OutdoorsJanuary 1, 2004

Staff and wire service reports

Fish & Game wants hunter input

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is seeking comments from hunters on issues ranging from the use of off-highway vehicles on primitive hunts to the check-in process for harvested mountain lions.

Other issues include the regulations that require the lower jaw of harvested elk and deer to be transported, the legality of hunting big game in fenced enclosures and regulations governing the use of technology in bow/ muzzleloader hunting.

The department also is looking for better ways to administer the sale of licenses, tags and permits and the rules governing controlled hunt permits.

Hunters can provide their comments and complete a related survey by visiting the department's Web site at www2.state.id.us/fishgame and going to "What's News" then "New Additions."

The deadline for comments is Jan. 9.

Those not able to access the Internet may comment by mail to Idaho Department of Fish and Game, 1540 Warner Ave., Lewiston 83501, or by calling 799-5010.

Annual bird count set for Saturday

The annual Lewiston-Clarkston Christmas Bird Count will be held Saturday. Participants will meet at 6:45 a.m. in the Jack in the Box restaurant at Lewiston before going to the count areas.

A covered-dish dinner will follow the count at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game office, 1540 Warner Ave., Lewiston.

Those who want to participate may register online and also pay the $5 fee. The fee is required by the National Audubon Society. The address is http://www.audubon.org/bird/ cbc/.

Those who register online will need to enter the count circle code IDLE.

People also can register the morning of the count.

Free nordic skiing offered Saturday

Cross-country skiers can hit the trails for free in Idaho Saturday.

The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation is opening the trails in its parks and at its park-and-ski locations to one day of free skiing.

Sites participating in the event in this region include Ponderosa State Park at McCall, Winchester State Park at Winchester, Fish Creek Meadows near Grangeville, Palouse Divide near Harvard and Elk River Park-and-Ski at Elk River.

Craig Mountain opens for winter

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has opened access gates on Craig Mountain south of Lewiston for winter recreation.

The gates normally open Nov. 21, but were kept closed longer this year because snow depths on the mountain were low and big game animals had not moved to lower elevations.

The gates are for wildlife security by preventing unauthorized vehicles in the area, but not to restrict snowmobile use.

The department is urging snowmobilers to use caution when riding on the mountain. Hidden dangers such as rocks and stumps can lurk beneath the snow.

The gates are scheduled to be closed again March 31. The Lewis Clark Snowdrifters groom and remove obstacles on nearly 200 miles of trails on Craig Mountain and the surrounding area to enhance access and improve safety.

Fisheries biologists optimistic about fish recovery

SANDPOINT -- Despite the continuing battle over the winter level of Lake Pend Oreille, fishery managers have become more optimistic about the future of the Panhandle's landlocked kokanee salmon stock.

Biologists are wrapping up this year's collection of eggs for hatchery breeding. The count was 12 million at the end of last week, four times the number collected the year before.

Barring a disaster, next year's kokanee spawning class could produce 20 million eggs -- enough to put the Cabinet Gorge Kokanee Hatchery at maximum capacity, assistant manager Bruce Thompson said.

Another positive note has been the survival rate of 1- and 2-year-old kokanee. The younger kokanee are most vulnerable to predators, including Kamloops rainbow trout and mackinaw, which prefer bite-sized kokanee over other lake prey, said Melo Maiolie, principal fishery research biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

The decision in 2000 to close the lake to kokanee fishing and liberalize fish limits and seasons on Kamloops and mackinaw has been a factor, Maiolie said.

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"Hopefully this is turning the corner," he said. "Up until last year, it was heading toward total collapse."

Wild kokanee spawners were down dramatically this year, and Maiolie maintained that the winter lake level will be the major factor in the recovery of the kokanee.

Floods in the late 1990s and drought more recently have combined with other factors to thwart attempts to hold the lake at a winter level of 2,055 feet above sea level for three consecutive years to determine whether that fosters kokanee spawning.

This year, the lake was dropped to 2,051 feet to accommodate power generation and other concerns. But the regional Lakes and Rivers Commission is pressing federal officials to maintain the lake at 2,055 feet for the next three winters.

The lake is kept at 2,062 feet in summer, maintained by controlled releases through Albeni Falls Dam operated by the Corps of Engineers.

Higher winter water levels provide more spawning ground in the shallows for landlocked kokanee salmon. But because wild spawners were down significantly this winter, Maiolie said there would be sufficient spawning gravel at the lower level while permitting wave action and storms to cleanse and redistribute the existing gravel.

The department's goal is for wild salmon to produce 100 million eggs a season.

Animal rights activists hit streets for Alaska protest

ANCHORAGE -- Animal rights activists were taking advantage of the post-Christmas shopping in New York this weekend to hand out pamphlets calling for a tourism boycott of Alaska.

Friends of Animals are angry about a decision by Gov. Frank Murkowski to allow aerial wolf hunts in the McGrath area.

"Save a wolf. Sign a postcard. Boycott Alaska," Friends of Animals worker Bob Orabona called out to the crowd rushing past Rockefeller Center.

Orabona held a sign depicting a howling wolf with a cross hairs drawn over its chest. "Alaska is planning a heart-stopping wildlife spectacle," the placard read. "They call it 'management.' We call it murder."

The Connecticut-based animal rights organization is staging 32 such demonstrations around the country in the last weekend of the year to protest the state's wolf-control plan, which calls for shooting about 40 wolves in the McGrath area with the help of aircraft.

The group printed 50,000 postcards addressed to Murkowski calling the lethal program unethical and disgraceful and warning of a boycott.

Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, hopes to mirror the success of a similar protest in 1992, against a wolf control program supported by then-Gov. Walter J. Hickel.

State officials received more than 100,000 letters and phone calls objecting to the plan and finally bowed to the pressure from Alaska's tourism industry.

Murkowski said this month that he's concerned about a tourism boycott but is holding firm.

"We think we addressed this in a responsible manner. We have a state to manage and game populations to manage, and we're not going to do it on emotion," Murkowski said.

And state officials note, this protest does not appear to be generating the same steam as 1992. To date, only about 15,000 e-mails and 1,000 letters have been received protesting the program.

"So far, it hasn't been anywhere near the same level of interest," said Wayne Regelin, deputy director for the state Wildlife Conservation division.

State officials recall receiving death threats and employees were trained to detect mail that could contain explosives. At one point, Alaska State troopers had to provide security at the state Department of Fish and Game.

More recently, wolf-control advocates in Alaska say the wolves have grown too plentiful in some areas and are killing too many moose that human hunters rely on for food.

"Certainly, shooting wolves to make moose hunting easier lacks any kind of justice," Feral told the Anchorage Daily News.

California closes trophy trout stream to control mud snail

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- State regulators have closed one of northern California's prime trophy trout streams to fishing, as the state tries to halt the spread of a tiny foreign snail to other waterways.

The state Fish and Game Commission closed Putah Creek for 120 days while biologists try to determine how far the New Zealand mud snail has spread there, and whether it has invaded other areas.

The snail previously had been found only east of the Sierra Nevada range in the Owens River and Hot Creek in California, but has affected famous Western trout streams such as the Madison and and Snake rivers in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

It's believed to be spread mainly by fishermen who inadvertently spread the tiny mollusk to other trout streams on their equipment. In addition, Putah Creek itself eventually empties into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

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