A Safe Place To Burrow

Unless you’re interested in rare mammals, you probably have never heard of or seen a pygmy rabbit, one of Washington’s endangered species.

To those who believe the state should do everything possible to ensure that endangered species get a chance to thrive, though, the news that pygmy rabbits soon may get a sagebrush-covered home of their own is exciting.

The state Fish and Wildlife Commission is expected to approve the purchase of the 3,600-acre Sagebrush Flat property for $408,000 when it meets Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in Port Townsend.

Biologists say the Sagebrush Flat, 11 miles northwest of Ephrata, may support the largest number of the diminutive rabbits in the state. In addition, the area is one of the few spots in the state where there are fair numbers of sharp-tailed and sage grouse.

The commission also will consider amending bighorn auction and raffle-permit regulations, establishing a poacher-reward system, adoption of landowner damage hunts and changing a multitude of sport and commercial fishing rules.

The department negotiated with the Department of Natural Resources, which holds the land in trust, to buy the Sagebrush Flat property. The purchase was approved by the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program.

“The property is a shrub-steppe specialist animal community of high quality with no other known comparable sites in the state,” commented assistant director Elyse Kane.

“The pygmy rabbit is a small endangered rabbit which inhabits selected deep soil sites in the sagebrush landscape,” she said. “For a time, we feared it had been extirpated from Washington, but at the end of the 1980s it was found again in several sites in Douglas County.

“One of those sites was Sagebrush Flat, a parcel held in trust by DNR. Sagebrush Flat is the largest known occupied site and burrow surveys indicate that it may support the largest number of rabbits in the state.”

The pygmy rabbit is the smallest rabbit. It’s 8 to 11 inches long and weighs one-half to one pound. Slate gray with a pinkish tinge, it feeds primarily on sagebrush and is nocturnal.

If the commission approves the purchase, the department will manage the land as a wildlife area, but continue leasing some of it for grazing and other farming practices at least until the year 2000.

The commission may authorize a new poaching reward system that would award bonus points that may be applied to a drawing for a permit to hunt deer or elk.

The program would work this way: A person who provides the Fish and Wildlife Department with enough information about the poaching of a big-game animal or the killing of an endangered species would receive 10 bonus points after charges against the poacher have been filed in a district or superior court.

The bonus points would increase the informer’s chances of getting a special permit to hunt deer or elk.

Department officials hope awarding bonus points will provide incentives to persons who wouldn’t ordinarily go out of their way to report poaching incidents.

The commission last year authorized the auction of one bighorn sheep permit and one bighorn raffle permit for “anywhere in Eastern Washington south of Interstate 90.” However, scores of bighorns in the vicinity of the lower Grande Ronde River died after the permits were authorized.

The department is asking the commission to change the wording of the regulations to specify areas where there are enough bighorns to support hunting. The areas where hunters could hunt bighorn rams would be Sheep unit 4 (Selah Butte), Sheep unit 5 (Umtanum), Sheep Unit 7 (Clemon Mountain) or Sheep unit 12 (Lincoln Cliffs).

Incidentally, the department will sell raffle tickets for permits to take a buck deer, a bull elk and a moose of either sex, as well as a permit to take a bighorn ram.

The department also will ask the commission to allocate special deer and elk permits for control of damage on private property. Only antlerless animals would be legal.

If the program is approved, landowners who claim deer and/or elk are damaging their property would enter into an agreement with the department, establish boundaries for hunts, set season dates and determine the number of animals to be killed. Landowners also would select the hunters.

Numerous other proposals, most of which are of interest primarily to West Side coast sportsmen, also will be considered by the commission.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review