Published: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Changes to be made after elk fiasco
The ugly little Skagit Valley elk “hunt” fiasco over the weekend shouldn’t have happened. It was an accident of place and timing as much as anything else, but there are broader issues involved than just the greed of a few bowhunters and the mismanagement of a legitimate damage-control hunt.
If you missed the coverage, an archery-only special elk season was scheduled by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in a bottomland unit along the upper Skagit River, in the Cape Horn-Pressentine Creek area about five miles west of Concrete. It was viewed by the agency’s game management people as a way to reduce the size of a small band of elk damaging crops and fencing in the area and/or to harass the animals out of the river bottom by having hunters afield.
Unfortunately, the band of several dozen elk were spotted “penned” in fenced pasture adjacent to busy Highway 20, word got around quickly, and the gut-wrenching circus was on.
It was brutal. It was inhumane. There was no control over the shooters who, although sickeningly unethical, were completely legal in their attempts to kill an elk. Reports in the Skagit Valley Herald told of panicked, wounded animals running back and forth, getting tangled in fences, as the arrows kept singing. Motorists stopped to watch the spectacle. Experienced, ethical hunters turned disgusted eyes away. Eventually, seven animals were harvested and carted off, as the rest of the band escaped to nearby forestland.
The slaughter quickly reached the Web and became a high-profile happening overnight — the type of thing that anti-hunters and animal-rights activists jump all over.
State big game manager Dave Ware in Olympia admitted the hunt got out of control, stopped it, and said there would be changes in the program.
But, he said, the history of that type of elk management in the area is generally a pretty good one.
“We’ve attempted to keep elk out of the agricultural lands along the river bottom for several years now, using special hunts for archers and/or muzzleloaders,” Ware said, “and with pretty good success. We decided to go with archery-only this year, but using the general bowhunting public, in an area of increasing development, was a mistake.”
Many people are unaware that, under state law, the department is liable for damage done to agricultural crops by wildlife. In a time of severe budget shortfalls, that can be a major management consideration.
“We have the same problem all around the state,” Ware said. “In the Cowlitz River bottoms, along the Chehalis River, over at Sequim, several places around Ellensburg, along the Tucannon, and on and on.”
Add bear to that. Add cougar. Add. ...
There are three major considerations to hunting and/or harassing elk out of agricultural areas, Ware said. The move prevents crop damage, promote healthy herd management, and cut down on the chances of negative interaction between the state’s wildlife and an ever-increasing human population, such as elk-automobile collisions, of which there have been several recently on Highway 20.
One state employee was quoted in the Skagit Valley Herald article as saying he thought augmenting the Nooksack herd the last couple of years with surplus elk from the Mount St. Helens area was a mistake.
No way, Ware said.
“We plan to continue the transfer program,” he said. “We were aware from the start that there would be small bands which would create problems. Elk tend to drift down out of the timber and take up residence where the living is easier and, while the public hunt in this instance will apparently no longer work, the concept has been a valuable tool in other areas around the state where human encroachment has been occurring.”
He said the department is considering the future use of members of its “Master Hunter” program, in limited numbers and in limited situations, to work with landowners in the area.
“The Master Hunters are trained, they’re ethical, and they’re on call,” Ware said. “They make up a more controllable, more surgical, strike force.”
DERBY CANCELED
In a release just before Christmas, organizers of the 33-year old Discovery Bay Salmon Derby said the event — normally held on Presidents’ Day weekend in February — has been canceled. A legal conflict over rights to the derby was given as the reason for the cancellation. The conflict was the result of a change in service area of the sponsoring volunteer fire department.
The event was billed as the oldest salmon derby in the state, and was one stop on the Northwest Salmon Derby Series, sponsored by the Northwest Marine Trade Association. It was affectionately known by its devotees as the “Ironman Derby,” because of the lousy weather conditions often found along the Strait on derby days.
Organizers sold more than 800 tickets last year, which was a record, and had planned to offer a first prize of $5,000 in 2010. No one offered an opinion on whether or not the derby has a future.
UPPER COLUMBIA FISHING
Guide and Brewster resident Rod Hammons said there are still good numbers of summer steelhead available on the main-stem Columbia, but that colder water temperatures have made fishing tougher. Pressure also has increased, as the Okanogan and Methow rivers are frozen. Guide and Chelan resident Anton Jones suggested quarter-ounce Mack’s Rock Dancer jigs with purple shrimp, under a float.
Hammons said that while there aren’t a lot of triploid rainbow being taken on Rufus Woods Reservoir, above Chief Joseph Dam, there are some very nice fish in the 7- to 9-pound class in the catch. Marabou jigs, either from shore or boat, would be a good lure choice.
LOCAL BLACKMOUTH
A pretty fair winter blackmouth season continues in Marine Areas 7, 8-1 and 8-2, with checks at the Port of Everett ramp Saturday showing 49 anglers with nine fish and, on Sunday, 51 with four. Up north, 23 fishermen checked at the Camano State Park ramp on Saturday had five blackmouth, while 39 rods at the Washington Park ramp west of Anacortes on Sunday had seven.
COHO COMEBACK
Record returns of coho to the middle and upper Columbia River this year signal the comeback of fish that 20 years ago were virtually extinct in upriver tributaries. Re-introduction programs funded in part by the Bonneville Power Administration, combined with restored habitat, improved dam passage and positive ocean conditions, brought unrivaled numbers of silvers back to the rivers and streams, according to recently concluded annual counts.
Ten years ago, just 12 adult coho climbed Rock Island Dam near Wenatchee. This year, 19,805 fish passed the dam.
Biologists began rebuilding the upriver runs in the 1990s with hatchery-bred fish from the lower Columbia, since no local coho adapted to the upper river were left. Some wondered whether lower-river fish, after many generations in hatcheries, could rebuild runs that would have to migrate hundreds of miles farther up the Columbia.
Irrigation diversions and development wiped out some 90 percent of native coho from the middle and upper Columbia during the late 1800s. A remnant population hung on, but largely vanished by 1980. Upriver coho did not receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, since none were left to protect.
If you missed the coverage, an archery-only special elk season was scheduled by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in a bottomland unit along the upper Skagit River, in the Cape Horn-Pressentine Creek area about five miles west of Concrete. It was viewed by the agency’s game management people as a way to reduce the size of a small band of elk damaging crops and fencing in the area and/or to harass the animals out of the river bottom by having hunters afield.
Unfortunately, the band of several dozen elk were spotted “penned” in fenced pasture adjacent to busy Highway 20, word got around quickly, and the gut-wrenching circus was on.
It was brutal. It was inhumane. There was no control over the shooters who, although sickeningly unethical, were completely legal in their attempts to kill an elk. Reports in the Skagit Valley Herald told of panicked, wounded animals running back and forth, getting tangled in fences, as the arrows kept singing. Motorists stopped to watch the spectacle. Experienced, ethical hunters turned disgusted eyes away. Eventually, seven animals were harvested and carted off, as the rest of the band escaped to nearby forestland.
The slaughter quickly reached the Web and became a high-profile happening overnight — the type of thing that anti-hunters and animal-rights activists jump all over.
State big game manager Dave Ware in Olympia admitted the hunt got out of control, stopped it, and said there would be changes in the program.
But, he said, the history of that type of elk management in the area is generally a pretty good one.
“We’ve attempted to keep elk out of the agricultural lands along the river bottom for several years now, using special hunts for archers and/or muzzleloaders,” Ware said, “and with pretty good success. We decided to go with archery-only this year, but using the general bowhunting public, in an area of increasing development, was a mistake.”
Many people are unaware that, under state law, the department is liable for damage done to agricultural crops by wildlife. In a time of severe budget shortfalls, that can be a major management consideration.
“We have the same problem all around the state,” Ware said. “In the Cowlitz River bottoms, along the Chehalis River, over at Sequim, several places around Ellensburg, along the Tucannon, and on and on.”
Add bear to that. Add cougar. Add. ...
There are three major considerations to hunting and/or harassing elk out of agricultural areas, Ware said. The move prevents crop damage, promote healthy herd management, and cut down on the chances of negative interaction between the state’s wildlife and an ever-increasing human population, such as elk-automobile collisions, of which there have been several recently on Highway 20.
One state employee was quoted in the Skagit Valley Herald article as saying he thought augmenting the Nooksack herd the last couple of years with surplus elk from the Mount St. Helens area was a mistake.
No way, Ware said.
“We plan to continue the transfer program,” he said. “We were aware from the start that there would be small bands which would create problems. Elk tend to drift down out of the timber and take up residence where the living is easier and, while the public hunt in this instance will apparently no longer work, the concept has been a valuable tool in other areas around the state where human encroachment has been occurring.”
He said the department is considering the future use of members of its “Master Hunter” program, in limited numbers and in limited situations, to work with landowners in the area.
“The Master Hunters are trained, they’re ethical, and they’re on call,” Ware said. “They make up a more controllable, more surgical, strike force.”
DERBY CANCELED
In a release just before Christmas, organizers of the 33-year old Discovery Bay Salmon Derby said the event — normally held on Presidents’ Day weekend in February — has been canceled. A legal conflict over rights to the derby was given as the reason for the cancellation. The conflict was the result of a change in service area of the sponsoring volunteer fire department.
The event was billed as the oldest salmon derby in the state, and was one stop on the Northwest Salmon Derby Series, sponsored by the Northwest Marine Trade Association. It was affectionately known by its devotees as the “Ironman Derby,” because of the lousy weather conditions often found along the Strait on derby days.
Organizers sold more than 800 tickets last year, which was a record, and had planned to offer a first prize of $5,000 in 2010. No one offered an opinion on whether or not the derby has a future.
UPPER COLUMBIA FISHING
Guide and Brewster resident Rod Hammons said there are still good numbers of summer steelhead available on the main-stem Columbia, but that colder water temperatures have made fishing tougher. Pressure also has increased, as the Okanogan and Methow rivers are frozen. Guide and Chelan resident Anton Jones suggested quarter-ounce Mack’s Rock Dancer jigs with purple shrimp, under a float.
Hammons said that while there aren’t a lot of triploid rainbow being taken on Rufus Woods Reservoir, above Chief Joseph Dam, there are some very nice fish in the 7- to 9-pound class in the catch. Marabou jigs, either from shore or boat, would be a good lure choice.
LOCAL BLACKMOUTH
A pretty fair winter blackmouth season continues in Marine Areas 7, 8-1 and 8-2, with checks at the Port of Everett ramp Saturday showing 49 anglers with nine fish and, on Sunday, 51 with four. Up north, 23 fishermen checked at the Camano State Park ramp on Saturday had five blackmouth, while 39 rods at the Washington Park ramp west of Anacortes on Sunday had seven.
COHO COMEBACK
Record returns of coho to the middle and upper Columbia River this year signal the comeback of fish that 20 years ago were virtually extinct in upriver tributaries. Re-introduction programs funded in part by the Bonneville Power Administration, combined with restored habitat, improved dam passage and positive ocean conditions, brought unrivaled numbers of silvers back to the rivers and streams, according to recently concluded annual counts.
Ten years ago, just 12 adult coho climbed Rock Island Dam near Wenatchee. This year, 19,805 fish passed the dam.
Biologists began rebuilding the upriver runs in the 1990s with hatchery-bred fish from the lower Columbia, since no local coho adapted to the upper river were left. Some wondered whether lower-river fish, after many generations in hatcheries, could rebuild runs that would have to migrate hundreds of miles farther up the Columbia.
Irrigation diversions and development wiped out some 90 percent of native coho from the middle and upper Columbia during the late 1800s. A remnant population hung on, but largely vanished by 1980. Upriver coho did not receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, since none were left to protect.
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