West Virginia Wildlife from Eyewitness News

Ohio River Lands

Plenty of acreage available for the public.

September 3, 2008
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice

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The ohio river provides a great habitat for fish, mussels and other animals who live in the water, but the lands in and around the mighty ohio provide excellent habitat, too.

That's why the federal government established the ohio river islands national wildlife refuge in the northern part of our state.

Dean Rhine/US Fish and Wildlife says:
"There are currently 22 islands on the refuge and three mainland tracts. 18 of those islands are in West Virginia. This island is Buckley Island and it is right outside of Williamstown across from our headquarters island. Total acreage of the refuge is 3,400 acres."

That's massive and it's a big job to develop and manage the area. The west virginia dnr works together with the federal fish and wildlife services on this project and their teamwork is paying big dividends.

Jeff McCrady/DNR says:
"If we work togther to try to achieve the goal of providing more hunting opportunities, we can offer more hunting opportunities, we can accomplish a lot more than if we worked seperately.

"It provides in an area in the state where we don't really have a lot of public lands to provide an opportunity for people who live here to have land close by and an area close by they can use for recreation."

All types of recreation, too. There is a very diverse population of wildlife, everything from song birds to muskrats to photograph or just sit back and enjoy. There's even an opportunity for hunters.

Dean Rhine/US Fish and Wildlife says:
"We offer archery deer hunting on most of our properties. We also offer small game hunting for rabbits, especially water fowl, there are lots of opportunities.

"On one of the islands, Middle Island near St. Mary's, we have a management hunt that we've done for the last two years where we're trying to reduce the deer population. In addition to that island being open for archery, we also offer muzzle loader hunts."

That's good news for folks in the northern part of the state looking for somewhere to enjoy the great outdoors. For west virginia wildlife, i'm patrick mcmurtry, eyewitness news.<