I took a drive down to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route today with the hopes of finding and photographing the American white pelican since I had an incredible experience with one as of late (more about that in an upcoming blog post by the way).
But to my dismay, that wasn’t going to happen as I was met with a closed gate this morning when arriving at the auto loop.
The small paper sign posted on the metal gate said it was closed for habitat management but nothing else.
I was able to get on the refuge’s website and gather it will be closed Wednesday 9/8/21 and Thursday 9/9/21 for “habitat work” but it didn’t give any details about what they were doing on the refuge.
After driving the 12 miles back up Forest Street, I decided to stop in at the visitors center to see if I could find out any more information regarding this “habitat management” and why there weren’t any signs on Forest Street informing people of the auto tour route closure before they take the long 12-mile drive westward.
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I don’t mind saying it was a little bit disappointing the auto loop was closed, but it was very frustrating there were no signs as you drove down Forest Street telling visitors the auto tour loop was not open to the public until you reached the actual gate.
From what the volunteer at the visitors center front desk told me, they were spraying herbicides on the phragmites today and closed the auto loop as a result.
A few other disappointed visitors came to the visitors center while I was there to also ask why the gate was closed, obviously showing the same frustration I had with having to drive 12 miles down Forest Street only to find out the gate was closed today.
I am hoping some much-needed signage on the upper part of Forest Street will come as a result of the frustrated visitors to help better inform the public on the rare but sometimes needed auto tour road closures.
So, as it stands at this point, it looks like the auto tour loop will be closed one more day and is slated to reopen on Friday, but I would suggest contacting the refuge office if you are coming to visit the Bear River Bird Refuge just to make sure nothing else has changed.
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