Mixed news on bighorn illness

Pneumonia has spread across river, but disease appears less severe ||

YAKIMA, Wash. — The bighorn sheep pneumonia outbreak in the Yakima River Canyon has gotten worse in one way while, in another, is turning out to be not nearly as bad as it might have been.

The outbreak didn’t remain confined to the west side of the Yakima River as state wildlife biologists had hoped it might, with just a very small number — “one or two,” said one expert — of infected bighorns found in recent weeks on the Selah Butte side east of the river.

But while the majority of bighorns west of the Yakima River and north of Umtanum Creek have exhibited pneumonia symptoms, a massive dieoff similar to the one that happened 15 years ago in Hells Canyon simply hasn’t happened.

“This kind of disease outbreak among bighorns has occurred periodically throughout the West,” said Donnie Martorello, who oversees bighorn sheep management for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “There seem to be two scenarios that play out.

“You have ones like Hells Canyon where you have a pneumonia outbreak that’s swift and very lethal, and before you can do anything the sheep are just dying left and right. In the other one … you may have a large percentage of your sheep with acute pneumonia, you lose 10 to 20 percent and the rest kind of shake it off. They have the bugs, the pathogens, but they survive the outbreaks.

“I believe we’re in the latter scenario.”

Eighteen bighorns in the Yakima River Canyon are known to have died since the outbreak began — 15 of them in one square mile north of Umtanum Creek, most of them near the railroad tracks. But that’s only a small percentage of the number of sheep that would have come in contact with the disease, with about 165 sheep on the west side of the Yakima River and about 85 on the Selah Butte side.

State wildlife officials expect to decide in the next day or two which of three basic approaches they will take to deal with the outbreak — to let it run its natural course;  to kill each of the animals in the impacted areas, thus removing the possibility of the disease spreading to other herds; or remove only the animals that still have showing signs of the disease.

The surviving animals might still pass the lethal pathogens on to each ensuing lamb crop, perhaps depressing the herd for generations — or they might not. The science in this area is still evolving, and Yakima-based WDFW biologist Jeff Bernatowicz, who has been following the breakout since it was first documented in early December, said other states have already had experience in dealing with circumstances just like this one.

Veterinarians and wildlife biologists from Colorado and Montana, he said, now believe the animals that have recovered from the initial breakout are no longer spreading — or “shedding” — the bacteria.

“The best analogy,” Bernatowicz said, “would be if people get the flu, once you’re over it and recovering, you’re no longer spreading the germs to somebody else. But there’s a certain percentage of people who, for whatever reason, maybe their systems aren’t as strong as other people, they … (remain sick and) continue to shed the bacteria.”

Unhealthy ewes, Bernatowicz said, “probably aren’t going to have lambs, or aren’t going to have healthy lambs. Only the ones that recovered will have lambs, and then you still have the minority of ewes and rams that are still carriers that will continue to shed the bacteria, and … they’ll affect the lambs that are born.”

Bernatowicz said that in previous outbreaks, three times in Colorado and once in British Columbia, officials have culled from the herd the animals that were still exhibiting symptoms of the disease two months or more after the initial outbreak.

“They try to clean out the ones that have not recovered, get them out of the population,” he said. “And from what they’ve told us, that has worked really well at increasing the lamb survival.”

A Winter Beacon

Waterfalls on display along trails at Gorge’s Beacon Rock ||

LONGVIEW, Wash. — There’s a lot more to Beacon Rock State Park than the 848-foot-tall pinnacle of basalt it’s named after.

Yes, that towering rock is a landmark in the Columbia River Gorge, some 30 miles upstream from Vancouver.

But 5,100-acre Beacon Rock State Park also includes several stunning waterfalls and a couple of ridges that are more than 2,300 feet high, all served by a network of hiking trails. Even if you’ve hiked there before, several new routes built in the past few years invite exploration.

Winter is a good time for a hike in the park. The falls gush harder during the rainy season, the trails are typically snow free and the crowds are thinner.

 

Park ranger Vivian McNeil said park trails are popular with those getting in shape for longer trips later in the season.

 

Beacon Rock park is served by two parking lots. For hikers, the main lot a short distance off Highway 14 is most attractive. In winter months, the quarter-mile-long access road to the parking lot is closed to motorized vehicles Mondays through Thursdays, though hikers may park near the base of Beacon Rock and stroll up the road.

A rock summit called Little Beacon Rock (more about that later) looms above the trailhead. From the trailhead, which is about 400 feet above sea level, the wide trail heads into the woods for a half mile or so, then crosses under twin power lines. The open gash in the forest for the power lines offers a view down to Bonneville Dam, five miles distant.

The trail heads back into the mossy woods. From the parking lot, it’s 11/4 miles, with a 450-foot elevation gain, to the twin torrents of Hardy Falls and Rodney Falls. A side trail leads down to a viewpoint over the top of Hardy Falls, which tumbles over a cliff about 100 feet below. There’s no official trail to the bottom of the 90-foot-tall Hardy Falls, but it’s possible to reach them by scrambling down the hill. With the dropoffs, venturing off the main trail isn’t a good idea for small children.

A few yards farther up the trail is the much more accessible Rodney Falls. The trail crosses below the falls’ major step on a very sturdy wooden bridge. Rodney Falls descends about 80 feet.

The upper part of the falls foams through a chasm in the rock called the Punchbowl. A side trail cut into the cliff leads to the edge of the Punchbowl, which would be a good place to cool off with spray on a hot day.

The waterfalls make a good turning-around point for a short hike, but there are plenty of opportunities for additional trekking.

One of the high points of Beacon Rock State Park is Hamilton Mountain, elevation 2,438 feet. To get there, keep going past Rodney Falls.

The trail soon forks, with both directions eventually leading to Hamilton Mountain.

The shorter — and steeper — part of the loop goes to the right. It climbs sharply, with steps cut into the rock in places. The trail winds through rocky cliffs, with dropoffs here and there. On a recent hike, the upper parts of the trail were covered by 2 to 3 inches of fresh snow and bathed in fog.

The summit is something of an anti-climax, a flat expanse with heavy brush blocking the views in some directions. However, there’s a good view upriver to Table Mountain and, on clear days, across the Columbia to waterfalls dropping over Oregon cliffs.

From the summit, either retrace your steep steps back down or continue ahead down the more gradually sloping ridge top for a mile to a saddle where four trails convene.

Major trail junctions like this are well-marked with signs pointing the way back to the parking lot. Maps are displayed behind glass, too, though some are too waterlogged to be useful.

From the saddle, the route joins a network of old logging roads where horses and mountain bikes are allowed. Or take “Don’s Trail,” a hiker-only alternative.

On the way back, after you’ve once again passed the waterfalls, yet another trail offers a different twist.

The unmarked but hard-to-miss trail to Little Beacon Rock starts by a bench under the power lines. That trail eventually leads through a jumble of boulders to Little Beacon Rock, which is only a few hundred feet shorter than its bigger twin.

Past Little Beacon Rock, the trail descends to the campground, which is closed in winter. The road leads back to where you started.

The trail between the campground and Little Beacon Rock is ADA accessible.

The entire loop to Hamilton Mountain and back is 8 miles.

— Tom Paulu/The (Longview) Daily News

If You Go …

What: Beacon Rock State Park.

Where: At milepost 35 on Highway 14, west of Stevenson and Bonneville Dam.

How to get there: Follow Highway 97 to the junction with Highway 14 and follow 14 west.

Of note: A separate parking lot off of Kueffler Road serves the old logging roads that now are trails open to mountain bikers and horseback riders. A trail finished last year makes a steep jaunt over the top of Hardy Ridge, which is actually higher than Hamilton Mountain. Yet another trail is too new to be on maps.

For more: Detailed information on Rodney and Hardy falls can be found at www.waterfallsnorthwest.com. To make sense of the trail maze, see a map posted at www.portlandhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2331

Culinary procrastination can be recipe for disaster

YAKIMA, Wash. — When it comes to trying new recipes for the game and fish I get, I have the greatest intentions in the world. In fact, right now, in my office I have a stack of magazines you couldn’t jump over. They’ve been collecting for months because each one contains a recipe that, when I read it, made me think I’d really like to try it sometime. So into the “recipe stack” it went.

You know how it goes with good intentions. I’ve not cooked up one of the recipes yet, and the stack of publications just continues to grow.

If nothing else, I should go through and at least tear the different recipes out and put them in a folder or something. Then this mountain of magazines could go to the recycling bin and out of my office.

But I can’t quite find the time to do even that, let alone get motivated enough to actually try one or two of these delicious-sounding concoctions for duck, pheasant, walleye and steelhead.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to fix a dish such as Venison Bourguignon? Even I peruse the recipe, my mouth starts to water and I think this would be a great way to fix up a couple of the deer roasts in the freezer from the fat buck I shot in Montana last fall.

Especially when it’s described as “absolutely delicious and tender,” and “one your hunting club will enjoy.”

Which, of course, makes me think about how sad it is I don’t belong to a hunting club.

Am I not good enough? Are all my buddies in a club and they just haven’t told me? Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be in a club of some kind. I love to hunt, so why can’t I be in a hunting club?

But I digress.

In this same publication pulled randomly from its precarious perch on the pile of publications, there are several other great sounding recipes including Grilled Salmon Pacifica,  Fillet of Dover Sole Arian, and Blackened Redfish.

Mmmm, they sound good enough to eat.

Also among the many recipes in this southern magazine is (those of you with squeamish stomachs might want to just skip over this one) a recipe for Squirrel Head Stew. Pardon me while I erp.

I kid you not. The recipe calls for 20 to 30 squirrel heads along with some onions, potatoes, garlic, parsley and powdered sassafras leaf. Throw all the ingredients into a pot and cook until the potatoes are done. It doesn’t say anything about the squirrel heads but I would assume if the spuds are cooked so are the rest of the ingredients.

Turns out these recipes come from some famous chef in New Orleans. Now, I have been to New Orleans and have eaten in many fine restaurants there, but never have I seen on the menu anything that included squirrel heads, or any other parts of a squirrel for that matter.

I have found and tried many other unusual menu items in that great city, including ostrich, alligator, rattlesnake, turtle, frog, crawdads, and snails, to name a few. So, those Cajuns will cook and eat just about anything. But I think I would draw the line on small animal heads.

Besides the fact that I have not shot 20 to 30 squirrels in all of my life, and wouldn’t know where to get that many squirrels if I wanted them, the chances of me cooking up such a stew is wildly remote.

Even if I was lost in some remote wilderness and I was starving and all there was to eat was squirrels, I believe I could find several other parts of the little animal I would prefer to eat over the heads.

Anyway, in my stack of magazines are more ways than you can imagine to cook a goose, a moose and everything in between. If you are looking for a special recipe, give me a shout, because I probably have it.

And, if you happen to have some squirrel pieces and parts you were wondering what to do with, I can help you there, too. Just don’t invite me over to partake in it. Even if it means I might get to join your hunting club. Because I will most likely pass.

• Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.

Backyard bird count this weekend

YAKIMA, Wash. — For birders, who can’t ever get enough of counting, the next assignment has arrived: this Friday-through-Monday’s “Great Backyard Bird Count,” a four-day national event launched a dozen years ago as a joint effort between the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Why some lab at Cornell? Well, if you do an Internet search for information on pretty much any bird, Cornell’s site will be one of the first that will pop up; they’re very big on birds. And the GBBC, birders’ shorthand for this weekend’s count, allows folks to be part of a national effort that will give the national bird-watching community a veritable four-day photograph of what’s out there continent-wide, with numbers that can be compared to previous years.

For information on how to participate, you can go to the GBBC site (www.birdcount.org, which will take you to www.birdsource.org/gbbc), and you can take part alone or as part of an event, from the windows of the home or out in a public park. Locally, there will be a couple of count-related activities:

• On Friday, the Yakima Valley Audubon Society will host a bird walk largely for GBBC newcomers, beginning at 8 a.m. at the parking lot at the south end of the Greenway (east end of Valley Mall Boulevard). The trip leader is Richard Repp (965-1134 or e-mail to rich712@aol.com).

• An afternoon/early evening of what is being called the “SunTides Robin Spectacle,” a reference to the tens of thousands of American robins that have been flocking to roost in the SunTides area’s conifer trees. It’s apparently quite a sight, whether you stay for 15 minutes or arrive early and stay for the entire transformation.

The GBBC group will meet at 4:30 p.m. at the intersection of Old Naches Highway and Galloway Road, with wildlife biologist and expert birder Scott Downes coordinating the robin count for the GBBC.

For more information, use the above number/e-mail to contact Repp, who has become the local Audubon’s go-to guy for the GBBC over the past few years.

2/9/10 What’s Happening

Moxee teen scores first hillclimb pro win

David Sharp Jr. of Moxee, at 17 years old already the Rocky Mountain Snowmobile Hillclimb Association’s reigning racer of the year, got his first victory as a pro over the weekend at the Bear Lake Hillclimb in Montpellier, Idaho.

The East Valley junior qualified in all five of the classes he entered, won in pro improved 800, and finished a close second in the King of the Hill competition of all class winners. Since RMSHA events pay out to the top five placers, Sharp Jr. also earned prize money in four of his five classes, placing third in pro mod 600, fourth in both pro 1000 stock and pro 1000 improved stock, and sixth in pro 800 stock.

His father, David Sharp, placed third in pro master improved and in pro master mod, and fourth in pro master stock. Brad Sharp was second in pro master improved, fourth in pro master mod, fourth in open mod and sixth in pro master stock.

Brian Thierolf of Yakima qualified eighth in pro 800 stock and 12th in pro 1000 improved, but didn’t place.

Dale Klingele tops shoot with perfect 25

Dale Klingele had Sunday’s only 25×25 round in the sixth round of the Yakima Valley Sportsmen’s trap club 10-week Button Shoot to capture the first men’s division button. His brother, Ed Klingele, took the second with a 23×25.

Senior division buttons went to Roger Hanna and Gene Wilmoth, the latter in a shootoff over Jim Dixson.

Yakima’s Telephonic score was 97×100, and Wilmoth took the Annie Oakley competition.

Shooting runs each Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to noon. New shooters are welcome.

BIRD ALERT

An immature rusty blackbird was reported along Marion Drain Road near Lateral C, in a large mixed flock of birds in the nearby hop fields.  The flock also held around a thousand red-winged and Brewer’s blackbirds as well as brown-headed cowbirds Eurasian starlings and a yellow-headed blackbird. Raptors spotted in this area included northern shrike, bald eagle, northern harrier, red-tailed and rough-legged hawk, prairie falcon, Cooper’s hawk and American kestrel.

Three trumpeter swans, one adult and two gray youngsters, were observed hanging out with 35 tundra swans in the marshes along Marion Drain Road. The area was also rich with other waterfowl including: a greater white-fronted goose, one cackling goose, Canada geese, northern pintail, mallard, American widgeon, green-winged teal, common mergansers, lesser scaup, and gadwall. East of U.S. Highway 97, they spotted a Eurasian widgeon in a flooded pasture within sight of the highway.

A great egret was noted flying southeast above the Yakima River, near the end of the Greenway path at Valley Mall Boulevard.  While sightings of great egret have become more frequent in the past 10 years in the Yakima Valley, they are still exciting birds to see.

A hike around Snow Mountain Ranch near Cowiche turned up a pair of great horned owls and their cousin the barred owl was spotted in the Oregon White Oaks, as well as western scrub jays, varied thrush, Lewis’ woodpeckers, a sharp-shinned hawk, northern harrier, and American kestrel.

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

— Kerry L. Turley

AROUND AND ABOUT

WHAT WINTERFEST? Winterfest 2010, which, because of a lack of snow, Skamania County Facilities and Recreation had already postponed from a previous scheduled date to this Saturday, is canceling the event because, well, there’s no snow now, either.

PIKA PROTECTION: Or lack of it, actually. The American pika, while potentially vulnerable to climate change in portions of its range, doesn’t meet the criteria for protection under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday. Of course, most of us will still go months or years between sightings, with pikas both pretty small and pretty reclusive, and they’re rarely seen below 8,000 feet elevation.

ON THE SCHEDULE

TODAY: The Cascadians’ Tuesday hikers — and with the weather of late, that’s probably what they’ll be doing, too — will get together at 8 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot and carpool to the day’s trek, which could be a ski/snowshoe deal if that’s what the trip leader has determined is the day’s best option. Come prepared for anything, and bring lunch (and plenty of water).

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies plan to do a ski/snowshoe trip to Maintenance Shed Road on White Pass. Because of the relatively long drive, the group will leave at 8:30 a.m. (instead of 9) from the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot. Participants should bring their own equipment, food, water and be prepared for the weather, and should call trip leader Marion Mann at 452-4263 in advance for a head count (and so nobody gets left behind. Clear skies might mean a magnificent look at Mount Rainier. For non-snow-lovers, an alternate trek will be a walk in Sportsman Park; for meeting time and place on that one, call Eulalie Short at 469-9906.

SATURDAY: The Cascadians’ David Hagen will leader his “Winter Walk No. 4,” another easy-intermediate to easy-advanced hike on which you can expect some steep stuff and elevation gain of 2,000 feet or so, with a stop for a leisurely lunch. Call Hagen in advance (a head count is important), then meet at 9 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot.

New Naches District concessionaire takes work personally

NACHES, Wash. — At the Hoodoo Mountain Resort he owns in central Oregon, Chuck Shepard is often the smiling, hand-shaking guy who greets people in the parking lot or the ski lodge.

No, he’s not running for office. He’s just running his business.

And now that Shepard’s Hoodoo operation is taking over as campground concessionaire for the Naches Ranger District, visitors at the campground can expect to see that same kind of personal touch from Shepard.

When visitors go online to Hoodoo’s site to check out what sites are available at campgrounds and what they have to offer, for example, every individual campsite rating — A, B or C — will have been determined by Shepard himself. Because he will have been to every one.

And when a camper wants to complain about something — poor maintenance at a campground, or a surly campground host — that e-mail won’t go to an underling, one of Shepard’s approximately 500 employees. It will go to Shepard himself.

“I’m fairly eccentric, I guess,” admitted Shepard, whose business interests include the ski area, real-estate and land-management companies and a growing campground management empire that already encompasses the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie, Willamette (Ore.) and Deschutes (Ore.) national forests.

“How would I know what changes need to be made if I don’t see the complaints and talk to people directly?” Shepard said.

“As the CEO of my companies, the most important thing I do is talk to my customers. At my ski area, I’m sort of famous for being in the parking lot and greeting people, finding out about their experience. It helps me know what’s going on.”

And if somebody is e-mailing a complaint about a campground host, Shepard says, it will be going to “somebody that will know what they’re talking about and will do something about it. Over the 10 years Hoodoo has been involved in campground management, “we’ve fired at least six hosts that started with an e-mail from a camper.”

Hoodoo bid for and won the Naches district’s five-year campground-management contract previously held by Northwest Land Management. District recreation specialist Jacqueline Beidl said campers can expect to see some price changes, but that “in most cases they’ll be a little bit lower.”

Shepard, whose company has become the largest campground concessionaire in Washington and Oregon — “by far,” he claims — said he believes in charging prices based on quality.

“Our philosophy is the campgrounds that are less popular or perhaps not as nice as some others should be priced less,” he said. “Northwest Land Management’s philosophy seemed to be that all the campgrounds should be priced pretty much the same.”

Hoodoo’s camping fees throughout the district will range from $14 to $20, with the priciest ones having either better amenities, better views or perhaps better waterfront locations. At the high end will be Indian Creek ($20) and Bumping Lake ($18-$20), while Hell’s Crossing, Soda Springs, Little Naches, Windy Point and Willows will all be on the other end of the scale at $14 each.

Last year, fees at most campsites in the Naches district were either $17 or $19.

All sites at any one campground, though, will be the same, whether Shepard has rated the site an A, B or C. NLM charged more for what are called “premium sites,” such as water-frontage sites.

The fee for a second vehicle will cost a bit more with Hoodoo — half the basic camping fee ($7 for a $14 site, for example), as opposed to the straight $5 charged by NLM. Day-use fees at campgrounds will be a flat $5 per vehicle.

Beidl said part of the reason Hoodoo’s bid was successful was the company’s wide-ranging business model, which includes a contractor’s license and the ability to make campground improvements the Forest Service might otherwise have to bid out.

“Hoodoo has demon-strated they’ve got the crews and the technological expertise to be able to do a lot of the things, and make a lot of the changes, that we’d like to see at some of these campgrounds,” Beidl said. “I think we’ll see a lot of improvements in the campgrounds over time because of that.”

Kingfishers at home near water

If you are near a quiet river or lake edged with trees and hear a loud, rattling call, look around. That sound betrays the location of a belted kingfisher.

It would be great if all birds were as easy to identify as the kingfisher. If it’s perched, you can’t miss its oversized head, its shaggy “hairdo” and dagger-shaped bill.

How to spot one: Look for it perched on a branch overlooking its favorite fishing hole, or perhaps hovering over water, using its rapidly beating wings like a helicopter.

If you have the opportunity to take a closer look, note its medium size — roughly between that of a jay and a crow — and the slate blue above and white on its belly. The male has a gray-blue band across his breast; females have two bands, blue above and rust below. It is distinctive in flight, too, with prominent white patches that flash as the bird alternates a series of slow beats with a few very rapid downbeats, as if changing gears.

Where and when: Kingfishers reside along slow moving creeks, rivers, sloughs or lakes, where they spend much of their time peering down into the water looking for fish. Good places to look for kingfishers near Yakima include ponds and sloughs along the Helen Jewett Pathway along the South Greenway, and along sloughs in Yakima Sportsman State Park. Winter freeze-up forces many kingfishers to migrate south. A few, however, seem to find enough open water to survive through the winter here.

Diet: Kingfishers are well-named as they eat mostly small fish, up to 5 inches long. When a kingfisher sights a fish, it dives head-first into the water and stabs its prey. They also tackle frogs, tadpoles, aquatic bugs and crayfish. They occasionally eat small mammals and birds, even lizards.

Social life: Male kingfishers court their chosen mate by bringing fish and feeding her. After this brief dating scene, the birds select a nest site on the side of a steep dirt bank, more sandy than clay. Vertical sides of irrigation canals are a favorite spot in the Yakima Valley.

Both sexes dig a long tunnel, sloping slightly upwards with a chamber at the end. They build no nest but the female simply lays six or seven white eggs on the dirt. Incubation for 22 or so days is by female at night. The male takes over early in the morning and continues to incubate off and on during the day.

Both parents feed the young, at first by regurgitating partially digested fish into their mouths. Later, the young are fed whole fish. The male usually brings in more food than the female. The young leave the nest after 27 to 29 days.

What you may not know: Worldwide, there are 90 species of kingfishers, many of them in Asia, Africa, and Australia. Many are land birds, feeding on rodents, retiles, or insects. The laughing kookaburra, a famous Australian bird, is actually one of the largest of the world’s kingfishers. This woodland bird is well-named; its wild call sounds like a human laughing.

• Wildlife Moment, focusing on native wildlife, typically runs in Outdoors on the first Tuesday of every month, with the cooperation of the Yakima Valley Audubon Society.

Onset of spring makes this outdoorsman’s heart flutter

There is an old saying about spring and how a young man’s thoughts turn to love during that time of the year. I can’t find any adage, though, about how in the middle of winter a man, no matter how young or old, will turn his thoughts to spring and all that might come with it. But it happens. I am living proof.

Over the past few days, my thoughts have turned to warmer temperatures and all that the springtime months offer in the outdoors, and I know this feeling of yearning will only get stronger — especially this year.

Love even has a small part in all of this, for over the years I have grown to love spring turkey hunting and spring salmon fishing more than just about anything else I do all year.

I have to admit, when I was a young man other kinds of love played a part in all of my activities — and it didn’t matter what time of the year it was, quite frankly. During the courtship of my wife, which was a lengthy five-year period, I missed many a fishing and hunting trip for activities such as dances and dates.

But now, after 32 years of marriage, our schedules and our interests meld together quite nicely, and I can turn to thoughts of strutting gobblers and hard-fighting salmon without worrying too much about upsetting other commitments.

Both of these seasons are still weeks or even months away, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be thinking about them, anticipating them, getting ready for them.

Over the past seven or eight years, turkeys — and the pursuit thereof — have become more and more of a priority with me. Once you have finally buffaloed one of these crafty critters, there grows a passion to do it over and over again. If it were easy, that passion would be void. But it is not easy. With turkeys it is rarely easy. The challenge is what creates the fire.

Throwing gas on that fire is knowing there seems to be even more turkeys around this year, and with the mild winter, the birds should have come through in good shape.

My son Kyle, friend Rob Robillard and I hunted turkeys in December during the late fall season up in Stevens County, and the birds were everywhere. They’ll be there come the April 15 opener. Or, at least, that is every turkey hunter’s hope.

The chance to chase spring salmon will come sooner than the turkey season. In fact, it is about this time every year the first of the spring salmon are caught in the lower Columbia River.

The best fishing, however, won’t be for another month or more, in the Columbia below Bonneville Dam. Then, as the fish move upstream to the popular fishing holes such as the Wind and Drano and the Klickitat, it may be late April or even May before the fishing gets red hot.

And it is even looking good for another season on the Yakima River, which most likely wouldn’t be until May. Depending on spring runoff and other factors, could this be the spring we get more than just a week or two of good salmon fishing on the Yakima?

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Of course, with a near-record run of spring chinook salmon forecast for the Columbia and tributaries, it makes it easy to start dreaming about the days of fishing ahead.

With some 470,000 chinook headed up the river, it leads a person to believe he has a better-than-average chance of catching one or two of these prized fish to take home for the barbecue.

Not only is it the thrill of catching one of these fantastic fish, it is the anticipation of eating what is arguably the best eating salmon in the world.

There are still six weeks of winter to get through, but no matter what some oversized gopher in Pennsylvania predicts today, spring — and all of the opportunities it brings — is definitely on my mind. It can’t get here soon enough, if you ask me.

• Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.

WDFW on lookout for elk poachers

The latest in a series of elk-poaching incidents near the Clover Springs elk feeding site has Washington

Department of Fish and Wildlife enforcement officials looking for assistance.

Do you know someone who has recently come home with, begun showing around or started bragging about a fresh new set of what are probably some pretty big elk antlers?

On the night of Sunday, Jan. 23, someone shot and killed a large bull elk near the Clover Springs site, which is along Clover Springs (1600) Road off Nile Loop Road.

The bull must have been a pretty impressive rack of antlers, too, because the poachers simply chain-sawed the antlers off, took them and left the body lying there.

WDFW enforcement Capt. Rich Mann said WDFW staffers or volunteers were at the site until 4:30 p.m. that day, so the poaching must have taken place sometime after that. Snow that night also covered all of the vehicle tracks.

Typically, poaching around any feed site is reported by people in the area, Mann said.

“The locals kind of watch the area, but nobody happened to see that one. We’ve had really good support, but on this one we don’t have anything on it.”

Anyone with any information is asked to call the state’s confidential poaching hotline at 1-877-WDFW-TIP (877-933-9847), or the regional WDFW enforcement office at 509-457-9315.

Clover Springs is just one of a half-dozen places in which volunteers with the WDFW provide winter feed to help the animals through the coldest months of the year.

In two different poaching incidents on Jan. 16 and a third on Jan. 23, nearby residents or passersby reported the violations, and Mann expects the county to file charges in each case.

In another case in December, a Yakima man killed a large, 7-by-7 branch-antlered bull in the Cowiche Mountain area, and prosecutors are expecting to file charges on that one as well.

The Clover Springs site has endured a higher incidence of poaching, Mann said, because it’s more remote than some of the other feed-site areas around Central Washington.

“If you compare it to our other feeding sites, it’s out of the way. It doesn’t have a lot of public around it,” Mann said. “(The main feed lot at) Oak Creek is extremely visible. If somebody went in and shot an animal there, the public would probably mob them.”

2/2/10 What’s Happening

CWU outdoor speaker series set this month

This month’s annual Outdoor Speaker Series put on by the Central Washington University Outdoor Pursuits and Rentals will feature Thursday-evening lectures and presentations from Northwest adventurers.

Rob Gibson of the Washington State Department of Transportation will open the series this Thursday with a presentation on “the four-legged friends who patrol Alpental’s backcountry” — the dogs that assist in search-and-rescue missions in the Alpental valley north of Snoqualmie Pass. (Some of the rescue dogs will be on hand, and attendees will receive complimentary gift collars.)

The following Thursday (Feb. 11) will feature a presentation on bicycle-touring the Pacific Coast and Europe by CWU student (and Outdoor Pursuits employee) Kurt McCanles, whose bike trip last summer included much of the West Coast and 13 European countries.

On Feb. 18, another OPR employee and CWU student, Conor Byrne, will discuss the history of climbing on Alaska’s Denali (Mount McKinley), and Byrne’s summit attempt last summer by way of the Muldrow Glacier route, one of the world’s longest summit routes.

On Feb. 25, mountain climbers Jens Holsten and Max Hasson will discuss free-climbing in the Stuart Range, where the two were among the first climbers to scale the west face of the North Gunsight peak completely “free” — that is, without the use of ropes.

For more information on the series, call 509-963-3537 or e-mail outdoorpursuits@cwu.edu.

All events begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Student Union and Recreation Center, room 137B, and are free and open to the public.

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Sportfishing rules go before commission

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider adopting the 2010-12 package of sportfishing rules and making updates to the Columbia River sturgeon management policy during its meeting Friday and Saturday at Olympia’s Natural Resources Building.

More than 100 sportfishing rules, all developed with public input and discussed at the commission’s November and December meetings, will be up for adoption. They range from a set of protective measures for rockfish to a new harvest schedule and daily bag limit for Dungeness crab in Puget Sound. Among them: a requirement for the use of single-point, barbless hooks for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River from the mouth to McNary Dam.

For more details on the rules package, go online to: wdfw.wa.gov/fish/regs/rule_proposals .

The commission will also  consider updates to its policy managing the Columbia River sturgeon population, with white sturgeon declining in numbers and this year’s mainstem harvest already having been cut by 20 to 50 percent.

The commission also is scheduled to discuss the Columbia River spring chinook management policy in light of the 2010 fishing season. Although this year’s upriver spring chinook run is expected to be one of the strongest on record, a recent negotiated agreement requires the states of Washington and Oregon to take additional steps to ensure that catch-balancing objectives for tribal and non-tribal fisheries are achieved.

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Blankenship, Turnbull top Button shooters

D.J. Blankenship and Jim Turnbull captured the men’s division’s two buttons in a four-man shootoff that included Sean Dailey and Dale Klingele in Sunday’s fifth round of the Yakima Valley Sportsmen trap club Button Shoot at the Pomona range.

Bob Gray had the 25×25 round to take the first button in the senior division, with Dennis Martinen hitting 24 for the second button. Sarah Boyle of White Swan topped the juniors.

Bob Gray’s 25 helped Yakima to a 97×100 on the Telephonic competition, with nine shooters turning in 24×25 rounds. Ken Smith and James Klingele split the Annie Oakley pot, while Rick White took the long-shot jackpot.

Shooting starts every Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

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BIRD ALERT

An afternoon bird walk — with a focus on Buchanan Lake as a waterfowl night roost — produced some interesting birds, including a male lesser scaup escorting three females at the concert pond on the Zirkle Pathway.

On Buchanan Lake, the walkers noted 80 common goldeneyes, close to 300 Canada geese, mallards, a few wood ducks and American wigeon. Along the Greenway adjacent to the Arboretum was a western screech owl and a varied thrush. A white-throated sparrow danced back into view and provided great looks as it foraged for a minute or so in an open area along the Poppoff trail.

A late afternoon hike up a steep track from the Yakima Canyon put one local birder above the din of traffic and in company with eagles. First noted was a lone adult bald eagle across the Yakima River on the west side of the river. Next came a pair of golden eagles cavorting in the air currents.

Moments later two pairs of bald eagles played in the wind at eye level, far out over the canyon. Higher up the track, gray-crowned rosy and horned larks could be heard calling overhead. On the hiking descent, a canyon wren sang its lovely pure-tone chant from the cliffs across the river.

A tour of the Horse Heaven hills gave proof spring isn’t far off, with western meadowlarks singing in the grasslands and the sighting of two male mountain bluebirds. Also spotted were Townsend’s solitaire, red-tailed hawk, rough-legged hawk, American kestrel, great-horned owl and northern shrike.

Please call your bird sightings into the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 509-248-1963

— Kerry L. Turley

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AROUND AND ABOUT

WINTER LOGGING: Winter logging operations are underway in the Wildcat area off of Forest Service Road 1306, which will be cleared to its junction with the 1362 road. Users should pay particular attention to signs and truck traffic especially during mid-week.

Forest Service Road 1702 is open to four-wheeled traffic. Due to ongoing logging operations, the Rock Creek Sno-Park has been moved to the upper Sno-Park location. The 1701 road is open to motorized vehicles, but  anyone driving this road should pay attention to logging truck traffic.

WHERE TO SNOWMOBILE? According to the law-enforcement folks who work the high country, as well as local businesses and groomers, the best snowmobiling right now is in the Pinegrass area south of Rimrock, and Timberwolf north of Rimrock. The South Fork Tieton (1000) Road is beginning to show asphalt along the lower portions. The Little Naches has had more snow disappearing that falling, while Government Meadows conditions has decent snow that’s steadily deteriorating.

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ON THE CALENDAR

TODAY: The Cascadians’ hardy Tuesday group will meet at 8 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot and head out to whatever ski, snowshoe or hike the trip leader has planned. Pack a lunch, bring lots of water and be prepared for anything.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies, in a change from the club’s newsletter, will hike on Oak Creek Road. For meeting time and place, call Norb John at 509-697-5641.

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