Tremendous Thank You for an Eggs-ellent Donation
Our Environmental & Cultural Education Program would like to thank Mary Lou Gillenwater and Vicki Marshall from the Pioneer Market for donating eight dozen eggs to our program. After seeing our Community & Cultural Education Director, Juliet McGraw, buying several dozen every morning for over a week they asked, “Why all the eggs?” The short answer is to make paint. Traditional Chinookan paint is made from salmon roe and ground mineral pigments, such as ochre or charcoal. For school groups we substitute chicken-egg yolks for salmon eggs and have students grind up charcoal for the paint coloring. This particular educational activity was more popular than anticipated with teachers and students, and we were buying over nine dozen eggs each week! We are ova the moon with eggs-citement because this donation will carry us through the remainder of the school group season.
Archaeology Roadshow 2018
The Cathlapotle Plankhouse Program is thrilled to be representing the Friends of Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge once again at the Archeology Roadshow. As many of you know, the Refuge has a long history with Portland State University’s Anthropology Department, which conducted the archaeological investigations into the Cathlapotle Village Site in the 1990s. In addition to continuing our longtime participating at the PSU location, we are also excited to travel to Harney County for the second year of Archaeology Roadshow on the road!
This year’s ARS theme is the Archaeology of Change and our exhibit will feature Cedar and seasonality. The Cathlapotle People were People of the Cedar like many other Pacific Northwest Tribes. Everything from their Plankhouses and Canoes, to their clothing and cookware, were made of this durable and renewable resource.
Come and explore how Lower Columbia People used this ‘tree of life’ throughout the year through hands on cedar-based activities.
June 2 – Portland State University, Portland, OR
June 9 – Harney County, Burns, OR
Do you want to know more about the Cathlapotle people? Check out Robert Boyd’s Cathlapotle and Its Inhabitants 1792-1860, which provides a comprehensive overview of this critical period of change for Indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest.
Cathlapotle Plankhouse Second Sunday Series
Sunday, June 10, 2018
10:00-"Early” Bird Walk with Refuge Naturalist Terry Anderson
12:00–4:00-Cathlapotle Plankhouse Open – tours and family activities
1:00-Speaker
2:30-Ethnobotany Walk –Juliet McGraw
Family Activities include: seasonality based crafts, including making paper ‘cedar’ gathering baskets, and more!
Questions? Contact Juliet at Juliet_McGraw@fws.gov
or call (360) 887-4106
.jpg)
If I was to sum up the month of May on the Refuge in one word that word would be pleasant. Moderate temperatures and appropriate amounts of sun and clouds made it a good time to be outside volunteering. Of course, because a big part of our job is to plant and grow native trees, shrubs, forbs, and grasses I also must complain in my best farmer voice about the lack of rain. As a result we are now scheduling watering days for the 300 plants we added during the winter planting season. These are the kinds of activities that put our volunteer’s ATV/UTV training to good use. Volunteers that come regularly to the Habitat Program work party events often have opportunities for 
additional trainings and projects including kayak surveys, assisting with the wildlife program, herbicide application certification, volunteering with other Refuge programs, and information on other volunteer opportunities in the region.
wetland plant accidently introduced to the refuge in the late 90’s. The plant is pretty easy to identify and comes out of the ground with just a little levering so it is an opportunity for a wide range of ages and outdoor aptitudes. Standing and bending, crossing uneven ground on occasion, and stinging insects are things to consider, but this is one of our more socially interactive projects and it’s great when we have lots of new faces and stories to share.
Log on to smile.amazon.com, shop as you usually would and .5% of your purchase will be donated directly to the Friends. Use the special link, 
Giving Assistant makes it easy to donate to Friends of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge! Simply shop online, earn cash back, and donate as much as 30% of your purchase price—Giving Assistant facilitates the whole process. Now, you can help change the world for free while saving money at over 3,000 popular online retailers like Home Depot, ULTA, and Macy’s! 
