By Mary Lou Dickson
I know the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge is a favorite location for our club to go birding and the closure of the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive has affected many of us. But I take comfort in the fact that the closure is to help repair, protect, and improve the wildlife habitat there. Since I still volunteer there, I get to see some of the progress, although not up close. The refuge released an update in July that estimates the reopening to be winter/spring 2023.
The closure has forced some of us to explore other areas of the refuge that are still open. Unfortunately, I have just learned another area is closing for repairs. The Onslow Island section of the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge is now closed for major maintenance. There will be no entry into the impoundment area, although the parking area appears unaffected. The closing is estimated to be for one year.
The Onslow Island section is joint managed by the Savannah Coastal Refuges Complex and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers as it serves as a Savannah River spoil site, accepting river spoil into the impoundments there. The work will involve repairing the dikes there. It is unclear whether this will lead to making additional spoil deposits there or not. It is the addition of spoil is how the water into the impoundments. And it’s the water and its nutrients that bring the birds. It is my understanding the Corp is also going to be doing some invasive species control during this work and planting native grasses on the dikes when finished.
This leaves three areas of the refuge with trails open. The Visitor Center area which has 3 short loop trails in the woods around the center. If you walked all 3 trails it would be about a mile. The Visitor Center is still closed due to COVID restrictions, but there is a port-a-potty in the parking area. The Kingfisher Pond area is open and does allow some access to the hardwood bottomland forest there (the Tupelo connector trail), but that’s a walk in and out the same trail as the Tupelo trail is closed. The trail around the pond is well marked and a little over a mile to walk. All trails are mostly in the woods, but the mosquitoes can be bad, particularly if you walk the Tupelo Connector. And finally, the Solomon Tract is open. This part of the refuge is not heavy visited, but there is now a parking area just outside the main gate there. Mosquitos, fire ants, and ticks can all be problems here, so come prepared.