Hunting & Fishing Report: Cinders and Ashes and Bears in the Crosshairs

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The supple eggs burst in his mouth with an explosion of flavor that would match the thrill of a watermelon to a man starving of thirst.

A pink gelatinous substance mixed with the rank warm saliva of the large mammal and dripped in frothy streams from between its sizeable rusty incisors. Flabs of yellow fat flap around the busted belly of the hen salmon who had finally made it to her headwaters. Her eyes sparkle one last time in the sun while scales rain down amid the timeless mists of the tumbling water.

The burly black bear tears flesh from bone and drops the ragged carcass back into the river where crawdads and other critters will pick it clean and give thanks for the sustenance that fell from the sky. Deep roots will soak them up again and talls trees will return them to the heavens.

The death of the salmon just miles from her spawning grounds ended her long journey from fresh mountain stream, to big salted ocean, and back again. Only a few bends upriver are the very redds where she was born. It’s where she would have dropped her eggs for fertilization by overzealous jack and bull salmon. It’s where the next run of big fish would have originated as small fry. Now it’s just bare, wet rocks and expiring dog salmon disintegrating on the shore.

The midriver meal, at the feet of a stair-step waterfall, was a replenishing meal the young bear had already given up hope of ever finding. He spent his first few years exploring not far from the cavern he was born in.

Those cub years were easy living. The snow melted slow and watered bountiful berry patches. The rivers ran fast and strong and waves of plump fish pushed their way into the high headwaters where he wiled away his carefree baby bear days under the ever loosening gaze of a once fiercly protective mamma.

During his second summer the verdant woods that had been his playground somehow felt different. The trees felt smaller. Or maybe he felt bigger. The air was acrid and the ground was hot. Supple soils that used to writhe with fat grubs and worms along with the breathing spores of lichen and mycelium had baked like clay and cracked under a sun powered kiln.

As the sky grew dark in an unfamiliar shroud a foreboding feeling grew in the gaunt belly of the tweenage black bear. His mother, once doting and imperative, found her way around less and less in those uncertain days. Even when she did she had two new cubs under her watch and so she paid her maturing offspring little mind and less affection.

One day, as the sky grew dark by day and the berries shriveled on the vine, the black bear began to coddiwomple down a well-worn trail that he hoped would lead to a place he’d never been before – The other side of the mountain.

As he bumbled about the mountainside the slow burning in his eyes and lungs began to compound, imperceptibly at first, and then undeniably all at once. He had nowhere specific to go and no way to know what was around the next corner. He wondered if he should go back to what was familiar. The bushes he used to know, and the company of his mother, however diminished. That uncertainty propelled him forward though and he kept up his coming of age journey, however inconsistent and ultimately uninspired.

The further he wandered from his old den the easier it became to keep going, even as the condition of the forest slowly deteriorated before his very watering eyes. Scattered song birds flew harried in the opposite direction as his lethargic travel and a rush hour of ground rodents scurried against the grain of the bear’s meandering vector.

The sky dyed darker. The air grew more caustic. The bear assumed this was simply how the other half lived and continued to amble away from the comforts of home he now assumed had only served to hold him back.

As the bear rounded one last corner he could sense a searing change coming and it excited him. Pawing at the ground and sending loose forest floor scattering he bounded beyond a pistol butt evergreen to see what he could see. There, he was stopped dead in his tracks by a wall of fire that roared with a thousand furious faces flickering profanely from the flames.

Instantly his soft fur singed. His soft eyes dried. His padded paws cracked and his heart sank. The flames circled in closer as he stood frozen by fear.

When a charred limb snapped and fell at his feet it sent embers into his eyebrows and awakened a thundering will to survive that he had never felt before. All alone with but one way to turn he began to run back toward the world he had only recently, and foolishly, abandoned.

The flames licked at his hind legs and ashes obscured his vision. A tongue of fire shot out across the path and now blocked the way from which he had come.

Following the only route available he headed down a steep embankment and fled from the rabid snap and bark of the fire. In his mind it sounded like a pack of dogs were on his heels and he had to stifle every instinct in his body that told him to climb a spar timber to a perch of false safety.

Eventually the sun went down by the blazing glow of wildfire kept the witches’ hour bright as day. As the bear continued to barrel through the woods he lost all track of time but he could not shake the nightmarish howl of hounds that echoed like thunder in the canyon of his head.

When the terrified bear finally reached the oasis of a cool stream he could no longer see the flames. Still, the smoke was all he could smell and the phantom bay of coon dogs was all he could hear. When he sat in the cleansing waters he hadn’t even realized he was hungry.

That’s when the summer salmon swimming upriver bumped smack into his aching paw and the hunger pangs that had once been the genesis for his misadventure returned with the vengeance of a twice scorned lover.

Plucking the salmon from the crisp clear stream the bear could finally taste something sweeter than smoke and he could imagine a future in full bloom. But still, he couldn’t shake the haunting howls of the ghost dogs that seemed to stalk his path.

As the bear licked the last silver scales from its musky maw it breathed a sigh of relief and imagined what greener thickets might lay around the next bend in the river… That’s when he heard the crunch of forest underbrush and snapped his gaze toward the gravel bank.

A long silver barrel reflected through the sepia haze and a pack of dogs stalked the shore in a frenzy. A fire flash erupted from the muzzle and the black bear fell where it stood. Blood stained the river red and when the echo stopped the forest fell silent. The dogs and their beastly men watched the corpse float downstream, then turned and retreated to their truck before the heat could catch up to them.

FISHIN’

With changing regulations, depressed river flows, and frustratingly hit and miss runs of fish here in the dog days of August anglers will have difficult choices to make day to day in order to make the most of their fleeting time on the water.

On the lower Chehalis River in Grays Harbor the bite has been fickle enough to keep anglers interested and frustrated all at once.

“It’s that time of year when things just kind of troll along. The ocean fishing has been fair. Some people are catching fish and some people aren’t catching fish,” said good ol’ Long Leader Lloyd in the sporting goods section at Dennis Company in Montesano. The friend of the Fishrap noted that the ocean haul has been about even between kings and silvers so far.

“In the harbor has been pretty slow but that’s typical for this time of year,” added Lloyd. “There’s been a little bit of sea run cutthroat action…The cutthroat typically are in by the middle of July through the middle of August. They just kind of come in and out and hang out.”

Lloyd noted that he recently spoke with a customer who reported catching 45 rockfish in one day near the jetty.

“Sometimes that can be a busy half hour out there,” said Lloyd in reference to the time needed to reach a daily harvest limit of ten fish. “When the bite’s on, the bite’s on.”

As for salmon and steelhead anglers who prefer to stay on freshwater, Lloyd said the best fishing is yet come. He says that steelhead fishing has been fair this summer, particularly on the Wynoochee River. On Wednesday, the river flow on the Wynoochee above Black Creek was reported at 305 cubic feet per second and the flow at Grisdale on Wednesday was 330 cubic feet per second. Once the fall rains arrive he expects the fishing to pick up for other salmonid species on other tributaries.

Down on the Columbia River, the WDFW has recently enacted several restrictions in order to protect the remaining summer steelhead run. As of Aug. 18 a long stretch of the lower Columbia River and two major tributaries are subject to night closures that will continue until further notice.

In addition to the night closures, the restrictions require anglers to release any steelhead caught in Drano Lake or the Wind River, where steelhead regularly drop in from the mainstem for a cool down. The night fishing restrictions are in effect from Buoy 10 up to the Highway 395 Bridge in Pasco.

Those regulations were implemented in response to a sluggish return of summer steelhead to Bonneville Dam and elevated water temperature in the river. At the typical midpoint of the run the combined count for hatchery and wild steelhead at Bonneville was well behind the pace required to meet the preseason projection of 190,350 fish.

“Under these circumstances, it is important that we take some precautionary measures to protect steelhead as they move upriver,” Lothrop said, in a press release.



Prior to these new regulations fish managers had already taken several steps to try to protect the diminished steelhead run. Those steps included limiting anglers to one steelhead per day while also limiting the time, area, and gear available to commercial fishers.

Night closures do not apply to anglers targeting northern pikeminnow and walleye. Salmon fishing has reportedly been hot near the Astoria Bridge recently. The only trick is to get your fish on board before the seals take it off your line.

On the Cowlitz River last week the return to the salmon hatchery separator slowed a bit. In five days of operation crews there retrieved just 139 summer steelhead, 30 spring Chinook adults, three mini-jacks, nine fall Chinook adults, one jack, and three cutthroat trout. No creel report was provided by the WDFW prior to deadline. Last week hatchery crews also deposited nine springers and three cutties into the Cispus River near Randle, as well as five spring Chinook adults and two cutties at the Franklin Bridge in Packwood. Nine fall kings, one jack, and one cutthroat trout were also released into the Tilton River at Gust Backstrom Park in Morton and 34 steelhead were recycled back downstream from the separator to the I-5 Boat Launch. That deposit of homeward bound steelhead brings the total to 571 recycled fish since June 15.

River flow below Mayfield Lake was reported at about 2,410 cubic feet per second on Monday and had increased to about 2,690 cubic feet per second by Wednesday. Water visibility has been around 14 feet with a temperature of 55 degrees. On Aug. 15, there were 2,640 rainbow trout released into Mayfield Lake, which provided backup to the 2,700 rainbows that were planted the previous week.

In Marine Area 11 (Tacoma-Vashon Island) the daily limit for hatchery Chinook has been increased to two salmon per day, except from year-round docks and piers. That action was taken after fishery managers concluded that only 63 percent of the summer quota had been taken as of Aug. 12. Anglers on docks and piers are only allowed one Chinook salmon, which can be either wild or hatchery. Boat anglers are limited to hatchery stock. Salmon fishing remains open year round in South Puget Sound.

HUNTIN’

The WDFW has compiled a new online tool intended to help hunters better plan their excursions. The online hunting regulations map will provide up to date for the 2018-19 seasons and regulations.

Hunters will be able to easily access permit and general season hunts based on location, date, weapon choice and other variables. The map will include locations for public and private hunting opportunities as well as hunter notes on previous hunts.

“This web map helps hunters narrow their search to the hunts and hunt areas relevant to them,” said Anis Aoude, game division manager for WDFW, in a press release. “We expect hunters will find this tool useful as they plan their trips for fall.

The current version of the map does not include migratory waterfowl or upland game seasons. That information will reportedly be added for the 2019-20 seasons. The web map can be viewed online at https://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/regulations/.

Out in the prickly timbers and smoke shrouded meadows hunters continue to report that a lackluster berry season and intensifying drought conditions are pushing bears into lower elevations. Black bear hunting is currently open in all Washington areas except for the Blue Mountains and Northeastern A. Those units are set to open on Sept. 1.

Hunters who plan on heading to GMUs 418 and 426 in the North Cascades Zone should take note that there is a possibility of encountering grizzly bears, which are a protected species. This is the first year that hunters are required to complete an online bear identification program in order to hunt bears in those northern units, and other eastern Washington areas. Hunters are allowed to kill two black bears during the general season, of which only one may be from Eastern Washington.

Bear tags will begin to fill out quicker come September when hunters hit the backwoods for some of the most popular fall seasons. Deer archery, cougar, forest grouse, crow, wild turkey, bobcat, fox, raccoon, rabbit, hare, and mourning dove seasons will all begin on Sept. 1. The arrival of September will also mark a renewed effort for many hunters who like to bag coyotes. However, there is no need to wait until the calendar flips since the sun never sets on coyote season.

KILLIN’

A Thurston County judge has put a halt on plans by the WDFW to take lethal action against an Eastern Washington wolf pack in trouble for killing domestic livestock. The temporary restraining order was issued on Aug. 20 and prohibits the WDFW from killing any wolves in the Togo pack of northern Ferry County.

That action by Judge Chris Lanese came just hours after WDFW Director Kelly Susewind had authorized state staff to begin killing wolves in the pack, which has been implicated in at least six livestock depredation cases dating back to last November, including three confirmed incidents in the previous 30-days.

“I have reviewed the pack’s pattern of depredation along with the department’s wolf plan and wolf-livestock interaction protocol, and have concluded this action is warranted,” Susewind said in a press release noting her authorization of lethal action. “The evidence shows that non-lethal measures have not been successful, and the pack will continue preying on livestock unless we take action to change its behavior.”

The Center for Biological Diversity and Cascadia Wildlands applied for the restraining order immediately after Susewind authorized the lethal action. According to Judge Lanese, the plaintiff’s complaint fulfilled criteria to merit a temporary restraining order under the state Administrative Procedures Act. The case will continue in court on Aug. 31 with a hearing to determine if the restraining order should be lifted or extended.

The Togo pack lives in the Kettle River Range and consists of at least two adult members and an unknown number of pups. The pack is one of 22 wolf packs, and at least 122 wolves, known to live in Washington as of March. Surveys have shown a population growth rate of about 30 percent each year.

According to Donny Martorello, WDFW wolf policy lead, WDFW staff will continue to work with livestock producers to utilize non-lethal deterrents intended to protect cattle. A history of the Togo pack and its documented depredation history can be viewed online at https://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf/updates.php.

PROTECTIN’

Last week, during a conference call, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission took action to change protections for two wildlife species. The Commission acted to downlist sea otters from endangered to threatened status while upgrading the listing of Columbian sharp-tailed grouse from threatened to endangered.

Sea otters were wiped out in Washington in the early 20th century by fur traders but were subsequently reintroduced beginning in 1969. Over the last 30 years that population has increased to the point that the WDFW recommended downgrading their classification. Disease, toxins and climate change are threats that still threaten sea otters, as well as the possibility of large scale ecological catastrophes like oil spills.

Columbian sharp-tailed grouse were first classified as threatened in Washington in 1998. That designation marked a pivotal moment for a bird that had been the most abundant game bird in eastern Washington during the 1800s. The birds were especially prolific in range land with moist grasses and sagebrush. Development, along with the conversion of native habitat to cropland and major wildfires in 2015 have all combined to further imperil the birds and today the total population is estimated to be fewer than 600 birds.

RANGERIN’

The U.S. Forest Service has announced a new Ranger for the Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument – Rebecca Hoffman will now wear the big hat at the popular destination located within the boundaries of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

“I am extremely pleased to be welcoming Rebecca and her family to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest,” said Gifford Pinchot National Forest Supervisor, Gina Owens, in a press release. “Rebecca brings a depth of land management experience and will be an excellent partner with our communities in caring for the Monument.”

Hoffman replaces Tedd Huffman as Ranger after Huffman accepted a physical sciences specialist positions with the Northwest Forest Planning team out of Portland.

Having spent her formative years in southeastern Wyoming and northern Colorado, Hoffman has now been employed by the U.S.F.S. for almost 19 years in a variety of capacities. Most recently Hoffman has worked as a public services staff officer in charge of recreation, archaeology and partnership programs on the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. She has also recently served as Acting District Ranger on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests.

“I am very excited to get to know and work with the employees and communities surrounding the Monument and Gifford Pinchot National Forest,” said Hoffman, in a press release. “Mount St. Helens is a very special place and I am honored to contribute to this treasured landscape.”

Hoffman will assume her duties in early September.

VISITIN’

Visitors to Washington state parks will be able to wander around free of charge on Aug. 25 in recognition of the 102nd anniversary of the inception of the National Park System.

On that day, visitors will not be required to display a Discover Pass in order to drive into state parks and other lands. Those passes costs $30 annually or $10 per day. Lands managed by the WDFW and Department of Natural Resources will still require admission fees or other passes.