Finally, the relentless shade of winter, and late fall, and most of spring for that matter, has been lifted and the light from on high has come pouring in like white water over the falls. The raging rush of bright harshes the mellow of eyes too used to the dark and dusty sunbeam shafts filter through homes that are long overdue for spring cleanings.
Those nagging chores seem destined to be left on those cobwebbed shelves awhile longer though as the untamable allure of the outdoors pulls brown recluses, hermit crabs and crabbie recluses alike from the familiar confines of their constricting winter abodes.
The meticulous pursuit of well coiffed English style lawns is a pastime that few turf lords are able to ignore. Bluebird skies that should resound with the sweet symphony of songbirds is drowned out by the smoker’s hack of mowers. Wheezing weed whackers and whooping cough edgers spew soot flavored exhaust and muddy the clean soundscape with maniacal sludge dripping mechanical malice.
Those short-shorn lawns pop their polo collars for a few days of fleeting country club regality before the rooted reality of life again sets in. A blade of grass does not want to conform to militant crew cut standards. It wants to lets its roots plunge deep into soils dampened by the pooling rain and melting snow. It wants to blossom. It wants to grow.
While buzz cut grass squares are seen as an acceptable accouterment to cul de sac living, renegade blades without proper papers are looked upon as an affront to civility. Neo-patriots seek to Make America Great Again, so they wage a never-ending war on weeds.
Everywhere one turns, packs of poison can be seen being toted by backpack, four-wheeler and tanker truck. Balding men with no mane of their own to maintain seek out stray strands of grass like heat-seeking missiles of mass destruction.
A supposed green thumb aims a jet of liquid poison at his garden patch and laughs as the dirt absorbs the putrid blast and living tissues wither. County workers troll slowly along gravel roads launching a barrage of liquid death at the assorted flora that has taken root in right of ways and drainage ditches. A soft star flower implodes while sourpatch scotchbroom laughs.
Along city sidewalks shopkeepers step outside to smell sunshine baking cement. A crack in the sidewalk busts open with resilient sprouts of wayward seeds. While the concrete jungle is nearly devoid of life, here a spark of life glows amidst the gray. But for the regimented rank and file the unsanctioned proliferation of verdant life forms, however benevolent, is too much to bare. So, grabbing a cannister of pump and spray poison sauce the modest monger drowns that uprising of hope in a fountain of new-nature The Man calls herbicide.
The sweet and sour aroma fills his nose in a strangely satisfying manor. He stands over his kill feeling content. Finishing a decadent drag on a all-natural cigarette he exhales black from spasming lungs and flicks the styrofoam butt into the shimmering puddle of poison. The extinguishing sizzle makes him smile, although his plastic lips do not move.
FISHIN’
Prospects on the Cowlitz River have been on the rise right along with the mercury as of late. The only twist is that the temperature change seems to have turned off the collective appetite of winter-steelhead, leaving springers as the only bounty hungry enough to bite.
A Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sample last week counted six adult Chinook keepers for 98 bank-bound rods while 26 rods on the flotilla contingent bonked three adult Chinook and one jack. Word of mouth says the bite was even better than that with boating anglers hooking Chinook from Gearhardt Gardens to Blue Creek and bank anglers battling it out for limited space nearer to the barrier dam. Last week at the Cowlitz salmon hatchery separator employees collected 277 winter-run steelhead, 706 spring Chinook adults, 41 jacks, seven summer-run steelhead and one cutthroat trout. On Monday water temperature at Mayfield Dam was recorded at 46 degrees with visibility still quite low at just five feet. The water should be approaching perfect turbidity this week though thanks to a generous streak of sunny days.
Action on the free-flowing entity of God that is the Kalama River also picked up last week. Eyes up at the old bait shop along the river noted an increased effort last week with a batch of fly casters getting in on the improving conditions. A sample by the WDFW tallied 146 anglers with 17 Chinook keepers to show as well as one steelhead on a stringer. A total of eight steelies and two kings were tossed back.
While the mainstem Chehalis remains closed to salmon fishing the Columbia River does have some opportunity once you get up to the dams. The only problem is there was no salmon catch recorded in any of the dam pools last week. Thankfully, though, walleye provided plenty of reeling opportunities for those bored pool bobbing anglers. At The Dalles last week the WDFW sampled 617 walleye kept for 110 anglers and 141 anglers at John Day kept 904 walleye while tossing back another 625 fish. All of the action at John Day and the vast majority of it at The Dalles was happening aboard boats.
Like the Chehalis, the lower Columbia mainstem below Bonneville Dam is currently closed to salmon fishing. Taking a moment to look back up the mouth of lower Columbia River tributaries, a batch of new fish-hatchery requirements means changes are in store for steelhead runs. The new rules released by NOAA-Fisheries mean that five area waterways will no longer be planted with their regular batch of winter steelhead. Those rivers include the Coweeman, Kalama and Washougal rivers as well as Rock and Salmon creeks.
The Chambers Creek stock was first developed in Puget Sound and introduced to the Columbia Basin in the 1950s. Those fish will now be prohibited from release into the five tributaries thanks to a federal ruling from January that fish officials are referring to as “BiOp.”
WDFW hatchery division manager Eric Kinne expects that the last of the remaining 200,000 Chambers Creek steelhead stock will be released in those five waterways later in May. Beginning next year those fish will be replaced with local stocks on the five waterways listed.
“The BiOp concluded that eliminating that stock would help protect the genetic integrity of wild steelhead populations,” Kinne said in a press release. “We are committed to recovering wild salmon and steelhead populations, while providing sustainable fishing opportunities for anglers in the Columbia River Basin and throughout the state.”
Previously planted Chambers Creek fish are likely to return to those waters for at least the next three years. After that the winter steelhead runs will be entirely dependent upon local stock. In order to buoy those runs the WDFW plans to plant a smattering of hatchery fish from various origins. On the Kalama River the WDFW plans to release 135,000 late winter steelhead next year, which would represent an increase of 45,000 fish over past years. Over time the WDFW says they plan to develop an early run on the Kalama with timing similar to the Chambers Creek stock which typically returned between November and January. The WDFW has stated that they also plan to plant local summer-steelhead broodstock from the Kalama hatchery in order to replace Skamania-origin fish.
HUNTIN’
Wild turkey season is nearly three weeks old and has almost three weeks to go still. That hunt is open across the entirety of the Evergreen state and many hunters have already filled their tags for the season. In order to extend opportunities to get out and about among the gobblers the WDFW is suggesting that adult hunters look for a youngster to take 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.
Out in the weeds the general spring turkey hunting season will scratch and peck on through the end of May. 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.
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.
Hunters with hopes of obtaining a special hunt permit for deer, elk, mountain goat, moose, bighorn sheep and, or wild turkeys next fall will have until May 24 to submit their applications. The permits allow hunters to hunt at times and locations outside of general seasons, will be awarded through a random drawing conducted in June.
In order to apply for a special permit for deer or elk hunters must first purchase a hunting license for those species and submit their application with their preferred hunting choices. Applications are available at licensed vendors, online at https://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov/ or by phone at 1-877-945-3492.
Most special hunt permit applications will cost residents $7.10 while out of staters will have to cough up $110.50. Permit applications for youths under 16 years of age cost just $3.80. However, residents purchasing an application for mountain goats, bighorn sheep, moose and “quality” categories for deer and elk will be charged $13.70. Additional information is available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/permits/faq.html.
Hunters should be sure to update their phone number, email, and mailing address when purchasing special hunting permit applications and licenses. Results from the special-permit drawing will be available online by the end of June and winners will be notified by mail or email by mid-July.
CLAMMIN’
Less than a week after the WDFW announced the end of spring clam digging on three popular coastal beaches the agency went ahead and put the clamps on the last remaining razor clam beach as well.
On Tuesday the WDFW announced that Mocrocks beach will be closed to razor clam digging until the fall due to elevated marine toxin levels. Last week elevated toxin levels ended any hopes of additional spring razor clam digging at Long Beach and Twin Harbors, while Copalis was shuttered due to its harvest quota having been met. However, officials noted that toxin levels at Copalis are above the public safety threshold once again this week.
"We had hoped to have one last opening at Mocrocks this season," said WDFW coastal shellfish manager Dan Ayres in a press release. “Unfortunately, toxin levels are on the rise and are unlikely to drop before the end of the month, when the clams begin to spawn and the beaches are closed to digging.”
Domoic acid is a naturally occurring marine toxin caused by the decomposition of algae. Warming ocean currents along the coast, known as “the blob,” have seemingly increased the frequency of domoic acid outbreaks in recent years. The toxin is absorbed into the flesh of aquatic species, particularly filtering bivalves like razor clams, and can cause illness or even death if consumed in large enough quantities. The toxin has caused problems up and down the west coast from California to Alaska over the last two years, with Washington and Oregon receiving the brunt of the hassle.
The next clam diggin’ opportunities will not begin until next fall when spawning clams have recovered and new recruits are safely burrowed beneath the sand.
“We’ll conduct our annual assessment of clam populations over the summer and hope to open beaches again in September or October,” Ayres said in the release.
