Blm Secures Win-Win Situation

More prizes have been secured in Lincoln County for the public and scabland wildlife.

Through a complicated series of land exchanges consummated Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has consolidated more land, including a 1,500-acre parcel along Crab Creek and 960 acres near Twin Lakes.

And for the first time in memory, public access has been assured to Coffee Pot Lake. BLM secured 932 acres from the Coffee Pot Cattle Co., which basically was a goose hunting club.

The casual observer might call this waste land. It looks like a natural ghetto of sage, crumbling basalt and cheatgrass.

Wildlife experts see this as an irreplaceable remnant of shrub-steppe habitat that has largely disappeared under plows and the hooves of cattle.

“We are extremely pleased with the BLM’s ability to put that deal together,” said Bruce Smith, Washington Wildlife Department regional manager in Spokane. “In dry years, water is a premium in that part of the state. This is a wonderful acquisition for wildlife and the public.”

Waterfowlers might be drooling if they’ve seen the thousands of geese spiral down into Coffee Pot Lake after feeding in November.

But BLM’s deal doesn’t necessarily mean the lake will be wide open for hunting. Far from it.

State wildlife officials soon will be meeting with BLM to explore whether any goose hunting should be allowed on Coffee Pot.

Putting the land in public domain helps assure that some developer won’t eventually trash the lake with condos. Private ownership by the gun club, however, was a good deal for geese, and for goose hunters throughout the region.

The club members had scruples. No hunting was allowed on the water because the hunters realized a few days of shooting would simply send thousands of geese packing to the Columbia River.

The club members built their blinds above the lake on land far back from the rim. Their ethics and protection of Coffee Pot Lake was a boon to hunters hunkered in pits for a thousand square miles.

This is one of just a few spots in Lincoln, Adams and Grant counties in which waterfowl have had the protection to rest and drink. By sheer numbers, the ducks and geese can keep these waters free of ice long after other area potholes have frozen over.

“Without a few protected places like Coffee Pot, the geese are out of here,” Smith said. “We see the value in keeping the lake as a resting place.”

The lake likely will be open for fishing for most of the year, depending on the management plan BLM finally adopts.

Until public access was cut off years ago, Coffee Pot was once well-known for its crappie and bass fisheries, both of which suffered big losses from the recent drought, according to state biologist Jerry Hickman.

But the region is now flush with water. With public access restored, the Fish and Wildlife Department can manage the fishery. This will be the place someone’s kids catch their first fish.

BLM is the federal agency created to manage the leftovers after the home-steaders, railroads and predecessors to the Forest Service had their first pick of western lands.

Much of the BLM land west of Idaho was scattered with no public access. In the past 10 years, BLM’s Spokane District has done a monumental job of trading isolated parcels in Stevens, Ferry and Pend Oreille counties in order to consolidate large blocks of land where public agencies have traditionally been absent. Because of this effort, public access and wildlife management have replaced cattle as the main factor on prime acreage along Fishtrap Lake, Hog Lake, Twin Lakes, Pacific Lake and about 15 miles of Crab Creek.

Expect to read more details soon.

Chance to hunt: Hunters who have been frustrated by the odds of drawing special big-game permits should check page 20 of the current Washington hunting regulations.

If you have money, you can put the odds in your favor.

This year, Washington is offering raffles to win tags for premier hunts, including deer, elk, moose and bighorn sheep.

Raffle entries cost $5 for deer, elk and moose and $10 for sheep. July 3 is the deadline for buying the tickets.

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

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review