of the food cycle and given him the understanding needed to enhance individual habitats as he witnessed animals playing their respective roles in various over-lapping food chains.

Being Wild allows the reader to witness Harris’ encounters and challenges as he narrates experiences on the creation of a sustainable wildlife sanctuary.

Learn more about animals and their needs as you get a glimpse of their world – from their perspective.

Discover the beauty this land once lost in Being Wild.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 2, 2009
• ISBN: 9781664121881

James R. Harris

James Harris and his now sanctuary for all kinds of native wildlife have received several awards for outstanding stewardship over the last two decades, including the Outstanding Conservationist Award from the Soil Conservation Service, the Award for Outstanding Stewardship of Fish and Wildlife Resources on non-industrial Forestland from the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Dept. of Forestry, the Richard H. Pough Award for Land Stewardship Excellence, Tree Farmer of the Year from the Douglas Small Woodland Owner’s Association and others. Jim is not a flaming environmentalist or a tree-hugger, but instead a steadfast realist and naturalist. Rather than disrupt others by trying to convince or force them to make conscious choices that benefit wildlife, he has chosen to, by example, demonstrate what can be accomplished for wildlife with dedication and hard work on one’s own land. Now that the wildlife habitat on his place has reached a very high degree of viability (the ability to sustain itself ) he spends most if not all of his free time in the woods with his Nikon cameras. He has become quite expert at quietly moving around and keeping hidden to observe native wildlife behaving naturally. City dwellers find that simply going for a walk with Jim can be an extraordinary learning experience. He’s not particularly interested in social events or being cool, but quite intense about the well-being of the native wildlife that inhabit his place. “Being Wild” is all about helping others realize that it can be accomplished.

Book preview

Copyright © 2009 by James R. Harris. 57282-HARR

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and

retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009900241

Rev. date: 07/27/2020

Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 - EARLY DREAMS AND FRUSTRATIONS

CHAPTER 2 - GOOSED

CHAPTER 3 - TASKS AT HAND

CHAPTER 4 - FATSO’S LITTLE BOY

CHAPTER 5 - MAKING IT BETTER

CHAPTER 6 - COVER AND EDGE

CHAPTER 7 - SPECIES INTERDEPENDENCE

CHAPTER 8 - GOLDEN

CHAPTER 9 - MOVING EARTH

CHAPTER 10 - GAMBLE AND GRETCHEN

CHAPTER 11 - FROM THE OFFICE WINDOW - SUCCESSES

CHAPTER 12 - CAT

CHAPTER 13 - BUILDING AN EXAMPLE HABITAT

CHAPTER 14 - THE DUCHESS OF DEATH

CHAPTER 15 - HAPPINESS

EPILOGUE

GLOSSARY

Dedicated to all those who feel as I do toward wild things.

INTRODUCTION

If you admire wildlife, its habitat, how it lives and the land that fills its needs; then Being Wild is written for you. It is the story of what it has taken over 30 years to re-establish a viable and productive wildlife habitat on a totally abused and essentially destroyed 80 Acres of land in Oregon. It includes several short stories written from the animal’s point of view.

Allow this book to take you where you’ve never been and keep you there for a brief time. Learn about wildlife and its habitat from a different perspective. Their perspective.

Ever wanted to be a Golden Eagle riding the wind while searching for its next meal or perhaps a hungry Bobcat on the hunt? This book will give you those opportunities and more. As you read, you can glimpse the world through different eyes. Eyes that may see more clearly than your own.

Being Wild also allows you to better comprehend the importance of the food cycle and the valuable role it plays in any habitat. You can discover a realistic understanding of the food cycle and various food chains. The book is loaded with tested and productive habitat improvement techniques that benefit wildlife directly.

Subjects like Cover and Edge are well explained and filled with useful information for any wildlife enthusiast. This book helps you realize what life is like for the animals. No convenience store down the street for them. No medical services either. For the predators, the rules are simple: find, kill and eat. The prey species use cover, camouflage, speed and all their senses to avoid being caught.

This amazing, yet fragile balance is constantly fluctuating as it is affected by a multitude of ever-changing conditions. The day-to-day weather plays an important role. Imagine what weather would mean to you if you didn’t have a warm, cozy house for shelter.

So come, join a gray fox and some others to get an inkling of life as the animals see it. Sharpen your claws on a downed log or take the wind in your nostrils and explore it for signs of prey or danger. Understand their needs for Food, Water and Shelter from their point of view.

CHAPTER 1 - EARLY DREAMS AND FRUSTRATIONS

All I really wanted was to be wild. To feel the pulse of the wildlife around me, understand the animals and how the habitat worked. To comprehend the food chain, appreciate its intensity and witness the continuous guerilla war between predator and prey species on every level in a viable habitat. Since the age of twelve I had always dreamed of living in a place where wildlife roamed comfortably at their free will and as I grew older, I especially wanted to see ducks and geese in the sky over my home. Duck hunting in the late fifties with Dad in Warner Valley was wonderful. I watched thousands upon thousands of ducks and geese move through that valley each morning which forever etched my memory. If when I die I have time to reflect, it will be these memories I see. In my years between 12 and 18 I spent many days and nights there, watching, listening and imagining. Laying out in the marsh, listening to Coyotes catch and kill rabbits or wounded waterfowl. First sun would bring Mallards, Redheads, Pintails, and Teal right past me, all in perfect light, only fifteen feet above the bulrushes.

At some point I started leaving the shotgun and the heavy shells in the truck.

It was the night after night, day after day Cold War ops 1200 feet under the surface somewhere in the Pacific that solidified my youthful dreams into intense, hard as concrete goals, if I made it. We provided, among other things, a pick up and delivery service for SEAL teams. Hide, hide, hide—deep all day and snorkel depth all night. The snorkel provides air to the diesel engines and when it takes a wave the main induction automatically shuts. The instant the main induction closes the engines steal their needed air from inside the boat and it only takes once for you to want to be somewhere else as your brains try to exit through your ears. A stormy night or a non-qual bowplanesman and sleep is impossible — hell, awake is no joyride. Then of course, there was that memorable 31 day/night stint without a shower when one freshwater still blew up and we had no repair parts. Imagine, if you can, 86 men in a submerged submarine with no showers for 31 days. War is hell.

In these pristine surroundings the granite was etched. I wanted land, privacy and space. Wanted it in that special way that said I would have it and nothing could override its priority.

Upon leaving the submarine service in 1970, I quickly pursued my intense desire for both open space and privacy. Simple dreams, but to achieve them I would have to persevere for years because it would probably take time, money and sweat! Realizing that I had more time and sweat than money, it was clear that I must be willing to work hard physically and adhere to a plan to achieve my goals. Acquiring the right parcel, like earning a black belt in martial arts, was only the beginning for the serious practitioner.

After the service I began working in the family Title Insurance business. By 1980 I had worked there ten years, developing a comprehensive understanding of the many facets of real estate transactions, but yearned to be outdoors. I really wanted out of the coat and tie business. I had no idea what I would do, but wanted to work for myself; knowing that if I failed at whatever field I chose, I would ultimately have to work for someone else—how grim.

October 1980: It is raining—hard. On our way to look at another affordable acreage, the weather seems fitting. Affordable appears to be synonymous with Abused.

Our money for a down payment amounts to exactly zero, so aside from being constantly reminded that we don’t have a down payment, we are getting used to visual disappointment and expect nothing less today. We are to meet the realtor at 8:00 am and he has already told us the parcel’s attributes: Been logged hard, been for sale over two years, steep, the seller is very motivated and it’s got a year-round creek. Just what we’re looking for. 76 acres of exactly what we can afford—not much.

Pulling into the driveway, and I use the term loosely, we see the realtor’s Audi parked by the creek. As we park we can’t help noticing what a complete mess surrounds us. How can bare land be so abused? For money, stupid, I answer myself.

Shaking his hand I say, Good Morning, Marty. Another winner for us, eh?

Hi Jim. It’s pretty rough, but the creek may have the potential you’re looking for.

Marty, I can’t help but notice there’s a lot of road frontage and no fence or gate, huge stumps seem to be everywhere and the logging slash has been pushed right up to the edge of the water in the creek. And we haven’t even crossed the bridge into the bulk of the parcel yet.

Marty replies, What bridge?

I turn to look more closely at what I thought was a bridge, but it is just a skeleton of the overused logging bridge.

We were standing at the edge of the useless bridge looking up and down the creek, noting the level of destruction, when Marty said those wonderful words:

The seller got into this when the market was hot two years ago, he says he’ll take no money down for the right buyer.

I reply, Would you take him an offer of no money down, no payment for one year and a 10% discount on any payoff balance?

Yes, let’s give it a shot. In fact, if he accepts that, I’ll defer my commission. I believe it may be the only way to move this one.

Would you defer your commission for at least a year?

I would.

To which I replied, as though I had wealth, Let’s do it!

Proceeding along the creek, the muddy and rutted roadway led us to an opening and I remember feelings of anticipation as I hurried toward it. Each step into it disclosed more acres into view.

When forty more acres had come into sight, it became dew droplet clear that there wasn’t much to brag about. Looking up the draw to the south, some of my long-gone cowboy grandfather’s words leaped into my mind. Steep as a Cow’s face would have been his first words. The parcel could be described just as Marty had done: Been logged hard and steep. He considered the place, at best, difficult to sell. By this time my wife probably figured I stepped in it for sure. Wait, stop. I find myself explaining what we saw as I am sure she saw it, but what I saw as we trudged up the driveway was endless potential, a grove of young myrtles along the creek, the creek itself up to 15 feet wide and meandering wonderfully through its course of bedrock, cobbles, sand and gravel. All good stuff for fish enhancement projects and spawning. Some beat up but scrappy riparian plant species had survived the last logging and looked to me that, with some care, they could rebound. Entering the opening revealed several big firs that had been considered worthless in the latest high grading (taking only the best trees) effort, more myrtle trees, some big leaf maples and lots of native brush. I was filled with the excitement of knowing, if the deal closed, we would get almost ½ mile of that year-round stream running through the place. Looking through young, strong, energetic and optimistic eyes everything else looked fixable. The creek would give me the opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream of creating a wildlife paradise. Blinded by the light, little did I realize the thousands of hours I would put into that dream over the next 20 years.

Trouble was, the place had been sorely abused; on the slopes it had been logged three times in the most cost-efficient manner possible, leaving stumps, slash, cables and cat trails seemingly everywhere. The bottom land had been old growth Douglas Fir. Area pioneers met there and called it The Grove in decades past — now it was huge stumps, thousands of unwanted branches and other slash. There were drainage problems everywhere. The place was a bona fide disaster.

Three meetings with the seller, John Paul, who turned out to be an acquaintance from my 10 years in the Title Insurance business, and we had our deal. Full price, no money down, no payment for one year, a 10% discount on any payoff balance and Marty ate his commission. A deal made in Heaven, no doubt, with Martin Sloan being the angel in charge. Still today I am rewarded by close friendships with Marty and John, both gentlemen.

Within two weeks we signed the appropriate papers and the place was ours or at least we could keep it as long as we made our payments on time. Now we did have some assets, they just existed in the form of real estate rather than cash. We had a three bedroom house in town which we refinanced to purchase a part ownership in some nice apartments. I had purchased a forested 80 acres in 1975 with the same dreams that faced me at Deer Creek. And, to make a long story short, that first 80 is where I learned about buying property that is subject to a timber-cutting agreement and unscrupulous loggers, not enough water in late Summer, endless cleanup work and rattlesnakes. Lots of rattlesnakes. I was single when I bought that place, but after my newlywed wife had to shoot a 34 incher at the front porch just to get in, that was that. Living in a manufactured home and preparing to build, I realized she did not want to be there. So, with no cash, we went looking for a new place — our search led us to Deer Creek.

It’s late 1980, the end of an inflation period, and the Real Estate market has been declining for two years. Realtors closing up shop or barely holding on all over the County, sellers unable to get what they had paid two years prior and nothing was closing. That would include the three aforementioned properties. Money was slim. These are the underlying reasons we were able to make a deal with reasonable terms. The market was dead and the Deer Creek parcel was ugly.

We had purchased (financed) a Ford four wheel drive tractor with implements three years earlier and we hauled it to Deer Creek on weekends, finally asking a new neighbor if we could leave the tractor at their ranch and they said yes. We had to get a construction loan, arrange a mortgage, pay off John Paul and build a house, but we had no money. This stage was going to be a challenge. Here’s how we did it. We caught the tail end of a State GI farm loan program that would lend on the bare land as well as the home, once the home was built. Approved for the last