THE OUTDOORS : CLEAR THE RUNWAY, HERE COME THE DUCKS : Waterfowl Habitat, With Limited Hunting, to Be Developed at Edwards Air Force Base

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE —  In this desert sky where eagles dare, ducks, too, will fly.

The site of aviation history will score a blow for wildlife with the re-creation of 170 acres of waterfowl wetlands. The Piute Ponds Expansion Project, in the southwest corner of Edwards’ 470 square miles, will provide an enlarged rest area, with limited hunting, for weary ducks migrating along the Great Basin corridor of the Pacific Flyway--one of four major waterfowl migration routes of North America.

It’s a joint venture of the Air Force, Ducks Unlimited, the California Department of Fish and Game and the Los Angeles County Sanitation District, Lancaster Division, each delighted that its own interests will be served.

By creating a gridwork of dikes, Lancaster will have more overflow ponds for its treated sewage, the Air Force won’t worry so much about birds buzzing its aircraft or the runways flooding, and the wildlife people are so happy they could quack.

All it will take is a few bulldozers and $262,000, but the dream is a quarter-century old. It’s Bert McKee’s dream.

McKee, 86, of Arcadia, has a conservation history dating back to 1931, about 50 years before such causes became popular and six years before Ducks Unlimited was founded when the Dust Bowl era had dropped waterfowl populations to all-time lows. He chaired a local Junior Chamber of Commerce committee that was concerned about vanishing habitat--an issue now critical because of development and drought.

Later, in 1962, McKee became president of Ducks Unlimited, which has grown to about 600,000 members, including 55,000 in California, and is perhaps the most effective wildlife conservation organization in the world.

McKee started hunting ducks in the desert in the 1930s when he bought into the nearby Wagas Club, one of the few duck clubs spared during World War II when Edwards took over most of the land east of the Sierra Highway (California 14) between Lancaster and Mojave.

“They took out about 10 duck clubs,” McKee said. “Some of them moved over on the west side (of the highway). Most of ‘em left the area . . . moved down to the Salton Sea or wherever they could get water.”

There was once water here, too. Area maps indicate Rogers and Rosamond Dry Lakes on the base, and the Air Force wants to keep them that way, which is part of the story of how the project came about--that and the perseverance of Bert McKee.

Dedication ceremonies are scheduled Thursday alongside Shuttle Road where Columbia, Discovery and the ill-fated Challenger have rolled. McKee will be there, perhaps with his longtime duck-hunting friend Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, 91, who led the B-25 carrier-based raid on Tokyo in 1942.

The cost is being borne by an anonymous donor who earmarked the project as part of a $2-million gift to Ducks Unlimited. McKee, a former international president of DU, described the donor only as “an old duck hunter.”

Perhaps he once used one of the old duck blinds that can still be seen on the site. McKee started working on the Air Force to help the ducks in the mid-’60s.

“We started several times to get something going,” he said. “It depended a great deal on who headed the (base). We had a tremendous interest when (Maj.) Gen. (Irving L.) Branch was there in ‘65, then there was a lack of interest because a lot of these fellas had no interest in wildlife. We’d have it ready to do and they’d change administration, and we’d have to start all over again.”

The breakthrough occurred as the end result of the Antelope Valley’s population boom. The sanitation district was running out of places to dump used water.

Denton Guthrie, assistant state chairman for DU, said: “Every time somebody flushes their toilet out here, that water’s gotta go someplace.”

Since the late ‘50s, the district has had 320 acres of containment ponds for chemically treated effluent just west of the site. But as the population grew and those ponds overflowed, the water would flood Rosamond Dry Lake, which is an emergency landing site for test aircraft and lies directly under the Alpha Low Level Flight Corridor. The flooding not only made the lake unusable but drew birds into the area and raised the risk of what the Air Force calls “bird strikes,” a danger with fatal implications.

Chris Rush, the civilian base natural resources planner, said: “We’ve had to restrict flight operations when it’s flooded.”

As the Air Force and the sanitation district became increasingly alarmed, McKee said, “I just kept plowing away.

“Jimmy Doolittle’s a great friend of mine. He went over there with me and attended meetings and talked. Most of our problem had been we weren’t getting up high enough.”

Doolittle helped McKee gain altitude in the Air Force hierarchy, and results followed.

“Finally, I went back to Washington and got to the people back there at the North American Wildlife Conference. They had two (representatives) from Edwards--the boys that were lukewarm on the deal--and they voted to really get the thing going.”

It’s only 170 acres, making a total of 490, which is less than a square mile. But when one considers that California has lost 95% of its wetlands, according to Mike Maier of the Waterfowl Habitat Owners Alliance, every little bit counts.

“We’ve destroyed more wetlands than any other part of the country,” Maier said. “Two-thirds of the wetlands in California--267,000 acres--are now owned by private duck clubs.”

That was the message McKee took to the Air Force.

“They knew they had to do something with all this land they were tying up,” he said. “There are 300,000 acres in Edwards, and when you multiply all these military bases that aren’t doing anything at all to encourage wildlife . . . the most important part of this is that we’re establishing precedent.”

This is the first significant wildlife habitat restoration project on a military base.

Guthrie said: “There are a lot of wildlife projects that, if done properly and managed properly, wouldn’t detract at all from military operations.”

It’s also the first DU project in Los Angeles County, which has no significant duck hunting on public lands and only three private clubs.

Until 1986, in fact, DU, which reported a net income of $67 million last year, spent all of its funds developing habitat in Canada, from where the birds come. Now it has expanded its projects to its MARSH program--Matching Aid to Restore States Habitat--working with groups such as these under its “Partners in Conservation” concept.

The Piute Ponds already have more than 200 species of birds. The project is targeted for ducks, but geese and other winged creatures, not unlike the space shuttle, are expected to use the site as a landing zone as they migrate between Canada and Mexico. A few will stay and nest. All waterfowl need is shallow water with a food supply.

From a month before hunting season to a month after, the sanitation district increases chlorination, but the birds seem to thrive.

Hunting will be limited. The only people allowed to hunt are military personnel, active or retired, and their dependents; base civilian personnel and contractors, and a few longtime local Rod and Gun Club members with “grandfather” privileges.

The limitations don’t seem important to DU.

“Probably 50% of our members don’t even hunt,” Guthrie said. “They’re just interested in saving the ducks.”

Rollie Kienzle of Whittier, a lifelong hunter who belongs to the Rio Hondo DU chapter, said: “This isn’t for hunting. This project is for conservation.”

Maier: “This valley is a historic flyway, once populated by (Piute) Indians. It’s reasonable to believe it was a wetlands at one time. People live where there’s water.”

In later days, McKee brought Air Force generals and astronauts out to hunt ducks around Edwards. John Wayne, Bing Crosby and other celebrities visited his ranch.

“In those days we had rugged individualists,” he said. “We’ve got to teach more people what the art is. These fellas that go out and simply shoot ducks and don’t do anything else are not gonna save the resource.”