In the summer of 1998 I made two trips to the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge to visit my sister, Amy, and take photo's of her undergrad biology research project. We chased bullfrogs, waded through amazing mud, and warm, clear ponds. We saw huge spiders, swatted myriad mosquitoes, and walked warily, looking for rattlesnakes. We went on cultural appreciation trips to Othello. We listened in wonder to tabernacle choirs of coyotes singing in the dark under great clouds of stars.

The Columbia Nat. Wildlife Refuge is...

It's a desert. It's a marsh. It's "the Potholes". The Columbia Nat'l Wildlife Refuge (CNWR) is one of the most interesting places I have ever visited. It is very hot and dry, yet every valley bottom is covered with lush green growth and some body of water, be it a creek, a lake or a largish sort of mosquito hatchery. While the waters abound with pond life, the desert begins a foot or two above the water line, with prickly pear cactus, sagebrush, cheatgrass, lots of dusty bare ground, and rattlesnakes. More C.N.W.R. Background info...