Projects affect fall recreation

PUBLIC LANDS – Fall work projects that may affect recreationists this month:

•Coeur d’Alene River District traffic is being detoured around a popular route to Teepee Creek until Sept. 30 while crews replace a culvert on Short Creek to improve fish passage.

Road 812 is closed 5.7 miles upstream from the old Magee Ranger Station. Alternate routes include Road 422 (from Tepee Creek or Leiberg Pass), Road 260 (Stull Saddle), and Roads 900 and 260 (Riley Saddle). In addition, Road 6749 (along Short Creek) will remain open.

•Kamloops Campground in Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area will be closed Sept. 28-Oct. 2 for repaving.

•Spokane River Centennial Trail users could be affected this week by work along the riverbank near the Flora Road access and Mile 8.

•Missouri River anglers will find the Craig fishing access site and campsite temporarily closed for about a week starting Tuesday.

Rich Landers

Fish ladder for Clark Fork

FISHERIES – A $6.5 million project is under way to help fish navigate over the Thompson Falls Dam on the Clark Fork River in northwest Montana.

PPL Montana, which owns the dam, says the fish ladder will be completed around December 2010 to help bull trout and other species get over the dam to access hundreds of miles of rivers upstream.

The fish will go up 50 steps that simulate steps in the rock in the original falls. They’ll be able to swim up 50 steps and get into the river through a 40-inch tube.

Associated Press

Predator hunts boost big game

WILDLIFE – An Alaska wildlife management program in which wolves are shot from low-flying airplanes and black bears are baited and snared is helping to increase the numbers of moose and caribou, state wildlife officials say.

The program has long been the target of wildlife conservation groups who view it as state-sponsored slaughter. Last fall, one of those groups launched an ad criticizing then-Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, for expanding the program.

State officials contend the program is aimed at helping rural Alaskans, who rely on hunting to survive and had complained there wasn’t enough game to hunt and eat.

In some predator control areas, moose populations have doubled since 2003.

Staff and wire reports

Hiawatha trail closes Oct. 4

BICYCLING – The Route of the Hiawatha rail-trail is scheduled to close for the season Oct. 4.

Rich Landers

Herbicide may curb Washington moose

WILDLIFE – The heydays moose are enjoying in northeastern Washington may be waning in some areas.

As private timber company forests mature, they’re being sprayed with herbicides to kill hardwood shrubs that might be thwarting growth of commercial timber.

“I’m concerned about widespread spraying of 2-4-D, up to 10,480 acres in the northeastern counties,” said Dana Base, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife district biologist in Colville.

“That’s 15 square miles and it will add up and reach a point that it will impact the moose, because those hardwood shrubs are the groceries moose need to eat.”

Rich Landers