On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:36:08 -0700 "Andy Stepniewski"
<steppie at nwinfo.net> wrote in part:

Tweeters,

Wilson Cady posted a trip report on a Clark County birding a trip a few
days ago in which Ellen and I participated. In that report I think he
understated his own efforts on Purple Martin recovery.

Besides the Purple Martin nest box project, Wilson is also active in
habitat restoration on the refuge. This big project aims to restore large
expanses of old agricultural fields to native floodplain vegetation with
thousands of shrubs and grasses of a variety of species. I was impressed
by Wilson's enthusiasm and passion for refuge work and the world of
birds. It would be great if all national wildlife refuges had such
dedicated volunteers! Of course, for an active birder restoration efforts
will lead to a greater diversity and number of birds and other wildlife
so the rewards for Wilson and other volunteers will be great.

Andy's comments were far to kind, I need to clarify who are the
real supporters of the efforts at the Steigerwald Lake NWR in Washougal.
We have been assisted by hundreds of volunteers on the planting efforts
and a special thanks for the Purple Martin project has to go to two of
our volunteers, Steve Canter and Randy Fortish, who did the actual work
erecting the four eight-plex colonies while I "supervised". The nesting
colonies on the refuge were jointly funded by the Vancouver Audubon
Society and the Georgia-Pacific paper mill in Camas. Not only did
Georgia-Pacific help fund these colonies they erected two more downstream
in Camas. The management under the direction of the Regional Vice
President, Mike Tompkins, created and supported my job position as an
environmental representative and paid me to do these and many other
projects. In four years we provided mentoring and supplies to fourteen
young men for their Eagle Scout projects, supplied 18,000 native plants
for habitat restoration projects done by scouts and school classrooms.
The Camas Mill also purchased and distributed seventy-two pair of
binoculars to local environmental education organizations and fifty
copies of Sibley's Birds of North America to schools.
They donated supplies for salmon restoration projects on the
Washougal River led by the Lower Columbia River Fish Enhancement Group
and allowed me to organize teams of volunteers for the Race for the Cure
and the Adopt-A-Highway program and they even adopted the Washougal
Steelhead Hatchery and provided materials and manpower to pickup after
their funding was cut.
So to call me a volunteer for these projects was stretching it
although since June 1st I and my retirement I am now an actual volunteer.

Wilson Cady
Washougal, WA