Whispering trees and loose lipped leaves send mixed signals in the night. A witching hour stumble kicks rocks and sends a foghead farmer stumbling. Flat-backed and defeated, wipes dust from red eyes and sees stars. A overfull sky, cloudless at long last and more magnificent that memory serves to recall.
Flickering hope diamonds cast haphazard at every angle and set against an octopus ink abyss. Witness random perfection. Time and space converging at the speed of light in a boundless vacuum so that everything seems perfectly still. The overabundance of silence compounds to fill the infinite void with an inexplicable lion’s roar.
A superfluous satellite zips across Orion’s belt casting rattlecan graffiti over an unframed masterpiece hung from a nail on high. The emptiness is streaked with chariots of fire cosmic dust trails. Lingering evidence not of mistakes, but of happy accidents. Slap the offscreen easel and make splatter marks spray. Beat the devil out of it and cast droplets on the hangdog cameraman.
Soon, daylight peaks north of the mountain and turns inkblot skies invisible. Stars disappear one by one before observant eyes. A silver spoon moon casts a longing last glance over mist blanketed valleys where busy faces no longer look her way. A rising sun burns melon-burst hughes onto a blank canvas. The big white mountain turns into a lemon, cherry, orange snow cone. Extra syrup, please.
Soon extra sweet songbirds take to the morning dew air and create a chattering chorus emerging mysteriously from dancing saggy branch bushes. In the daytime the trail is easy to follow. Gossiping trees keep to themselves and taskmaster eyes stay glued on the practical path forward. One foot. The other. Meanwhile the wild world rushes by in a whizzbang blur that leaves memories muddled like melted ice cream.
Thank the lucky stars for siren song trees and toe-stubbing rocks. Without those pitch black obstructions, much needed distractions, and a flat out faceplant from time to time, we might miss the wondrous world that surrounds us. After all, the way things are versus the way things seem is simply a matter of perspective.
FISHIN’
Angling effort on the Cowlitz has been on the uptick lately as the long tardy sunshine and delinquent spring king run have decided to show up more or less in unison. Last week the WDFW tallied 285 bank rods with 22 adult spring kings, one jack and one steelhead kept along with two adult Chinook and five cutthroats released. On board the boats a total of 94 rods sampled showed a haul of 28 spring kings and one steelhead with another five cutties released. At the salmon separator last week crews collected a return of 315 spring Chinook adults, 34 spring Chinook jacks, 43 winter-run steelhead adults and 18 summer-run steelhead adults. From June 1-July 31 barbed hooks will be allowed for salmon, steelhead and cutthroats between the barrier dam boundary and the Lexington (Sparks Road) Bridge. River visibility on Monday, May 22 was six feet with water temperature creeping up to 46.4 degrees.
Effort is also spiking on the Kalama River where the bite has failed to follow the interest. Last week the WDFW sampled 155 bank anglers with a haul of just two spring Chinooks and one steelhead with one unclipped king tossed back. Out on the flotilla contingent 137 boat anglers kept one steelhead, tossed one back for having too many fins and kept seven hatchery Chinook.
Out in the ocean the all-depth recreational halibut fishery is set to close off of Marine Area 1 (Ilwaco) at the end of the day Thursday, May 25. Fish officials have determined that there is not sufficient quota remaing to allow another day of all-depth fishing in that area. However, pacific halibut harvest will still be allowed for those with bottomfish aboard in the Marine Area 1 nearshore boundary on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday until further notice.
Marine Areas 3 (La Push), 4 (Neah Bay), and 5-10 (Puget Sound) will remain open to recreational halibut fishing for another day on Thursday, June 1. Catch data from that day will be used to decide if there is enough quota to support additional fishing days in those areas. Additionally, there is not enough quota remaining in Marine Areas 2 (Westport) to allow for a nearshore opening. That areas will remain closed to halibut fishing the rest of the year.
In freshwater ponds and lakes WDFW sanctioned hatchery crews have been busy pumping trout into their new fishbowls. Prospects have been steadily improving as lake temperatures rise. However, the bite is likely to take a nosedive between the hours of 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. in most waters exposed to the increasingly summer-like sun.
In Lewis County on May 16 crews deposited 2,000 fingerling rainbows into Fort Borst Park Pond and 4,224 fingerling rainbows into Mineral Lake. On May 15 Mineral Lake received 5,376 rainbows of the same size.
In Thurston County on May 22 Long’s Pond was planted with 300 rainbow trout weighing just over ten pounds each and Offut Lake was planted with 150 rainbows of the same size.
HUNTIN’
Wild turkey enthusiasts have one more week to bag a spring bird in Washington as the statewide general turkey season is set to expire on June 1. The limit for the season is three birds per hunter. Only two turkeys may be taken in eastern Washington, with the exception of Chelan, Kittitas and Yakima counties where only one bird may be harvested. Hunters are allowed only one turkey per year from western Washington, with the exception of Klickitat County where two birds may be harvested per year. Only male turkeys are those with visible birds may be taken.
For hunters who have already filled their tags the WDFW is suggesting that the brush hounds consider taking a youngster along. A turkey tag and small game license costs only $19 for youths and that paperwork will remain valid for both the spring and fall general turkey hunts.
The Washington Outdoor Women are working on registration for their summer youth workshop coming up on June 3 at the Beau Lodge in Bow, Washington. That workshop, which will focus on archery and wilderness awareness, is targeted at girls ages 10-15 who are accompanied by an adult woman chaperone.
“We are a program of the Washington Wildlife Federation, dedicated to teaching women and girls a variety of outdoor skills through which they learn to enjoy and respect the outdoors, thereby becoming stewards of our state's natural resources,” said WOW leadership team member Cindy Brown in a press release.
The workshop will be held at the Beau Lodge in Bow, Washington from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on June 3. The cost is $50 per person and pre-registration is required.
For more information or to register visit www.washingtonoutdoorwomen.org/ or contact WOW Director Ronni McGlenn by email at ronnimcglenn@gmail.com.
WILDLIFERS
The WDFW is asking the public for comment on their recommendations to keep the fisher and five species of large whales on Washington’s list of endangered species.
Fishers are a relative of weasels who live in coniferous forests. The species was eliminated in Washington by the early 1900s but recovery efforts have been underway since 1998.
As for underwater mammals, blue, fin, sei, North Pacific right and sperm whales are under consideration. All five species have been listed for endangered protections since 1981 after their populations were decimated by over-harvesting from whalers in the 1800s and 1900s. There are believed to be about 1,600 blue whales whereas historical averages have been around 2,200 animals. Fin whales range from California to Washington and have about 9,000 animals in their population. Sei whales are less common in Washington and there are only about 500 of the animals in the North Pacific population. North Pacific right whales are nearly extinct now with only about 30 whales remaining and no indications of recovery. They rarely venture south of Alaska with only a handful of sightings off of the outer Washington coast since the early 1900s. Lastly, sperm whales boast a population of about 2,100 animals from California to Washington. Their species represents about half of the total whale harvest in the 1900s.
In a press release the WDFW noted that all five species still “face potentially significant and increasing threats from one or more factors, including collisions with ships, entanglement in fishing gear and marine debris, and climate change.”
Forty-three species of fish and wildlife are listed for protection as state endangered, threatened or sensitive species. All five species of whales are currently listed for endangered protections at the federal level under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The draft reviews for these species are available online at http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/endangered/status_review/.
Written comments on the reviews and recommendations can be submitted via email to TandEpubliccom@dfw.wa.gov or by mail to Hannah Anderson, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA 98501-1091. Comments will be accepted through Aug. 19
The WDFW recently announced its Citizens Awards for 2017 which honor innovation and long-standing commitment to the preservation of natural resources and environments.
Volunteer of the Year was awarded to to River Junky, a nonprofit organization founded in 2016. River Junky, founded by Jarrod Kirkley of Castle Rock after he caught a fish with a hypodermic needle stuck in it, works to connect fishing gear manufacturers with volunteers in order to clean up trash at opulat water access sites and in rivers like the Cowlitz (Blue Creek), Kalama, Skykomish, Puyallup and Sandy.
“River Junky is bringing people together to clean up our rivers -- and making it fun,” said Chris Conklin, an assistant program manager with the WDFW, in a press release. “Offering promotions, gifts and prizes, the organization and its volunteers are providing a new way to maintain the quality of the outdoor experiences we all enjoy.”
Additional information on River Junky efforts can be found online at https://riverjunky.us/pages/about-us.
