WILDLIFE -- ,A draft management plan for the Swanson Lakes, Revere and Reardan Audubon Lake wildlife areas in Lincoln and Whitman counties was released Monday for a 30-day public review on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife website.

A public meeting is set for 6 p.m. May 19 at the agency’s regional office, 2315 N. Discovery Pl., Spokane Valley.

The public can comment on the draft plans here.

The Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area includes 21,000 shrub-steppe acres purchased in 1993 primarily to protect threatened sharp-tailed and sage grouse and other species. The property is adjacent to U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands and was purchased with Bonneville Power Administration funds set aside to mitigate for wildlife losses from construction of Grand Coulee Dam. Swanson Lakes is in Lincoln County, about 10 miles south of the town of Creston.

The Revere Wildlife Area includes 2,291 acres of Palouse grassland and shrub-steppe.  It was acquired in 1992 with Lower Snake River dam construction habitat mitigation funds from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  Revere supports mule deer, upland game birds, raptors and other wildlife.

The Reardan Audubon Lake Unit, managed as a separate unit of the Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area, includes 277 acres of wetlands, grasslands and a lake that support over 200 bird species.  Unlike Swanson Lakes and Revere, this small wildlife unit is not open to hunting. The popular bird-watching site, which is immediately north of US 2 at Reardan, is listed on Audubon Washington's Great Washington State Birding Trail and the Ice Age Floods Institute National Geologic Trail.  The site was acquired in 2006 with a state grant and help from the Spokane Audubon Society and the Inland Northwest Land Trust, which just recently added another section to the area.