Wet, windy spell swirls up outdoors scene

Heavy doses of a certain weather pattern – hot, cold, snow, rain or wind – always pique the interest of savvy outdoorsmen.

The high winds and drenching precipitation of the past few days rated fears or cheers, depending on which niche of the outdoors you prefer to occupy.

Skiers and snowboarders were the losers Tuesday as a dump of snow came down with a gale that temporarily closed the lifts at some resorts.

By Wednesday, however, Schweitzer was calling the conditions “epic” and “too much fun.” Silver Mountain reported 27 inches of new snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, providing “the best conditions of the season” going into this weekend.

Backcountry skiers and snowmobilers, on the other hand, may want to find a good book for a few days. The Idaho Panhandle National Forest Avalanche Center has issued a warning that heavy mountain snowfall, high winds and changing temperatures are a recipe for killer avalanches away from the groomed slopes.

“Be cautious of sensitive wind-slabs on all open and exposed terrain,” the forecasters warned.

High avalanche danger extends throughout the region and across Montana, where two snowmobilers already have died in separate slides since the first of the year.

The next Inland Northwest backcountry snow conditions update will be issued Friday morning on the Web at www.fs.fed.us/ipnf.

Waterfowl hunters have found a bonanza in the recent foul weather. The rain has started filling potholes, luring ducks and geese from the big bodies of water to the realm of hunting blinds throughout the region.

River runners call in sick during this sort of winter rain on snow event, when normally trickling streams such as Hangman Creek and the Palouse River are suddenly swollen with runoff. Hangman Creek was the color of Palouse topsoil Wednesday and running bank-to-bank, indicating ripe conditions for rafters and kayakers who have the skills to handle big, cold water.

Fishermen are finding the ice caps on area lakes slushy and questionable, but the loss of ice to rain and wind is welcome for anglers on the Okanogan and Methow rivers. The ice along those rivers has been preventing steelheaders from effectively fishing some of the best fishing holes. With the ice gone, fish that haven’t been disturbed for more than a month are available to hook and line.

Dead fish alert: A family that went to Lake Coeur d’Alene to see the annual concentration of bald eagles last week called the paper to report a fish kill in Wolf Lodge Bay. They weren’t the first to call in this winter with that worried observation.

That’s a wake-up call.

Some people who have enough interest in wildlife to drive out in bad weather and gawk at bald eagles apparently don’t have enough wildlife knowledge to know that the eagles are attracted each fall and winter by concentrations of kokanee, which nature has programmed to die after they spawn.

This illustrates that we can never assume that even wildlife lovers understand the way nature works.

Do the people building homes outside the city limits and along streams and on winter ranges know the devastating collective impact they have on wildlife?

Do people who put out bird seed know they should disinfect their feeders to prevent the spread of disease and keep their cats inside to prevent carnage?

Are people who feed deer prepared to have cougars prowling their neighborhoods?

There’s a lot of ground to cover, again and again.

Plenty of eagles: By the way, we can only hope the family that was dismayed at all the dead fish in Wolf Lodge Bay had a chance to look up in the trees. BLM biologists counted 104 bald eagles in the bay area on Jan. 4.

Deadly dogs: People who let their dogs roam freely in suburban and rural areas are among those who need education about the area’s wintering wildlife.

Jim Kujala had a disturbing experience recently as he responded to a call regarding dead deer just outside of Spokane.

Kujala is an Inland Northwest Wildlife Council member who volunteers to pick up road-killed big-game animals and salvage the meat to help feed the hungry at the Union Gospel Mission.

But these weren’t road-killed deer he was called to inspect.

They were dog-killed deer.

“It was sickening,” said Kujala, a hunter who doesn’t pale to the sight of blood. He described the horrifying story written in the snow with the tracks of a deer and several dogs. The scene was riddled with hair, guts, strips of hide and splashes of blood in an area the size of a living room.

“People don’t know what pet dogs can do when they run free during winter,” Kujala said.

More ground to cover, again and again.