Field Reports

WILDLIFE

Critter tourism touted

The Othello Sandhill Crane Festival, a popular spring event, is a prime example of communities capitalizing on wildlife spectacles.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife likes this trend and is offering help to other local communities interested in planning wildlife festivals. A two-day workshop, co-sponsored by state tourism officials, is set for Oct. 12-13 in the Las Brisas Art and Conference Center in Soap Lake.

For details and registration, contact the Ephrata Chamber of Commerce, (509) 754-4656 or e-mail echamber@bossig.com. An agenda and other info are on the Internet at http://wdfw.wa.gov.

Rich Landers

WILDLIFE REFUGES

More friends needed

Groups that help coordinate public projects and activities for Turnbull and Little Pend Oreille national wildlife refuges are trying to recruit new members.

“Turnbull, just southeast of Cheney, has a wonderful program for teaching Environmental Education to school students and other groups, but funding has been cut in recent years, making it difficult to keep this program going,” said Marion Frobe, Friends of Turnbull outgoing president.

To keep future activities moving, new board members are needed to help seek funding in order to continue the outreach education, nature walks and lectures.

Similarly, the Friends of the Little Pend Oreille, a 40,000 national wildlife refuge east of Colville, are seeking more members to help with refuge projects.

“Because children really are the future, we focus on environmental education,” said Tricia Woods, president. But the group is involved in many other projects.

Woods said she feels fortunate to have a refuge nearby. “The 1950 population of the 11 western states was under 20 million,” she said. “Today the same area houses about 65 million people. Demands and pressures on wildlife have never been greater.

But “the pathway to sound wildlife conservation management is not an easy path to follow,” she said. “Friends are needed along the way.”

• Friends of Turnbull, Marian Frobe, 328-0621, or Gene Kiver, 235-6448.

• Friends of Little Pend Oreille, (509) 684-8384 or e-mail wildlifewins@refugefriends.com.

Rich Landers

TURNBULL REFUGE

Tree-planting party

Volunteers are invited to the annual Turnbull tree-planting work party Saturday starting at 9 a.m. and ending with a potluck lunch at noon.

Rich Landers

ENVIRONMENT

Alternative to drilling

As the price of crude oil reached a record high, Americans have fairly simple way to reduce its reliance on foreign oil.

“Long before we have to drill in the Arctic or something like that, or wreck our public lands, the easiest, cheapest way we can get oil today is through fuel economy standards,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a breakfast meeting with the Outdoor Retailer Association.

If fuel economy standards were raised by 1 mile per gallon, “it will yield more gasoline than two Arctic National Wildlife Refuges,” said Kennedy, the president of the New York-based Waterkeepers Alliance.

“We can eliminate Persian Gulf imports, theoretically, by simply raising fuel efficiency by 8 miles per gallon,” Kennedy said.

National policies backed by Presidents Ford and Carter had set a goal of 40 miles a gallon by 2000.

As government policies worked toward that goal, efficiency created an oil glut just as the Reagan administration froze the standards that reached 27.5 miles per gallon, Kennedy said.

SUVs have dropped back the standard to 22 miles per gallon.

Had fuel economy standards continued to improve, not a drop of oil would have been imported after 1996, Kennedy said.

Associated Press