Field Reports: Reservations go online at Mount Rainier

PARKS – Backpackers and climbers who want to camp in wilderness areas of Mount Rainier National Park, including along the popular Wonderland Trail, will be able to submit reservation requests online starting this spring.

Gone are the days of applying by fax.

Park officials have been working on a new online reservation system and will begin taking requests online only starting on March 15 at 9 a.m..

Payment for reservations also will be taken online once requests are approved.

The park will no longer take requests by mail, fax, phone or other delivery methods.

After a storm damaged the park’s reservation software system last spring, the park was not able to accept reservations for its backcountry campsites last year.

About 70 percent of backcountry campsites can be reserved in advance each season.

Disease kills ducks at McNary Refuge

BIRDS – An outbreak of avian cholera killed more than 1,200 ducks at the McNary National Wildlife Refuge in south-central Washington this week.

Crews have been collecting the dead birds.

The disease is not unusual in cold and wet weather, but birds are susceptible this year because the cold and snow have left them stressed, said Dan Haas of the Mid-Columbia River National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

Most of the birds that have died are mallards. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service workers also have found a few great blue herons, belted kingfishers and northern harriers – a bird of prey – that have died on the refuge.

A waterfowl specialist at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife says the outbreak appears to be localized.

People are not at high risk of infection by the bacteria that causes avian cholera, but carcasses should not be touched.

Bills would reform suction dredging policy

RIVERS – Two bills in the Washington Legislature seek to reform suction dredge gold mining and improve protections for salmon and water quality.

Suction dredge mining uses large, gas-powered vacuums to suck-up gravel on the bottom of rivers and streams in search of gold, impacting fish spawning areas, rivers, and water quality.

“Washington continues to stall while neighboring states adopt laws protecting endangered fisheries and water quality from damages caused by suction dredge mining,” said State Representative Gael Tarleton (D-Ballard).

The bills are HB 1106 and HB 1077.

States disagree on gillnetting policy

FISHING – Oregon officials set back recreational anglers by declining to ban gillnetting outright on the lower Columbia on Friday. The decision puts the state at odds with neighboring Washington when it comes to managing protected salmon and steelhead.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 4-3 against banning the commercial fishing technique in the main channel of the lower river. Commercial and recreational anglers have argued for years over who should be allowed to catch how much of seasonal salmon runs and which fishing methods should be used.

The decision comes a week after Washington’s Fish and Wildlife Commission took a stance more favorable to recreational fishing.

During the hearing, Astoria gillnetters said generations of community businesses and family fortunes that would be at risk if a ban passed. Recreational anglers, however, argued that gillnetting takes fish indiscriminately and can’t differentiate between wild and hatchery fish.

The Friday decision contrasts with Oregon’s 2012 agreement with Washington state to phase out gillnets in the Columbia River’s main channel.