E.E.Wilson Wildlife Refuge

Today was our first official day off and we spent the morning hiking at E.E.Wilson Wildlife Refuge just to the north of us. The district office where we volunteer is located at the southern end of the former Camp Adair grounds, and E.E.Wilson is located at the northern end. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife this morning at E.E. Wilson, I guess we are pretty spoiled where we are next to Adair Pond. Mostly what I came away with was the immensity of the former US Army base, Camp Adair. It sprang into being in 1942 in response to Pearl Harbor to train troops. It occupied a swath of land in the Willamette Valley two miles wide and six miles long. Over a hundred thousand troops trained here before closing in 1944. Miles and miles of asphalt roads still exist between overgrown brambles of blackberry vines. I’m sure the troops helped in preventing the invasion of the Japanese forces, but today it appears that the old Camp Adair is loosing the battle to the invasion of Himalayan Blackberries.