Out & About
Stern advice
on Canoe Classic
OUTPADDLE – Time’s running out to sign up for Saturday’s Spokane River Canoe Classic, which has become a Father’s Day weekend tradition for many canoeing and kayaking families.
The event has been moved to Saturday instead of Father’s Day this year, said John Schwartz, event coordinator and manager of Mountain Gear’s retail store in Spokane. But other details are the same.
Paddlers sign in for various categories starting at 9 a.m. at Corbin Park in Post Falls and choose from two courses:
•A 6-mile “citizens course” for casual paddlers.
•A 13-mile “marathon course” that runs through Sullivan Rapids.
The event wraps up with a barbecue and prize drawings.
Preregister: 325-9000; www.mountaingear.com.
Looking at life
on the lookout
OUTFIELD – The Forest Fire Lookout Association’s Western Regional Conference, June 25-27 in Grangeville, Idaho, will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1910 fires that killed 85 people and burned nearly 3 million acres in Idaho and Montana.
The epic fires were a catalyst for the fire lookout system developed by the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies across the country.
Revised fire policies, airplanes and technology have made many lookouts obsolete, while tight Forest Service budgets, wear and tear and vandalism have taken a high toll on the rest.
Of the 992 lookout sites developed in Idaho during the last century (peaking just before World War II), about 195 are still standing and about 55 are still staffed during fire season, according the association.
The Northwest is a leader in preserving lookouts for rentals. The number fluctuates yearly because of maintenance or other issues, but the current number of lookout sites in the rental pool is about 14 in Idaho (six of them in the Idaho Panhandle), 21 in Montana, 19 in Oregon and two in Washington.
•Rental reservations: (977) 444-6777; www.reserveusa.com
•Info on the FFLA conference: (208) 765-1714; www.firelookout.org.
Turnbull trumpeter
fathers five this time
OUTPRODUCE – Solo, the geriatric trumpeter swan who endured 22 years a widower before finding a new mate last year and raising a brood of four, seems to be getting better with age.
Solo and his mate hatched five cygnets on May 19 or 20.
The pair and last year’s three surviving cygnets returned to Turnbull during the early thaw in January and Solo got right down to business. This year’s brood hatched a month earlier than last year’s.
“They have made it through some pretty nasty weather,” said Mike Rule, Turnbull wildlife biologist, noting that newly hatched birds of many species are vulnerable to death from hypothermia in cool, wet weather.
The family has been seen at Cheever Lake and Winslow pool near the refuge headquarters.
The swans that hatched last year are on their own.
Chick number
16,000: Number of day-old hen pheasant chicks given away so far this spring by the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council to people who will raise and release them. Up to 2,500 a week will be given away through July 6. Info: Larry Carey, 328-6429.