3-9 What’s Happening

Open house today on controlled burns

The rationale behind controlled burns, as well as a discussion on the when, where and why such prescribed burns will take place, will be the focus of a “prescribed burning” open house today at the Naches Ranger Station.

Wenatchee National Forest fire specialists will be present from 2 to 7 p.m. at the station (10237 Highway 12 in Naches) to explain the reasoning behind the prescribed burning process and answer questions from the public.

Last year, smoke from a large prescribed burn on the slopes of Bethel Ridge triggered complaints to several local agencies, after which the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency fined the Naches Ranger Station

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Triploid plants to be bumped up this year

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is bumping up its stocking of triploids this year, with 58,118 of the sterile, oversized rainbow trout — up from about 41,000 last year — going to 104 lowland lakes statewide.

Roughly 45 percent of those will go to Eastern Washington waters, with the stocking schedule will be posted on the WDFW’s Web site later this month.

Yakima County waters in line to receive these heftier triploid plants include Clear Lake, Dog Lake, Leech Lake, Mud Lake, Myron Lake and Tim’s Pond (across from the Oak Creek headquarters), while Mud Lake off Highway 410 will also receive a smaller number since it’s essentially a walk-in lake now. North Fio Rito Lake, Mattoon Lake and Lost Lake in Kittitas County will get some of the triploids, as well Columbia Park Pond in Kennewick and Dalton and Powerline lakes in Franklin County.

Yakima-based WDFW fisheries biologist Eric Anderson said most of the stocking would be done in April, but that Dog Lake and Kittitas County’s Lost Lake probably won’t be stocked until May because the snow at those higher-elevation lakes makes lakeside access more difficult.

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Film chronicles Columbia swim, past

In 2003, Christopher Swain became the first person to swim the entire 1,243-mile length of the Columbia River, with more than 30 Northwest filmmakers working together to incorporate both his effort and the river’s history into a film, “Source to Sea.”

The Yakima Environ-mental Learning Foundation will sponsor a showing of the film at 7 p.m. March 18 (a week from Thursday) at Wesley United Methodist Church, 14 N. 48th Ave., at the corner of 48th and Chestnut avenues.

The 90-minute film, called by one review “ a heart-wrenching tale of a man and a river,” includes pre-inundation footage of Celilo and Kettle Falls, plus wide-ranging interviews from tribal members, agency representatives, anglers and others on the natural history and the past and present-day impacts of the Columbia River.

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Dale’s 25×25 takes last button shoot

Dennis Dale hit 25 straight targets to capture the men’s division button Sunday in the finale of the Yakima Valley Sportsmen trap club’s 10-week Button Shoot.

Jerry Hielde, Jim Dixon and Tom Rogers each tied with 21×25 to take the Senior division buttons. The club’s telescope score was 100×100.

This Sunday at 10 a.m. will be a button shootoff in each of the five classes, followed by an Annie Oakley (miss and you’re out), with all button winners lining up for a chance at the club championship trophy. All targets for button winners will be free, with a potluck to follow.

On Saturday, the club held its first non-registered Lucky Dog 50 bird shoot last Saturday, with 50 targets each at 16-yard and 50-handicap and 25 pairs of doubles and payouts on the Lewis system. The 16-yard winners — First flight: Jim Turnbull, DJ Blankenship and Sean Daily. Second flight: Tom Rogers. Third flight: Darrell Robertson and Paul Klingele. Handicap winners — First flight: John and Paul Klingele. Second flight: Norm Baird and DJ Blankenship: Third flight: Scott Jones. Doubles winners were John Steklenburg and Norm Baird.

Night shooting under the lights starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

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BIRD ALERT

Gray-crowned rosy finches flitted about the bunchgrass slopes near the rocks on a beautiful afternoon on Selah Butte. The raucous courtship call of the chuckar, the lovely chant of the canyon wrens and the screams from a pair of prairie falcons echoing off the cliffs, testified to the nearness of spring. Red-tailed hawk, rock pigeon, black-billed magpie, common raven and horned lark were also noted, while the brush along the river contained golden-crowned sparrows and song sparrows.

Other signs of spring this week included reports from all around the Valley of killdeer, as well as singing dark-eyed juncos, evening grosbeaks and pine siskin arriving at Kittitas County feeders and the winnowing call of a male Wilson’s snipe near Tampico.

One local birder reported being nearly “run over” by a juvenile northern goshawk on the Poppoff trail, while another spotted a great horned owl on the nest at the Toppenish golf course.

A northern mockingbird has been causing some excitement in the Pasco area on road 76 at the Columbia River. Over 2,000 snow geese and 1,000 or more white-fronted geese were noted at the McNary National Wildlife Refuge and long-billed curlews and sandhill cranes were observed in the Tri-Cities.

Please call your bird sightings into the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 248-1963.

— Kerry L. Turley

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AROUND AND ABOUT

DRANO BANK FISHING: The immediate area around the outlet of Drano Lake will be limited to bank-fishing-only beginning April 16, essentially to minimize conflicts between bank and boat anglers. The bank-fishing-only area will be west of a line projected from the easternmost pillar of the Highway 14 Bridge to a posted marker on the north shore. In addition, the anti-snag rule will be removed from the entire area, as well as on the lower Wind River, beginning next Tuesday, March 16.

PAC MEETING TODAY: The Eastern Washington Cascades and Yakima Provincial Advisory Committees (PACs) are meeting at from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today in Wenatchee at the Rural County Fire District No. 1 Sunnyslope Fire Station conference room, with public comments set for noon.

The agenda includes information-sharing and updates regarding the Forest Restoration Strategy, Wilderness Society North Cascades Project and the federal decision against listing pikas as a threatened and endangered species.

RAZOR-CLAM DIGS: The WDFW has tentatively scheduled razor-clam digs on ocean beaches for March 26-April 1 and again in mid-April, provided marine toxin tests show the clams are safe to eat.

BEAR PERMIT DEADLINE: Friday is the last day hunters to purchase and submit applications for spring black bear hunting permits. A drawing will be held in mid-March for 185 permits in specific areas east of the Cascades (and others on the west side of the state).

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ON THE CALENDAR

TODAY: The Cascadians’ Tuesday group will probably do a cross-country ski/snowshoe trek to Sand Lake off White Pass, and with recent snow dustings in the high country it’s possible there may be a couple or three more weeks of such outings. The group meets at 8 a.m. at the 40th Avenue

Bi-Mart parking lot and carpools from there. Bring a lunch.

WEDNESDAY: The Yakima Valley Audubon Society will host a bird walk beginning at 9 a.m. at the south end of the Yakima Greenway (at the east end of Valley Mall Boulevard). Anybody is welcome.

WEDNESDAY: The Nordic Ski and Snowshoe Council will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Naches Ranger Station.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies will do a hike at Snow Mountain Ranch. For meeting time and place (and non-Pokies are invited to participate), call Roger Short at 509-469-9906.

MARCH 21 (a week from Sunday): Hiking/outdoors photographer Alan Bauer will be giving a presentation on “Best Desert Hikes: Washington,” a Mountaineers Books guidebook he co-authored with Dan Nelson, at 7 p.m. at Inklings Books, at Chalet Mall off 56th and Summitview in Yakima.

APRIL 15: Just an early heads-up for something you won’t want to miss: Explorer Helen Thayer will be at the Capitol Theatre to give a photographic presentation of her adventures around the world as a fund-raising event sponsored by the Cascadians and the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy.