Field Reports: Ski swaps season harbingers
Snow accumulating in the high country is a sure sign that used gear will be coming out of closets to make up the great deals offered by annual ski and winter gear swaps.
These fundraisers help raise money for area ski patrols.
Mount Spokane Ski Patrol Ski Swap at Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds in Spokane Valley, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Oct. 27 and 9 a.m.-noon on Oct. 28. Register items for sale from 3 p.m.-9 p.m. on Oct. 26. Info: www.mssp.org.
Silver Mountain and Lookout Pass ski patrols Winter Swap, Kootenai County Fairgrounds in Coeur d’Alene., 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Nov. 3. Register items 3 p.m.-8 p.m. on Nov. 2. Info: (208) 818-8038, www.silverpatrol.com/ winterswap.asp.
49 Degrees North Ski Patrol Ski Swap, Northeast Washington Fairgrounds in Colville, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. on Nov. 10. Info: www.ski49n.com/swap.asp.
Rich Landers
HUNTING
Pheasants galore
The pheasant hunting season opened Saturday in Washington and South Dakota, where the outlooks were considerably different.
Washington hunters have seen their pheasant numbers decline dramatically since the 1980s because of changing habitats. Grim reports of this year’s dampened hatch appear to be salvaged somewhat by a decent late hatch.
South Dakota, however, has capitalized on landowners incentives and federal conservation programs that have made pheasants a cash crop.
South Dakota’s pheasant population hit a 40-year high back in 2005. This year’s brood counts predicted a population that could be 18 percent higher than that record-setting year.
“South Dakota is known all over the world as the premier destination for pheasant hunters, and this year is no exception,” said Billie Jo Waara, director, South Dakota Office of Tourism.
Rich Landers
FISHERIES
Clark Fork work under way
Train-loads of accumulated toxic mud from Milltown Dam near Missoula are being removed in the latest phase of a Clark Fork River Superfund cleanup.
The reservoir at the confluence with the Blackfoot River has collected arsenic, copper and other contaminants from a century of Butte-area mining operations 120 miles upstream.
On Oct. 2, the first day of the excavation, 25 train cars were loaded with a total of 2,500 tons of mud — the equivalent of about 1,750 pickup loads — to be hauled 90 miles for trucking to a waste depository, Environmental Protection Agency officials said.
Trains, up to 45 cars, are now hauling mud seven days a week for an estimated two years.
By 2008, the Milltown Dam should be ready for removal.
The removal of 2.2 million cubic yards of mud and the dam are bad news for the northern pike that once resided in the reservoir. But the project will eventually benefit the native trout by giving them increased room to migrate and spawn.
Rich Landers