Log jams threaten boaters

Whitewater boaters always need to keep a wary eye downstream on any river, especially in this year of big spring runoff.

Area boaters already have found trees down across the St. Joe River above Tumbledown Rapids.

Salmon-Challis National Forest rangers say they are worried about excessive amounts of floating logs that could create impassible jams during the melt-off season on the Middle Fork of the Salmon.

They likened the conditions to 2006 and the Pistol Creek log jam, which stranded 200 boaters for three days.

Officials say they’ve seen a significant amount of debris in the river already. They blame last summer’s fires, which led to temporary rafting closures along sections of the river, for loosening trees and other debris.

Staff and wire reports

HUNTING

Comments due on game plan

The public has until Friday to comment on a proposed plan for hunting and managing Washington’s big-game animals for the next six years.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife has copies of the lengthy environmental impact statement for the proposed 2009-2015 plan at the Spokane region office, or on the Web at www.wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/ game/management.

The WDFW also is gearing up for a separate process to make proposals for a three-year package of hunting rule proposals. Public meetings and comment periods will begin this summer.

The public meeting for Spokane is tentatively set for early September.

Rich Landers

FISHING

Funds sought for Rufus trout

The Colville Tribe knows that anglers can’t rely on trout escaping from commercial net pens to continue providing the fishing bonanza anglers have enjoyed this past winter in Lake Rufus Woods.

The Tribe is likely to continue stocking sterile rainbows in the lake, as it has for years.

The Northwest Power and Conservation Council last week recommended spending $464,000 for the next two years to fund tribes’ creel survey and stocking plan for the Columbia River reservoir between Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams.

The NWPPC also recommended $110,000 for the next two years to monitor the effects of fertilizing Dworshak Reservoir waters in a program to boost nutrient levels and the size of fish, such as kokanee.

Rich Landers

HUNTING

Alberta holds off on grizzly hunt

Alberta’s three-year moratorium on grizzly bear hunting will be extended at least one more year as mounting evidence points to bear populations being lower than earlier, conservative estimates.

The provincial government has no plans to order a status review that could classify grizzlies as endangered until a five-year official count is completed later this year, said Dave Ealey, a spokesman for the Sustainable Resource Development ministry.

Before the temporary moratorium, hunters killed about 14 grizzlies a year.

Recent estimates suggest the bears’ population could be below 500 in Alberta.

Edmonton Journal

WILDLIFE

Grouse at home with wind power

A sage grouse and a sage grouse nest found last year on a wind farm near Yakima are giving researchers reason to believe that the threatened birds can coexist with wind-power development.

In a presentation to the Yakima Valley Audubon Society, Wild Horse Wind Facility spokeswoman Jennifer Diaz said elk appear to have adapted easily to grazing near the wind turbines. Once the facility’s through road is closed to the public during winter, the elk congregate there by the hundreds she said.

But grouse are of primary concern, she said, because “the current science is that sage grouse won’t nest near wind turbines.”

The facility went online in December 2006.

Washington’s only two breeding populations of sage grouse include about 600 birds in the sagebrush and tall grasses of rural Douglas County and perhaps 400 in Yakima County, most of those on the Yakima Training Center.

State biologists say it’s too early to tell what impacts 127 turbines may have on grouse that expand out of the two major populations separated by the 9,100-acre wind farm on the ridges above Vantage. The facility is owned by Puget Sound Energy.

Yakima Herald-Republic

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

Oregon targets sportsmen

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is joining a direct mail marketing effort to increase fishing license sales.

The direct mail toolkit was developed by the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation to help increase participation in the sport and generate awareness of the connection between fishing license sales and conservation.

“We are thrilled to be working with ODFW to recruit lapsed anglers in Oregon,” said RBFF President and CEO Frank Peterson.

“Most of our revenue is tied to license sales, so we’re concerned when sales decline,” said ODFW Director Roy Elicker. “We’re also concerned about what it means for the future. Adults are the key to getting kids started fishing. If parents aren’t fishing, it’s unlikely their kids will fish.”

Associated Press