Commission stays put to save money

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will stay in Olympia for its October and November meetings as a cost-saving measure.

The Oct. 3-4 meeting had been scheduled for Ellensburg and the Nov. 7-8 meeting was set for Leavenworth. The citizens panel of nine members from around the state plus supporting Fish and Wildlife Department staff from Olympia traditionally has rotated its regular meeting schedule to different cities in the state.

A spring commission meeting was held in Colville.

The commission made the decision at its September meeting to help comply with the governor’s directive for state agencies and groups to reduce travel and expenses.

But Commissioner George Orr of Spokane had been advocating keeping the meetings in Olympia for months.

“With the price of gas and the cost of having our entourage put up in hotel rooms, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to keep it all in Olympia,” he said. “I expect we’ll save in excess of $100,000 a year.

“Times have changed. We can have teleconferencing set up in the regional offices so we can be stay in contact with the public.”

Info: (360) 902-2267, or wdfw.wa.gov/com/meetings.htm.

Rich Landers

FISHERIES

Salmon returning to White Salmon

Reaches of southwest Washington’s White Salmon River devoid of salmon for 90 years should again be teeming with spawners this autumn.

In preparation for next year’s removal of Condit Dam, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is transporting 500 fall chinook tule salmon past the dam and releasing them upstream to spawn, said agency spokeswoman Amy Gaskill.

The spawners are fish that returned to the federal agency’s Spring Creek National Fish Hatchery as well as wild spawners returning to the river after being trapped by a research team, she said.

The hatchery’s tule program was started with wild broodstock from the White Salmon River 100 years ago, Gaskill said.

The transport effort began Sept. 8 and continues through Oct. 2.

Condit has long blocked salmon’s upstream passage. It was completed in 1913, equipped with a fish ladder. But the ladder washed out in 1918 flooding and was never replaced.

Dam removal will give fish access to about 14 miles of chinook and 33 miles of steelhead habitat that has been blocked since the dam was built.

Staff and wire reports

PREDATORS

Wolf numbers dip

The population of gray wolves in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho apparently has shrunk for the first time in more than a decade.

Biologists aren’t sure why their midyear estimate of the regional wolf population came in with about 350 fewer wolves than they had expected.

The estimate was 1,455 animals, down slightly from an estimate of 1,513 wolves at the start of 2008.

Wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone in the 1990s and they’ve been reproducing rapidly ever since.

The regional population had been growing at about 24 percent a year.

A disease outbreak is one possible explanation for the decline.

Another is that wolves have spread into most of the suitable habitat in the region.

Associated Press

PUBLIC LANDS

Hanford habitat replanted

The Hanford Reach National Monument closed about 14,000 acres north of the Columbia River this week as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stepped up efforts to restore native shrubs and grasses burned by 2007 wildfires.

Aerials spraying will precede replanting. About 77,000 acres eventually will be involved in the restoration.

The White Bluffs boat launch access road will remain open, although brief delays could be encountered through mid-October.

Updates: call the Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Refuge Complex headquarters at (509) 546-8300.

Rich Landers

SKIING

White Pass expansion OKed

A federal judge in Seattle has rejected challenges by environmentalists to the plan to nearly double the size of the White Pass Ski Resort southeast of Mount Rainier.

U.S. District Judge James Robart concluded the U.S. Forest Service had adequately considered the impacts before allowing the White Pass Co. to expand the ski area into the adjacent Hogback Basin near the summit of White Pass.

The resort plans to build ski lifts, a day lodge, more ski trails and a parking lot on the 800-acre site.

The project has been the subject of review and litigation for two decades.

The resort on Highway 12 is about 50 miles west of Yakima and draws about 110,000 skiers a year.

Work is expected to begin next April and continue for about two years.

Associated Press