Field Reports

outpeople

Van Gytenbeek takes post

Washington Fish and Wildlife Commissioner R. P. (“Van”) Van Gytenbeek of Seattle has accepted a position as chief executive officer of the Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF), based in Bozeman, Mont.

Van Gytenbeek said he plans to continue serving on the commission until fall, when he moves to Bozeman. His six-year term on the commission, which oversees the activities of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), was scheduled to expire in December.

“The federation has gained an energetic champion for fly fishing and the commission and Washington citizens have benefitted from Van’s perspective on key issues,” said Will Roehl, commission chair.

“We will miss Van — his efforts on behalf of the state’s fish and wildlife resources and his advice and encouragement to department staff have been greatly appreciated,” said Jeff Koenings, WDFW director.

A retired artillery captain with 30 years of private sector management experience, Van Gytenbeek is a past FFF president and has served as executive director of Trout Unlimited. More recently he worked as the development and marketing director for the Seadoc Society.

He formerly published “Fly Fishing in Salt Waters” magazine in Seattle and has authored two books on trout and streamside conservation. He also has held board positions in a various recreational organizations.

Associated Press

WILDLIFE

Cougar covers ground

A mountain lion that was given a radio collar in South Dakota covered nearly 700 miles and crossed several states in less than nine months before being hit by a train and killed in Oklahoma.

The 114-pound animal was found May 27 by a railroad worker near Red Rock about 80 miles north of Oklahoma City, said Alan Peoples, wildlife chief for the state Wildlife Conservation Department.

The mountain lion was last tracked via its collar in northeastern Wyoming on Sept. 3, said Jonathan Jenks, a wildlife professor at South Dakota State University. He is running a research project in the Black Hills of western South Dakota in which this mountain lion and 34 others have been collared.

He was stunned the animal was able to cover 667 straight-line miles since Sept. 3, about twice as far as previously documented.

The mountain lion was about a year old and weighed 80 pounds when it was treed with hounds, tranquilized and fitted with a tracking collar on Feb. 24, 2003. By Sept. 3, it had moved 58 miles northwest in the Black Hills, from South Dakota into Wyoming.

Associated Press

FISHING

Bull trout legal

For the first time in eight years, anglers in Montana can legally fish for bull trout in Lake Koocanusa, Hungry Horse Reservoir and the South Fork Flathead River.

Nearly 2,000 anglers have signed up for a permit and catch card that enable them to catch bull trout under rules recently approved by state Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Bull trout were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1996, but the species has robust populations in these three waters, officials said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to the limited recreational fishing on an experimental basis.

Anglers will be limited to just two bull trout on Hungry Horse and Koocanusa reservoirs, and catch-and-release on the South Fork Flathead River.

Anglers must record all fish harvested on their catch cards.

Staff and wire reports