9/7 What’s Happening

Island Camp closed to overnight camping

Island Camp Campground, about six miles north and west of Glenwood in southern Yakima County, has been closed due to Department of Natural Resources budget shortages in the agency’s recreation program.

“We exhausted all possibilities trying to keep Island Camp open, but we simply ran out of resources,” said Mike Williams, recreation manager for DNR’s Southeast Region. The snow shelter/cabin will remain open for use by snowmobilers for safety reasons, Williams added.

“A lot of people know it’s there, and if something happens they’ll know that shelter is available.”

Last week DNR staff removed all fire pits and picnic tables and locked the restrooms. DNR will be blocking the roads that access the campground, which is popular with hunters and snowmobilers. While overnight camping will not be allowed, people can still access the area by foot or by snowmobile.

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Ft. Simcoe could be on chopping block

In a special meeting set for Thursday in Olympia, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission will consider two options for its 2011-13 budget proposal, both of which include mothballing some parks and making additional staff layoffs.

In one option, only six parks will be closed, including the Peshastin Pinnacles, a popular rock-climbing destination in Chelan County. The other option would close 14 parks — the original six and another eight, one of which is Fort Simcoe State Park near White Swan on the Yakama Reservation.

Also on the chopping block in the second option is the Goldendale Observatory. Both options also include a reduction of 10.5 full-time equivalent employees.

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Steelhead season on in Hanford Reach

The first of several hatchery steelhead fisheries in the Columbia River Basin got under way Saturday with the opening of the Hanford Reach, where anglers fishing between the Highway 395 bridge at Pasco upriver to Priest Rapids Dam will have a daily limit of two adipose fin-clipped hatchery steelhead.

Fisheries on hatchery steelhead will also open Wednesday on the upper Columbia, Wenatchee, Entiat and Methow rivers; hatchery steelhead seasons will also open Oct. 1 on the Okanogan River and Nov. 1 on the Similkameen. The daily limit in those fisheries will be four.

On all rivers, keepers must measure at least 20 inches in length, and steelhead with an intact adipose fin must be immediately released unharmed. Anglers must retain any legal hatchery steelhead they catch until the daily limit is reached, after which they must stop fishing for steelhead.

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BIRD ALERT

The highlights of the week were the continuing large numbers of Vaux’s swifts plummeting each evening into the Yakima Herald-Republic chimney — averaging roughly 1,500 nightly Friday through Sunday — and a very exciting though unverified report of a real rarity at Wenas Lake.

The latter report came in Friday evening of a white-rumped sandpiper, which is so rare in this part of the United States that there’s never been a verified report of one in Yakima County. Several experienced birders immediately headed out to the lake to look for the sandpiper, but while one believe he heard its call, none of the seekers actually saw the bird.

Those birders did, though, see six pectoral sandpipers, a few Baird and least sandpipers, and the usual plentiful numbers of kildeer and Wilson’s snipe.

Please call in your bird sightings to the Yakima Valley Audubon at 509-248-1963.

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AROUND AND ABOUT

CLE ELUM BURNING: Prescribed burning activities could begin at early as mid-September on the Cle Elum Ranger District, with plans to treat some 800 acres with low-intensity fire that would reduce down or dead fuels that might otherwise feed and further the spread of future wildfires.

The treatment area is located north of Ellensburg and east of Highway 97 in the vicinity of First Creek and Reecer Creek. Fire managers also plan to burn piles in many district areas, including Liberty, Hurley Creek, Drop Creek, Osborne Point, several areas in the Taneum and Roaring Creek.

UPPER COLUMBIA EXTENSION: Salmon fishing season on the stretch of the upper Columbia River between Wells Dam to Brewster is being extended through Oct. 15, to allow steelhead anglers to retain incidentally caught sockeye or chinook salmon. The daily limit on salmon is six, minimum size 12 inches. Up to three adult chinook may be kept, but only one can be wild. All coho must be released.

ON THE CALENDAR

TODAY: The Cascadians’ burly “Tuesdays” will meet at 7:30 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart and carpool from there to the day’s planned hike — Colchuck Lake, a 9-miler with 2,200 feet of elevation gain within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Bring lunch and plenty of water. For more on the Cascadians and their wide-ranging schedule of outings, go to www.cascadians.org.

WEDNESDAY: The Yakima Valley Audubon will host a morning bird walk beginning at 8 a.m., with the group meeting at the Sherman Park parking lot (adjacent to the Humane Society) and heading either north through the Arboretum to Buchanan Lake or heading south toward the Poppoff Trail.

WEDNESDAY: Members and guests of the Mount Adams Cycling Club will head out at 6 p.m. from the Fed Meyer/Key Bank parking lot at 6 p.m. for the club’s weekly 24-mile Naches Loop. For more online info, go to www.mountadamscycling.org.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies will head to Mount Rainier National Park for some hiking in the areas of Ohanapecosh, Grove of the Patriarchs and Silver Parks. For meeting time and place, call Mary Shinn at 509-966-9930 or Deborah Cornue at 966-3085.

SATURDAY: The Yakima Valley Audubon will host a birding trip along the Columbia River from John Day Dam to Bingen to look for migrant species (both water and land) and other Gorge specialties like acorn woodpecker and lesser goldfish. Expect a full day, and bring lunch and water. The group will meet at 6:30 a.m. at the Sears parking lot west of IHOP on Valley Mall Boulevard. Participants should contact trip leader Scott at downess@charter.net prior to meeting the group.

MONDAY: The Mount Adams Cycling Club’s weekly members-and-guests bike ride from YAC Fitness in Terrace Heights begins at 5:45 p.m., either 23 or 30 miles.