Field Reports: Lead King Lake to be treated with rotenone on Oct. 7
FISHING – Lead King Lake in Pend Oreille County is scheduled to be treated with rotenone on Oct. 7 to kill sunfish and illegally introduced northern pike.
Washington Fish and Wildlife officials will explain the plan in a public meeting Friday, 6-8 p.m. at the Ione Community Center.
The lake will be restocked with sterile rainbow trout, said Chris Donley, regional fisheries manager, noting the agency has a policy of targeting non-native pike to curb potential impact on native fisheries.
Reward for pike offered by Coeur d’Alene Tribe
FISHING – Anglers can sign up to get a $5 reward for each northern pike caught in a targeted area at the south end of Lake Coeur d’Alene starting Thursday through May 31.
Coeur d’Alene Tribe researchers are using $12,000 in payments to encourage anglers to turn in all pike they catch in a designated area for studies on abundance and impacts of pike.
Fish turned in with implanted tags are worth $50-$500.
Details will be posted at a check station at the Heyburn State Park headquarters.
Info: (208) 686-5302.
Flotilla to protest Snake River dams
RIVERS – Groups ranging from tribes to salmon advocates and outfitters have set a boat-in rally to promote dam removal at a “Free the Snake Flotilla” on Saturday, 10 a.m., at Wawawai Landing southwest of Pullman.
The groups say the four dams on the lower Snake River should be removed to help restore endangered salmon and steelhead, said Sam Mace of Save Our Wild Salmon.
“The economics of those dams have never been shakier,” she said, citing a container shipping decline at the Port of Portland.
“Yet the four high-cost, low-value dams stand between salmon and their home rivers.”
Info: freethesnake.com.
Turnbull planting habitat
CRITTERS – Volunteers are invited to a community work party to plant streamside habitat at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
The event is sponsored by the refuge, Spokane Audubon Society and Friends of Turnbull. Hamburgers will be provided for a potluck lunch.
Info: 235-4723.
Climbing film a benefit
MOVIES –“Wisdom Earned – A mountain Climber’s Perspective,” the story of Spokane’s Chris Kopczynski, will be shown at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 at the INB Performing Arts Center to benefit Spokane Guild School.
Kopczynski’s climbing resume includes the highest peak on each of the seven continents.
• Other climbing films in town include “Everest” at the Imax Theater and “Meru,” a Sundance Film Fest audience favorite, at the Magic Lantern.
New Colville supervisor
FORESTS – Rodney Smoldon has been appointed supervisor of the 1.1 million-acre Colville National Forest.
The district ranger on the Colville’s Three Rivers Ranger District will fill the forest’s head position vacated by Laura Jo West, who left for the Coconino National Forest in Arizona.
Smoldon, an Eastern Washington University graduate, joined the Forest Service on the Colville in 1985 and has been a district ranger on the Plumas, Okanogan-Wenatchee and El Dorado forests, and deputy supervisor in the Portland region headquarters.