Field Reports

MOUNT SPOKANE STATE PARK

Park passes in transition

Sometime within the next few weeks, Mount Spokane State Park will make the transition between the two different parking passes most visitors are required to have in their vehicles during the year.

From late spring into fall, all visitors must buy $5 daily parking passes for their vehicles or display the $50 annual state parks vehicle pass that’s valid statewide.

During winter, a state Sno-Park permit is required on all parked vehicles with the exception of those in the Mount Spokane downhill skiing area lodge parking lots.

Sno-Park permits cost $9 a day or $21 for the season. Vehicles parked in the two parking areas near Selkirk Lodge must have an additional $21 winter trail grooming sticker on their Sno-Park permit.

“There’s no set date for the transition because it depends on the weather,” said Steve Christensen, park manager. “Basically we take down the summer parking permit signs when we start plowing the road. But we don’t require the Sno-Park permit until we start grooming the ski and snowmobile trails, so there’s often about a week of grace where we really don’t worry too much about the permits.”

Sno-Park permits, which also are required for parking at plowed winter recreation areas such as Downriver Golf Course and Sherman Pass, are sold at the park office, at ski shops and at City Hall in the Spokane Parks and Recreation office.

Rich Landers

FISHING

Pikeminnow payoff

The Bonneville Power Administration says it paid $34,526 to this year’s top money earner in the annual pikeminnow sport reward program.

This year’s record catch of nearly 261,000 fish resulted in more than $1.7 million paid to about 2,000 anglers, BPA officials said.

The top 20 anglers caught nearly 57,000 pikeminnows and were rewarded with $428,368.

Ten anglers earned more than $18,000 each. However, 1,255 anglers came away with 10 or fewer fish each for their efforts.

A number of the pikeminnow were specially tagged, bringing higher rewards. Anglers caught 132 fish bearing $500 tags, and another 34 fish with tags worth $100 each.

One of the top 10 anglers caught nine tagged fish.

Staff and wire reports

PREDATORS

Hunters boost wolves

Hunters — often among the loudest critics of the expanding wolf population — are the wolf’s best friend this time of year by leaving behind gut piles and other tasty remains of their successful hunts.

The easy meals come at a time when wolves are trying to fatten up for winter without expending too much energy in the process, said Ed Bangs, Rocky Mountain wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“When human hunting season starts, our wolves in areas with hunting pressure pretty much stop killing big game,” he said. “There are so many gut piles or wounded but unretrieved animals they can pretty much stop hunting for themselves. Wolves are very good at finding dead stuff. If you can find a meal for free, why work?”

Bangs said wolves don’t equate gun shots with a dinner bell the way some people argue grizzly bears do.

“If you come up on a whole bunch of wolves on a kill and you yell, they will disperse,” he said. “They’re still avoiding people.”

Because wolves become scavengers during hunting season, livestock depredations fall off in the fall, Bangs said.

Pups, born in the spring, now weigh 50-60 pounds. They’re more mobile but are not yet skilled enough to hunt on their own.

“Think of them as 12-year-olds,” Bangs said. “In a pack of four adults that has five pups, it means you have to feed not only yourself but the pups.”

Associated Press

NATURE

Prairies for butterflies

The Fender’s blue butterfly and Kincaid’s lupine once flourished n the hills near Monroe, Ore. Some landowners are joining with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help restore those species by removing their property’s invasive, exotic weeds and recreating the upland prairie habitat that covered much of the Willamette Valley 150 years ago.

The agency is working with nearly 50 landowners in the Willamette Valley on restoration projects.

More recently, expanding housing developments, Christmas tree farms and vineyards have taken a heavy toll.

“We have just 1 percent of this habitat left. That’s pretty severe,” said the agency’s Carol Schuler.

Associated Press