Biathlon course OK’d

The U.S. Forest Service has approved a military biathlon course proposed for the Continental Divide just west of Helena on the Helena National Forest.

The Montana Army National Guard plans to build a course for biathlon – rigorous nordic skiing followed by target shooting with .22-caliber rifles – near MacDonald Pass.

Some skiers favor the Guard’s $1.5 million plan because the groomed course would be open to the public when not in military use. Others say the course would disrupt wildlife habitat and decrease enjoyment of existing cross-country trails.

The National Guard has only two other primary biathlon training sites: Vermont and Minnesota.

Staff and wire reports

NATURE

Protecting the pine

Montana’s is looking at protecting the state’s largest known ponderosa pine tree by stabilizing a stream bank just south of Interstate 90.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is looking at creating a logjam in Fish Creek, about 40 miles west of Missoula. The logjam would be upstream from the pine tree, which is nearly 200 feet high and more than 6 feet in diameter.

The logjam could reduce the risk of stream-bank erosion destabilizing the tree. High water in the spring eroded part of the bank and exposed some of the tree’s root system.

Staff and wire reports

FISHING

Oregon salvages ocean season

Oregon’s old, second-tier ocean fisheries carried the load again this year, forcing anglers to look far and deep to make up for the state’s worst ocean salmon-fishing season on record.

Instead of focusing on Pacific Northwest mainstays – coho and chinook salmon – Oregon’s recreational fleet caught more albacore tuna, which are caught far offshore, and Pacific halibut, which ply the deepest waters off the coast.

“Salmon fishing was so spotty, so hit-and-miss that I didn’t want to do it,” said Wayne Butler, charterboat operator in Bandon. “But for halibut, it was 100-percent success every trip.”

This shift was the short-term answer for anglers trying to make the best of a bad situation. Long-range prospects appear brighter, with some biologists saying the state may have hit the bottom of the current salmon slump.

Oregon-wide, recreational chinook landings came in at about 1,700 fish, compared to the long-term annual average of 25,200 chinook.

Previously, the worst year was 1998, when anglers landed about 4,000 chinook.

Medford Mail Tribune

NATIONAL PARKS

Volunteer effort down at Rainier

Nearly 1,840 volunteers invested $1.37 million worth of time and effort at Mount Rainier National Park in the last year.

As impressive as that is, the number of hours volunteered, 70,130, is down from 2007, when volunteers worked 84,038 hours.

Demand for help was much greater following the historic flood of November 2006, and volunteers rallied, said Kevin Bacher, the park’s volunteer program coordinator.

But the number of volunteers increased 6.5 percent to 1,724 this year.

“There wasn’t nearly as much press coverage of the park’s need to drum up support, yet people still showed up,” he said. “To me, this proves the park is on its way to building a sustainable cadre of volunteers.”

Tacoma News-Tribune