Wetlands With Water: What A Deal

From California to Montana, most of the West is flush with water for the first time in nearly 10 years.

Jerry Hickman, a state biologist doing bird research in Lincoln County, said he counted 41 wetlands with standing water on a survey route last May. This year he counted 103 on the same route.

Short-term products of this shift toward normalcy include more wildflowers - and more mosquitoes.

From Riverside State Park to the Idaho Selkirks, skeeters are reclaiming territory. Rangers are being called to break up fisticuffs only to learn that campers were simply teaming up to minimize blood loss from mosquitoes.

The delicate mosquito can be squashed under the weight of a quarter. But by the end of a weekend campout, bruised outdoorsmen are slapping them with enough force to crush bones.

Mosquitoes, however, are indicators that a long drought has subsided. They are harbingers of good things to come.

More water spells a reprieve from dramatic declines in ducks and fish. It means more grass on the range, which will translate into healthier deer and elk and more cover for pheasants and huns.

Put on a long-sleeve shirt and smile.

Zap the zapper: Research on electronic insect zappers has found them useless, except as an aggravating amusement.

The lights tend to attract male mosquitoes and zap them into flames, researchers said. Unfortunately, it’s the females that bite.

Green alternative: Bugged by flying insects? Build a few nest boxes for swallows.

Within a day after giving one to my neighbor this spring, swallows were checking it out. Now we have at least four families of violet-greens tirelessly patrolling our premises and snarfing enormous quantities of skeeters.

Plans with specific dimensions for swallow boxes are available from the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department, 456-4082.

Tick talk: A reader called sounding perturbed that I hadn’t written anything about this spring’s bounty of ticks or methods for removing them from people and animals. In case you also missed it, check out the March 12 issue of the Sunday Outdoors & Travel section.

Helen back: Several readers have condemned me for suggesting that Rep. Helen Chenowith of Idaho is a stupid, right-wing wacko. This is unfair. I’ve never said she was stupid.

If you don’t like my opinion of Rep. Chenowith’s anti-environmental, antiwildlife politics, that’s your right.

But don’t condemn The Spokesman-Review. After all, this newspaper endorsed her in the November election, a point the conservative talk shows routinely ignore.

Mount Spokane progress: The Washington legislature approved $100,000 in matching money to develop a desperately needed master plan for recreational use at Mount Spokane State Park. Now it’s up to locals to raise their share. Stay tuned.

Wildlife victory: Good news for wildlife was hard to find in the 1995 Washington Legislature, except that most of the extremist bills died.

But at 11:15 p.m. on May 23, the House approved a sportsmen-backed measure that could ultimately depoliticize the Fish and Wildlife Department and put wildlife management ahead of public relations as a department priority.

Because of the House action, Washington voters will get a chance on the November ballot to restore the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s authority to appoint the state wildlife director. This is the job the commission was established to do by referendum in 1933.

Kudos go to relentless lobbying by Pierce and King county sportsmen’s groups as well as to Rep. Steve Fuhrman, R-Kettle Falls, who made the bill a priority.

However, Sen. Dean Sutherland, D-Vancouver, was the key to passing the measure by breaking ranks with loyal Lowry democrats to allow passage.

“Sutherland is going to take a lot of heat for that,” said John Kelly of the King County Outdoor Sports Council. “He’ll need a lot of support from sportsmen.”

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review