The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Hawks Haven Reserve, a lovingly cultivated, 90-acre restored wildlife habitat, pays tribute to the area's diverse flora and fauna as well as to one local family's rich Western heritage. Adjoining Highways 20 and 126 at the east entrance to Sisters, its pastoral landscape now teems with native songbirds, waterfowl and insect life and extends a gracious howdy to travelers on either route.

Less than 10 years ago, the only remnant Marleen Rognlien retained of her family's historic 1,400-acre Lazy Z Ranch amounted to five acres surrounding her home on Highway 126. When residential development appeared imminent on the adjacent 85 acres, she and husband Bruce bought back the land and considered the best way to steward the property.

"I don't do cows," says Marleen with finality. It's an informed decision; her father, Lloyd Brogan, managed 600 head of registered black angus cattle on his sprawling ranch back in the day, assisted by his able ranch foreman, John Albert.

Marleen and Bruce landed on the state's Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program (WHCMP), which offers private landowners tax incentives to protect and enhance significant fish and wildlife habitats.

"We've always loved nature and wildlife, so it was the perfect thing," says Marleen.

After the couple commissioned a detailed wildlife conservation and management plan, the acreage - mostly bare cow pasture dotted with mature pines and traversed by a seasonal creek - was assessed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and deemed eligible for the program.

Disturbed by years of cattle grazing, the natural landscape needed extensive restoration, strategic irrigation, and time.

At the start, Marleen eagerly observed and photographed what she believed to be the first reappearances of native wildflowers, only to learn that most were noxious weeds.

To date, Bruce has set out over 3,000 aspen trees and 1,000 pines as well as alder, spruce and cottonwood. Over 20 nesting boxes invite songbirds, owls and small raptors. Areas of tall standing native grasses are balanced with shorter green growth for foraging critters.

Cattail marshes, willow-lined ponds and meandering streams are bringing forth new wetland and riparian-type vegetation.

Hawks Haven quickly took on a life of its own, and Bruce got hooked.

"I realized after a year or so that I had a green thumb. I like dirt under my fingernails." His enthusiasm and investment go well beyond WHCMP requirements. "It doesn't make any financial sense. It's become a passion for me."

It takes two full-time employees, including year-round Reserve Manager Gary Frazee, to help Bruce maintain Hawks Haven. Frazee is intimately acquainted with every square inch of the park. Daily he combats invasive species; monthly he walks all drip systems. He and Bruce have had some recent success developing a system to recycle water.

"I have the best job," says Frazee, who does his paperwork on a hillside bench among quaking aspen and baby spruce, with a strategic view of "Hidden Lake." From here he watches the increasing trout population and enjoys occasional visits from a blue heron.

Marleen finds solace in "Meditation Grove," where two young trees standing side by side honor the memory of her son and the child of a close friend, both of whom have passed on. A log bench overlooking a reflecting pool memorializes a deceased member of Marleen's dearest group of friends, or "sisters," who gather there annually under the pines.

Memories are sown like rich, emotional mulch around Hawks Haven. Many of them date back as far as 1961, when Marleen's parents, Lloyd and Lillie Brogan, purchased the 1,400-acre working cattle ranch, the Lazy Z.

"He was a true cowboy through and through," says Bruce of his father-in-law. "The way most men like to talk about their first car, Lloyd talked about his first horse. He liked to tell stories, like of riding his horse right straight into a saloon and up to the bar in Montana."

Lloyd frequently moseyed into Ruth's Café (now The Gallery Restaurant) in downtown Sisters to eat breakfast "and catch up on the local gossip," remembers Marleen.

He raised and raced thoroughbred racehorses, partnering in one with pioneering Sisters businessman Harold Barclay - who Bruce refers to fondly as "the old bear of the woods."

Lloyd taught each of his grandchildren to shoot on the property and to drive on Jordan Road when it was still just dirt.

Sisters saw a greater Native American presence back then, and the Lazy Z was home to an old Indian known simply as "Hod." Short in stature and long on tribal lore, Hod was "one of the real characters around the place," says Bruce. "He never knew how old he was." Hod claimed he could predict the severity of the coming winter by the height of the ant hills.

Master artist Ray Eyerle, renowned for capturing the spirit of the American West, painted most of his pastoral scenes of ranch life and striking pen-and-ink portraits of Native Americans from a rented home on the Lazy Z. Eyerle's work decorates the walls of The Gallery Restaurant still today.

Larry Pecenka, ODFW's High Desert habitat biologist says the intent of the WHCMP program is to preserve, enhance or restore ecologically valuable lands. "We're looking for a diverse plant community and efficient use of water," he says.

Pecenka regularly monitors all 87 of the designated WHCMP properties in Deschutes County. Enrolled properties used to number 110, but some fell out of line with the program's requirements.

Hawks Haven is clearly not in jeopardy of losing its wildlife habitat designation. "They're doing what this program's purpose was," says Pecenka. "It's what we'd hope anyone would do, whether or not they get the deferral."

The Rognliens tend Hawks Haven Reserve as a true labor of love - one that honors Marleen's family story and expresses their long standing affection for Sisters.

"It's a place of refuge and so, so many memories," says Marleen.

For information about the Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program, visit http://www.dfw.state.or.us.