Union County Museum opens Third Tuesday series on Ladd Marsh history

Ladd Marsh is more than a birding stop south of La Grande. It is one of Union County’s most important public landscapes, and the Union County Museum will use its Third Tuesday series to show how the marsh, its history and its management shape what residents can do there today.

The museum’s first Third Tuesday program of 2026 will be free and open to the public at 7 p.m. June 16 in the Little White Church in Union. Steve Clements will lead the presentation, which is expected to move from the area’s pre-settlement wetlands through the changes brought by drainage and agriculture, then into the state management era that created the wildlife area people use now.

The history is stark. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says the Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area was established in 1949 to protect and improve waterfowl habitat and provide a public hunting area. Before settlement, the Grande Ronde Valley held an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 acres of wetlands, and the historic Tule Lake system and its associated marshes covered more than 20,000 acres. A single canal drained most of Tule Lake in 1891, and smaller drainage projects continued into the late 1940s, leaving Ladd Marsh as a remnant of a much larger wetland network.

That history helps explain the stakes for Union County now. Friends of Ladd Marsh says the wildlife area sits about 7 miles south of La Grande and supports more than 200 bird species that either pass through or live there year-round. Travel Oregon and other regional guides say the area began with nearly 300 acres bought by the first wildlife-area manager, Bill Brown, and now exceeds 6,000 acres, with about half of that in wetlands and marshland. One regional guide calls it the largest protected marsh in Northeast Oregon.

The public can use that resource, but not without rules. An Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wildlife-area parking permit is required in designated parking areas, a reminder that access depends on the choices made by the state agency managing the site. Friends of Ladd Marsh, formed to support public education, enhancement, conservation and public enjoyment of the area, has tried to keep residents connected through bird walks and the annual Ladd Marsh Bird Festival.

Clements brings that civic angle with him. He has lived in Union County for more than 35 years, worked for OSU Extension and Eastern Oregon University, and served more than 20 years on the La Grande City Council, including eight years as mayor. He stepped away from reelection in 2022 after four terms as mayor. His talk should give residents a clearer view of how Ladd Marsh is managed, what pressures have shaped it, and what decisions continue to affect hunting, birding, recreation and land stewardship in Union County.