Steelheaders Beware

If you’re a Washington resident and you plan to fish for steelhead during the next few weeks, be sure to include an $18 steelhead permit with your 1998 fishing license.

The fact that steelhead catch-record cards are valid until April 30 is continuing to confuse license dealers and anglers. The cards are not a license to fish for steelhead; they’re only to report catches.

If you are under the impression that you can fish for steelhead until April 30 without a 1998 steelhead permit, you should read the fishing regulations carefully. Failure to do so could be costly.

When I purchased my 1998 fishing license, all the clerks at the store stated emphatically that I didn’t have to include the $18 steelhead permit as part of my license.

“Why not wait until June?” an assistant manager asked. “Your license is good until the end of April.”

It was apparent that none of the clerks and officials of that store were aware that steelhead permits are valid from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 and that steelhead catch-record cards are good from June 1 through the next April.

As so often happens, personnel at many stores that sell hunting and fishing licenses changes periodically and the new clerks know little about license fees and regulations, especially early each year.

It’s up to you to know the regulations. You can’t take the advice of clerks you don’t know.

Speaking of licenses, senior citizens who are disturbed over the Washington Fish and Wildlife’s proposal to end the senior discounts now must express their displeasure to their state senators and representatives.

The department apparently is proceeding with its plan to end the discounts. Officials will ask the Legislature to approve a new license fee schedule.

If the lawmakers go along with the department’s proposals, seniors 70 or older next year will pay $20 for a freshwater license, $20 for a saltwater license and $7 to take shellfish. Currently, those licenses are $3 each.

Inasmuch as many seniors fish in both freshwater and saltwater, they’ll be paying $40 to do so next year if they don’t convince their senators and representatives that the present low fees should be continued.

The time to contact senators and representatives is after the department’s bill to revise the hunting and fishing license fees is filed in Olympia.

Wildlife gets break

The region’s wildlife is getting a break this winter.

Unlike last winter, when losses of big-game animals and upland birds were high, this winter has been comparatively mild, so mild that whitetail deer have been spotted at elevations of more than 3,500 feet.

In fact, even if temperatures drop below zero and remain below freezing for a couple of weeks and even if snow piles up, the animals and birds aren’t likely to suffer as much as they did last winter.

When a winter starts before Thanksgiving, as did the 1996 winter, and lasts well into March, the animals lose so much of their reserve fat that carries them through winters that the old and the very young, as well as many mature animals, fail to survive. Last winter was so severe that even many animals that were healthy when the ice storms hit didn’t live through March.

The 1996-97 winter was a disaster for big-game animals, especially deer. Deep snow in Idaho’s Panhandle and in northeast and north central Washington prevented animals from moving easily on their winter ranges. On the other hand, the winter wasn’t as severe in some other parts of the Inland Northwest and winter losses weren’t high.

Wildlife biologist Steve Zender of Chewelah recently directed an aerial survey of moose in northeast Washington. Unlike deer and elk, moose usually remain in high country during winter months. Zender said most of the counting was done at elevations ranging from 3,500 to 3,500 feet.

“We saw lots of moose,” he said, “but what surprised us was the number of whitetail deer that high. The deer apparently found food on the south slopes and hadn’t moved down to winter ranges.”

Zender said he’s optimistic that big-game herds in northeast Washington will survive this winter without heavy losses.

Zender also said wild turkeys have had an easy winter. “We’re seeing turkeys everywhere,” he said. “They’ve had no trouble finding ponderosa pine seeds, their favorite food. There’s been so little snow that they’ve been able to rake the needles under the trees and find plenty of seeds.

“Turkeys are opportunistic. They’ll eat snowberries, rose hips, hazel nuts, or anything they can get, but they prefer the pine seeds. Unless temperatures drop to 30 below zero and snow piles up, most will survive this winter. Hunters should see lots of turkeys during the spring season.”

Wild birds and animals needed a break this winter. Maybe some birds won’t survive until April, but there’s now a good possibility that the big-game herds will start increasing again.

, 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