Cross-Country Trails May Remain Open In March

Area cross-country skiers are not ready to start yard work and other lowland rites of spring.

Within a day of getting news that budget shortfalls would bring an early end to trail grooming at Mount Spokane State Park, skiers said Wednesday they had collected $1,500.

The money is earmarked for extending the grooming on a limited basis through March.

The state Sno-Park plowing and grooming budget was exhausted because of unexpectedly heavy snowfall early in the winter.

Mount Spokane and all other areas with Sno-Park facilities were ordered to send back to Olympia 20 percent of their grooming budget. That left Mount Spokane with enough money to groom only through Sunday.

Details of how the contributions can be used to extend grooming were still being worked out Wednesday.

But Nadaleen Tempelman-Kluit, who organized the fund-raising campaign, said most contributors were hoping to get three days of grooming a week.

More details as they come.

Cougar hunting revisited: Sens. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, and Pam Roach, R-Auburn, have filed a bill in the Washington Legislature that would allow hunters with nonprofit sporting organizations to use hounds for black bear and cougar hunting.

Under Senate Bill 5594, the hunters would be considered “agents” of the department. They would have to show certain qualifications, including experience in the killing of bears, cougars or bobcats. The permit fee would be $1,500 a year.

Backers of the November ballot measure that banned use of hounds for hunting cougars and black bears are outraged.

But Roach said the proposal is justifiable. Provisions would limit hound-hunting to a level deemed necessary by state wildlife officials to control populations that might pose a threat to humans.

Wildlife on private lands: David Stevens, a Grant County wheat farmer who is pioneering Washington’s Private Lands Wildlife Management Program, will speak in Spokane next week.

Controversy has surrounded the program, which gives the landowner special deer hunting seasons in exchange for massive habitat improvement projects.

Hunters vying for the dozen or so trophy mule deer hunts allowed on Stevens’ land each year are willing to pay more than $7,000.

In addition, since the program was established five years ago, a half dozen teenagers have been allowed to take trophy bucks for free. Hundreds of hunters have been allowed to enter a state-run drawing for free antlerless deer hunts.

State biologists recently reported data showing the program has been a boon to mule deer that spread out for many miles beyond the borders of Stevens’ 10,000-acre management area.

Stevens’ talk is set for Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., at the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council Building, 6116 N. Market St.

Price of protection: The British Columbia Wildlife Federation is protesting last winter’s dramatic drawdowns of Lake Roosevelt and other upper Columbia River dams.

The drawdowns, ordered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have had major impacts on fisheries behind Grand Coulee Dam as well as behind Keenleyside Dams, 35 miles upstream from the U.S. border. The drawdowns were ordered to prevent flooding over seawalls that protect lower reaches of Portland, the federation charges.

The charge was confirmed by officials from the Bureau of Reclamation.

The federation says fine - but Portland residents should share the cost of restoring the lost fisheries upstream.

Snubbing Eastsiders: Gary Locke’s aides say the governor wants fair representation from Eastern Washington on the state Parks and Recreation Commission.

But they would give no reason why Locke OK’d the dumping of Anne Cox Preecs from the board. Cox-Preecs, a former Spokanite who lives in the Tri-Cities, has been a tireless worker for the benefit of parks.

Her replacement is a qualified woman, but her appointment throws the board into a lopsided balance of five from Western Washington and two from the East Side.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Rich Landers by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5508.

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