Field Reports

NATIONAL FORESTS

ORV proposal opposed

A group of bikers, snowmobilers and all-terrain vehicle riders is fighting a proposal by the Gallatin National Forest to close significant areas to motor vehicles.

The forest wants to ban snowmobiles from 356,000 of its 1.8 million acres under a revised travel plan due out in January. Motorcycle trails would fall by about 50 percent and ATV trails by 40 percent.

The plan also calls for 34,000 fewer off-trail acres for horseback riders in alpine areas of the Beartooth Plateau, and a drop in off-road access for mountain bikers.

Jeff Krauss, Bozeman city commissioner, vowed to ask Mayor Andrew Cetraro and fellow commissioner Lee Hietala to write letters calling on the U.S. Forest Service to keep its lands open to motorized users.

Motorized use advocate Kerry White said he formed a group called Citizens for Balanced Use because “there needs to be some balance.”

But some environmental groups believe the existing balance already favors motorized users.

Most non-wilderness trails in the Gallatin are open to motorized vehicles, and plenty will stay that way if the travel plan is adopted, said Alex Phillips, an organizer in Bozeman for the Montana Wilderness Association.

Just 4 percent of forest visitors report using motorcycles and ATVs, while less than 10 percent snowmobile, she said.

“You can hear them from miles away,” said Phillips, who added that protecting the forest’s wildlife and natural resources were also important concerns.

Associated Press

FISHING

Salmon outlook good

Similar to the children of Lake Woebegone, salmon returns to the Columbia River were above average in 2004, and they should be next year, too.

This year’s return of nearly 370,000 fall chinook salmon bound for the Priest Rapids area was one of the largest since records were started in 1964, according the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The return of so-called “upriver brights” to the Hanford Reach should be strong again next year, although down slightly from this year’s big run, department forecasters say.

Overall, nearly 800,000 fall chinook entered the Columbia this year, marking the third consecutive year of strong returns. Department officials predict strong returns again in 2005, although they could be about 15 percent smaller than this year.

Rich Landers

CLIMBING

NIC effort recognized

The Access Fund, a national climbing organization, recently presented the Western U.S. Adopt-a-Crag of the Year Award to North Idaho College for supporting Adopt-a-Crag Day in Post Falls this fall.

NIC’s Outdoor Pursuits Coordinator Paul Chivvis and Rusty Baille of the Kootenai Klimbers were honored for organizing and event in which about 50 volunteers cleaned the climbing area of Q’emiln Riverside Park on Sept. 12.

Rich Landers

FISHERIES

Charities get salmon

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has donated more than 150,000 servings of salmon to the Oregon Food Bank this fall and expects to donate another 150,000 during the holiday season, the agency announced last week.

Oregon Food Bank will distribute the fillets to every county in Oregon through a statewide network of 20 regional food banks and 780 hunger-relief agencies. The relief agencies will give the fillets to people who are hungry.

The spring chinook and coho salmon donated to the food bank are hatchery-reared fish that have returned to Oregon’s hatcheries from the ocean to complete their life cycle. This year, as in several of the past years, ODFW hatcheries had many more fish return than necessary to produce the next generation of hatchery fish.

Associated Press