Field Reports

WILDERNESS

Junipers taking over

Seventy-five years ago, about 1.5 million acres of eastern Oregon was covered in Western juniper. Now the plant has sprawled to 6.5 million acres, or about 10 percent of the state’s surface – and it is spreading fast.

A new survey by the U.S. Forest Service shows junipers taking over grassland, a trend that’s alarmed biologists who see it as a threat to native habitats.

“Some juniper is a good thing,” said Rick Miller, a professor at Oregon State University. “But you can have too much of a good thing.”

Junipers send their roots deep beneath the surface, soaking up water before it reaches other plants.

“Eventually as they dominate, then you lose the shrubs, the grass and then you get bare ground,” Miller said. Water runs off, gullying the landscape. Wildlife suffers from the loss of food on the open range.

Ranchers talk of springs running dry when junipers take root.

“After you cut it, springs start running,” said Steve Lent, a former fire management officer with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. “If you burn it, water starts showing up everywhere. All of a sudden you see grass growing.”

Usually, the presence of humans puts strain on the natural world, causing species like the salmon and the spotted owl to veer toward extinction. But in the case of the juniper, people helped it spread by fighting wildfires that naturally would have controlled its growth.

Scientists also say that growing levels of carbon dioxide in the air may be helping junipers spread, acting as an invisible fertilizer.

Associated Press

CROSS COUNTRY SKIING

Clinic on technique

Master skier Dick Kendall will present two clinics on intermediate to advanced cross country skiing techniques Saturday at the new trail system at 49 Degrees North. A classic clinic will start at 10 a.m. followed by a skate clinic at 1:30 p.m.

Kendall, director of the White Pass Nordic Center for 25 years, is a former world class competitor who worked with many of today’s top skiers in Olympic team development.

The clinic is organized by Spokane Parks and Recreation Department. Cost is $15 for one clinic or $25 for both. Pre-register by calling 625-6246.

RichLanders

RIVER RUNNING

Apply for coveted permits

The deadline to apply for the limited number of float permits for the Selway, Salmon, and Snake Rivers is Jan. 31. One-stop shopping for “four rivers lottery” details and applications is on the Web at www.fs.fed.us/r4/sc/ recreation/4rivers.

Further information is available as follows:

Selway – U.S. Forest Service, West Fork Ranger District, 6735 West Fork Rd., Darby, MT 59829, telephone (406) 821-3269.

Main Salmon – U.S. Forest Service, North Fork Ranger District, P.O. Box 180, North Fork, ID 83466, telephone (208) 865-2383.

Middle Fork Salmon – U.S. Forest Service, P.O. Box 750, Challis, ID 83226, telephone (208) 879-4321

Snake – Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, P.O. Box 699, Clarkston, WA 99403, telephone (509) 758-1957.

“The deadline for Montana’s Smith River is Feb. 15. To apply, go to www.fwp.mt.gov on the Parks & Recreation page under Hot Topics.

Rich Landers

HUNTING

Turkey group gets grant

The Washington State Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation recently received a $1,828 grant from the Fred Meyer Foundation for a youth hunting education program for kids ages 5-17.

The money will be used for a program called JAKES – Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship, said chapter spokeswoman Carrie McKinley.

In addition to local chapter youth programs, the Washington group is planning its first all-state JAKES Jamboree in Monroe on June 10.

Info: Kevin Vaughn, state youth coordinator, (360) 829-0424 or e-mail jakes@tx3.com.

Rich Landers

FISHING

BC lodges sold

The largest operator of remote luxury fishing lodges in British Columbia has been sold by founder S. Michael Coe of Seattle to Oregon investor Larry Olsen.

West Coast Resorts, founded in 1994, has two lodges in the Queen Charlotte Islands, two on the central coast and one inland in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park with 20 full-time and 120 peak-season employees.

The Vancouver Island-based company has grown from 250 guests in 1995, its first year of operation, to more than 4,000 visitors in 2005.

Associated Press

URBAN WILDLIFE

Boise beavers abound

Boise residents like nature, but not too much of it in their backyards.

Since 1991, the Boise Department of Parks and Recreation has trapped, moved, spayed or killed beavers along the Greenbelt, a popular trail that follows the Boise River through town.

In a recent report, officials said the department killed only seven beavers in the past two years. That compares to 87 relocated, spayed or killed in 1998, following a year in which the department did no beaver control.

“We have issues with trees falling over on Greenbelt users, and the (downed trees) create snags for floaters,” Tom Governale, Boise superintendent of Park Resource, told The Idaho Statesman.

Beavers caused some areas of the Greenbelt to lose up to 80 percent of their tree canopies in 1997, according to the report. That year the department didn’t control the beaver population, a program that costs $4,800 annually.

But some Boise residents would just as soon the beavers be left alone.

“They’re wonderful animals,” said Leslie Barringer, who took care of injured and abandoned beavers for for Animals in Distress and who calls the Boise program “horrible.”

Governale said the department isn’t out to eliminate beavers, but said the Boise River has been altered by humans since the 1800s and now needs human management.

Associated Press

BIG GAME

Park elk need thinning

Officials at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota are developing a plan to kill hundreds of elk in order to get the park’s herd to a manageable size.

A plan is due out next summer.

To prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease, states have imposed an elk-shipping moratorium that prevents park officials from thinning the herd of 750 animals by rounding them up and trucking them to other parks.

So far, there isn’t any known chronic wasting disease in North Dakota deer or elk.

Officials say they might kill up to 400 elk, but proposals to open the park to public hunting, which sparked considerable interest a year ago, is not part of the current plan.

Public hunting is illegal in national parks, park superintendent Valerie Naylor said. That would require a change in federal law and would set a precedent for every other national park, she said.

Options for killing the elk include hiring sharpshooters, rounding up the animals into pens, or killing them as beef cattle are slaughtered.

The park would find groups or individuals to take the meat.

Associated Press