Outdoors Briefs

This summer and fall, ocean and Columbia River salmon fishing seasons likely will look like 1995’s.

When the Pacific Fishery Management Council makes its final decision April 12 in San Francisco, the preferred option appears to be a near replay of that of last year. The council can mix and match portions from the various options, however, when deciding on the season.

The options are based, in large part, on the size of the anticipated Canadian harvest of Washington-bound coho off Vancouver Island.

With Canadians indicating they may not reduce their catch of coho, however, there may be no ocean fishing season allowed off Washington and Oregon.

For the Columbia River ports, the ocean season probably will begin in late July, open Sundays through Thursdays. Chinook will have to be released, and no fishing will be allowed within 3 miles of shore.

Caribou project delayed

This week’s mission to capture woodland caribou in British Columbia for release into northeastern Washington has been delayed a week.

The latest effort to restore the endangered caribou to the Salmo-Priest area of Washington and north Idaho has been rescheduled, with trapping to begin in Wells Gray Provincial Park about Tuesday. Captured caribou will be trucked to the Sullivan Lake area for release beginning about April 12.

Coalition drops complaint

A Montana state lands coalition decided Monday to drop the complaint it filed on behalf of two Spokane hunters allegedly accosted by Turner Enterprises Inc. employees, after learning the hunters did not have the proper state licenses.

Dana Wenzel and Kent Baggaley of Spokane secretly videotaped a confrontation they had with two Turner Enterprises employees on state school trust lands near Alder last November.

The Montana Coalition for Appropriate Management of State Land filed the complaint with the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, alleging that the Turner employees violated state laws by driving on a closed road and interfering with a hunt the morning of Nov. 17.

But late last week, a state official said an investigation determined that, at the time of the confrontation, neither hunter had the state recreational use license required when hunting on state lands. Both men purchased the $5 licenses on the afternoon of Nov. 17, a state official said.

Scott Frickle, recreational use coordinator for the state agency, said it would be difficult to prosecute.

“To people from outside of (Montana), the license appears to be a hidden charge that you can be ticketed for,” Baggaley said. “After all of the money we spent to come to Montana, we wouldn’t have tried to get out of a $5 charge if we had known about it.”

, DataTimes