[oucorry]

DRUMMOND - Several pheasant were in the road. A bunch of coots and a few mallards were lounging on the water until my interruption.

A rough-legged hawk sat perched in a small tree. A Harrier’s hawk was circling, apparently looking for a meal.


In the distance, I glassed a white-tailed deer. And that is what I observed in less than an hour on a quick scouting trip a couple of weeks ago to Drummond Flats, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation’s newest wetland development unit.

Just west of the small town of Drummond and eight miles southwest of Enid is Drummond Flats.

The area forms a natural wetland basin at the confluence of Turkey Creek, Elm Creek and Salt Creek that is prone to flooding.

It’s flooded four times this year.

The state Wildlife Department began buying land from willing sellers – who discovered the former marsh isn’t well-suited for farming – in the fall of 2006 and now own most of the low-lying basin, about 4,000 acres.

The goal of state wildlife officials is to return Dummond Flats to its natural state — a seasonal wetland - much like has been done to another public wildlife area — Hackberry Flat in southwest Oklahoma, now considered a prime destination for waterfowl hunters and bird watchers.

"I think it can be an equal to Hackberry,” said Alan Stacey, wetland habitat biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. "It goes through a lot of wet and dry cycles, which is what produces a lot of natural food.”

Before grazing and farming began on Drummond Flats, it was a major stop-over point of birds on their fall and spring migrations.

Drummond Flats lines up perfectly in the Central Flyway from the breeding grounds in Canada and the southern Great Plains to their coastal wintering areas.

Along the way are major migratory bird resting stops such as the McPherson Wetlands and Cheyenne Bottoms to the north in Kansas and Hackberry Flat to the south. Drummond Flats is in between.

"Drummond, historically, was without a doubt a very important area for these birds to rest and stop-over,” Stacey said. ”We want to bring it back, as best we can.”

It also has the potential to be the state’s best public hunting area for pheasant, Stacey said.

"We can’t leave the quail or the turkey out, either,” he said. "A lot of that is going to depend on how much buffer area we eventually acquire around this basin.”

It took a decade for Hackberry Flat to become the conservation triumph it is today.

Ten years from now, state wildlife officials hope Drummond Flats will be viewed the same way.