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Southwest Washington Wildlife Reports
Brian Calkins, Acting Wildlife Program Manager

July 17, 2006

Region 5 Wildlife Areas:

Cowlitz Wildlife Area - Timber Cutting Trespass: Wildlife area staff members Morris, Vanderlip, Grabski, and Tacoma Power Lands Officer Wilson conducted an inventory of trees cut on the Mayfield Lake buffer by a local landowner. This is the third such incident this year on the wildlife area where usually landowners try to cut some trees to increase their view, but this trespass included commercial logging. First estimates include well over 100 trees cut with log diameters of Douglas Fir, Red Alder, and Big-leaf Maple between 8 to 46 inch diameters. Further paperwork including field reports, statements, and a professional timber appraisal will be turned over to enforcement for action.

Cowlitz Wildlife Area - Peterman Trail Construction: Assistant Manager Vanderlip has worked closely with Tacoma Power and the contractor who is building the trail to ensure that minimal resource damage occurs. The trail is a FERC license requirement for Tacoma Power but the staff of the Cowlitz Wildlife Area has consulted with Tacoma Power throughout the entire process. The main objective from our standpoint was to assist in planning the location of the trail to ensure that the public would have an aesthetically appealing trail with limited impacts on wildlife and other resources. The trail and the trailhead infrastructure (i.e. parking area, bathroom, hitching rail and information kiosk) should be completed by the end of August. This looks like it will be a good trail to have a great watchable wildlife experience as the amount of wildlife using the trail can be described as intense in many places.

Recreation Information - Riffe Lake Water Levels: Tacoma Power updates lake levels and other recreation information on its toll-free Fishing and Recreation Line every weekday at 1-888-502-8690.

Mt. St. Helens Wildlife Area, Toutle River Enhancement Funding Proposal: Acting Program Manager Calkins has submitted a proposal to the Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation to fund work to protect important elk habitat and enhance riparian and floodplain conditons on the Mt. St. Helens State Wildlife Area. The project concept is to place man-made logjams and plantings along the erosion prone edge of the mudflow to lessen the risk of catastrophic erosion as well as increase habitat diversity on the site. During the preparation of the proposal Calkins heard support from the Cowlitz Tribe and The Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board who has written a letter in support of the project.

Wildlife Diversity Division:

Western Pond Turtles: WDFW is currently submitting a proposal to extend funding for WPT conservation in the Columbia River Gorge. This proposal will continue existing funding provided by The Bonneville Power Administration. As part of the review process, Biologist Anderson completed his response to BPA questions on future funding of the WPT project. Current funding will continue until October of this year at which time BPA will determine if funding for further work for an additional five years is warranted.

Game Division:

Adult Total Dark Adult Light Adult Female 32 9 41 Male 29 5 34 Total 61 14 75

Lower Columbia River Resident Canada Goose Banding

Lower Columbia River Resident Canada Goose Banding: Last week's goose banding effort on the Lower Columbia River resident Canada geese was a very successful effort. Of the 150 birds handled, 131 were new captures for this year and 19 birds were re-captures. Of the 19 re-captured birds, 16 had been originally handled in 2003-2005. Two females with evidence of brooding chicks had been originally caught in 2001, and one bird was originally captured in the late 1990's.

The 131 new captures consisted of 75 adult birds and 56 of this years' young. Neck collars were placed on 76 birds, since some of the young of the year were large enough to hold a neck collar. These neck collars help to distinguish Washington's resident geese that have a darker breast color and are similar in appearance to Alaska's Dusky Canada Geese. Close monitoring of these darker local birds over the past 4 years have given us a better time window to target these darker birds for banding.

The Yacolt Burn Sportsman's Club: Biologist Holman gave a presentation to 19 members of the Yacolt Burn Sportsman's Club. Topics presented and discussed included the changes in effect for the 2006-08 3-year big-game hunting seasons, the Group's voluntary help with annual deer productivity surveys, the Group's continued agreement with Weyerhaeuser to facilitate tree farm access for hunting, and the Mt. St. Helens Elk Herd Plan. Comments regarding various aspects of the Elk Herd Plan were solicited and for the most part, they agreed with the proposals in question.

The Yacolt Burn Sportsman's Club has been important in Clark County for several years. The group assures access to an important and large portion Weyerhaeuser's South St. Helens Tree Farm. The area is known to the locals as "The Burn", referencing the 1902 fire that burned many thousands of acres. The Sportsman's Club opens and closes the access gate daily during the modern firearm and muzzleloader seasons, allowing access for hundreds of hunters. The group also assists Weyco with security patrols, posts informational material, etc. Group President Dick Soderlind and Vice President Art Palmer deserve special credit and thanks for their effort to maintain public access to private lands for hunting.