3/22 What’s Happening

Sign-up under way for Kids’ Fish-In

Registration is open for this year’s Yakima Kids’ Fish-In, an event that seemed destined to disappear after state funding dried but was rescued by a local fundraising effort.

The Fish-In will take place Saturday, April 23, at the Yakima Greenway’s Sarg Hubbard Park. Greenway officials had spearheaded the drive to keep the event alive, attracting a number of sizable sponsorships from local businesses and service organizations, and expect

to draw a record 1,000 participants between the ages of 5 and 14.

Even at 1,000, space in limited, so parents should consider signing their kids up sooner, not later. Registration forms are available at the Yakima Greenway Foundation Office; the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife; Central Valley Bank; Hammers Outdoor World; and online at www.yakimagreenway.org. Registration by April 13 reserves the participant’s T-shirt size, and sign-up deadline is April 22.

Cost is $7 per child, and that provides each participant with a rod and reel to keep; bait and instructions on how best to use it; the opportunity to fish for, catch and keep two rainbow trout from Reflection Pond, which will be stocked with 5,000 trout for the event; and the help of volunteers who will clean, bag and ice their fish.

For more information, call 509-453-8280 or go online to www.yakimagreenway.org/fishingkids.htm.

*********

Meeting will focus on salmon fisheries

The only Eastern Washington public meeting on the salmon season-setting process known as “North of Falcon” will take place Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Benton PUD, 2721 W. 10th Ave., Kennewick.

The meeting — locally being referred to as our “Northeast of McNary” meeting because of the Tri-Cities’ proximity to McNary Dam — will include a preseason forecast and fishery outlook on salmon and steelhead runs to the Columbia Basin, as well as public discussion on potential recreational and commercial salmon fisheries statewide.

The three ocean salmon-fishing options announced last week by Pacific Fishery Management Council establish a lower harvest range for chinook, largely to protect chinook returning to the lower Columbia River.

The recreational fishing options put out by the PFMC range from the high option of 52,000 chinook and 79,800 coho down to the lowest option of 32,000 chinook and 54,600 coho; last year’s quotas were 61,000 chinook and 67,200 coho. Fishery managers are expected to approve final harvest guidelines for this year’s recreational ocean fishery in mid-April.

*********

Hillclimbers on way to world event

A quintet of Moxee and Yakima snowmobile hillclimb racers will be heading into this weekend’s World Championship Hillclimb in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on the heels of a solid showing at the March 12-13 David Shepherd Memorial Hillclimb in Wisdom, Mont.

David Sharp, 49, of Moxee, qualified first in all three of his pro master divisions — stock, improved and modified — but didn’t up, placing second, fourth and fourth in those classes, respectively. His son, 18-year-old David Sharp Jr., qualified first in the Rocky Mountain Snowmobile Hillclimb Association’s largest and most competitive class, pro 800 stock, and placed sixth in the main. He placed third in pro 600 modified, fifth in pro 1000 improved and eight in pro 1000 stock.

Brad Sharp, 46, placed second in pro master improved, fifth in pro 600 stock, fourth in pro open modified and 10th in pro master mod. Brock Sharp, Brad Sharp’s 11-year-old son, raced in the amateur 11-13 age class and won both of his races.

Josh Koreski of Yakima placed seventh in pro 800 stock and sixth in pro 800 improved. Brian Thierolf of Yakima was ninth in pro 600 improved and ninth in pro 700 stock.

*********

BIRD ALERT

The Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding area is a great place to view the increasing numbers of waterfowl at this time of year. Visitors to the refuge this week were treated to such sights as 90 tundra swans, 400 to 500 northern pintails, bufflehead, lesser scaup, northern shovelers, gadwall, green-winged teal, common merganser and both adult and immature bald eagle.

Other sightings included Eurasian wigeon and 50 sandhill cranes flying northeast off Toppenish Ridge. Sounds of spring were also noted — the winnowing of Wilson’s snipe, the booming of American bittern and the calling of rails.

A female great horned owl was sitting on its nest, 3 feet from the male, in a stand of trees along Powerhouse Road between Old Goldendale Road and Lateral C.

An early morning hiker heading up Rattlesnake Ridge north of Wapato flushed three Lapland longspurs and also noted common raven and horned lark along the ridge.

More signs of migration included a small flock of 15 or so Bohemian waxwings that settled into a maple tree at a residence north of Wapato; a winter plumage dunlin feeding in the pond at Costco; two tree swallows flying over the East Valley baseball fields, and a northern saw-whet owl in a large juniper tree in a cemetery on W. Wapato Road, 21?2 miles west of Lateral A.

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

— Kerry L. Turley

*********

AROUND AND ABOUT

PARKS BUDGET HEARING: Washington State Parks’ Eastern Region headquarters in East Wenatchee (270 Ninth St. NE, Suite 200) will host a public information session on the park system and its budget issues next Tuesday (March 29) at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact regional director Jim Harris at 509-655-4315 or jim.harris@parks.wa.gov.

HANFORD STEELHEAD: The Hanford Reach steelhead fishery between the Vernita Bridge and Priest Rapids Dam will close to hatchery steelhead retention on April 1.

*********

ON THE CALENDAR

TODAY: The Cascadians’ Tuesdays will meet at 8 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot and carpool from there to the day’s trek. Come prepared for anything, and bring lunch and plenty of water.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies group, which has outings (always open to non-members) most Thursdays, will have a change from the Cascadians’ newsletter. The group will hike the south end of the Greenway and will have lunch at El Porton. For meeting time and place, call Eulalie Short at 509-469-9906.

SATURDAY: The Mount Adams Cycling club will hold its season-opening membership ride this Saturday. For more information on the club and its rides, go to www.mountadamscycling.org, call Carla at 509-972-8570 or pick up information at Valley Cycle & Fitness or Revolution Cycles.

SATURDAY: The Cascadians’ newest regular schedule edition — easy hikes on the last Saturday of the month — will join the Klickitat Trail Conservancy’s “Early and Rare Wild Flower Hunt” along Swale Creek on the Goldendale Plateau, with Mid-Columbia Native Plant Society specialists Nancy Allen as the guide as the group searches for searching for purple desert parsley and the rare Dalles Mountain buttercups. It will be a nearly-flat trail hike of 4 to 5 miles. Dress in layers, wear hiking shoes, bring water, lunch and, if you’ve got them, camera and a dryland-wildflower book. To sign up, call Claudia at 509-388-9307.