Response of Winter Birds to Soil Remediation along the Columbia River at the Hanford Site

Abstract

The Columbia River at the Hanford Site, located in south-central Washington State, U.S.A., is a regionally important refugium for overwintering birds. Some of the river shoreline has been designatedby the U.S. Department of Energy for environmental clean-up followingpast production of materials for nuclear weapons. We evaluated the effects of soil remediation on winter birds at six inactive nuclear reactor areas. Remediation activities consisted of daily excavation and removal of approximately 1035 t of contaminated soil from previouslyherbicided and denuded areas located between 30 and 400 m and mostly in line-of-sight of the river shoreline. Remediation activities had no apparent effect on numbers of riverine or terrestrial birds using adjacent undisturbed shoreline and riparian habitat.