Conservancy in the Commons – A Conservation Education Fair
Saturday July 5th, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
In the Twisp Commons during the Farmers’ Market

Join us in the Twisp Commons on July 5th for fun, interactive and kid-friendly activities and booths on wildlife, plants, farming, land stewardship and much more.  Get lots of helpful information for land stewardship and conservation.  Great prizes will be available too!  Come anytime during the Farmer's Market for as little or as long as you'd like. 

The event is free and open to everyone.  Questions?  Contact Mary at 996-2870 or info@methowconservancy.org.

Methow Conservancy July Program – How Mining Affects Communities
Wednesday, July 16th, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Mazama Community Center after the Community Market.

Have you heard about the mining initiative for a copper deposit between Flagg Mountain and Goat Peak?  According to the Pacific Copper Corp. website, "Pacific is currently carrying out a drill program to verify drilling and exploration results from 1975, which may eventually lead to a new feasibility study."

While modern-day mining for copper directly above Mazama would take a very long process and may not happen in our lifetimes, if ever, the history of mining in the area and the increased value of minerals and precious metals gives people cause to be more informed of and involved in the current situation.

Dr. Dan Peplow, affiliate professor for the College of Forest Resources at the UW, and Sarah Augustine, director of Suriname Indigenous Health Fund, will help us understand the fundamentals of mining impacts.  Using Dan's research on the impacts of contamination from abandoned mines in the Methow Valley as a backdrop, and their experience working with communities in Suriname impacted by mining, Dan and Sarah will share information on how a community can be prepared and involved in the mining process, and work to mitigate the effects of mining on environmental and public health. 

Free and open to everyone.  For more information contact Mary at 996-2870 or info@methowconservancy.org. 

The Stewardship Chronicles:  A golden eagle visits our herons.  The monkey flower eludes us.  Restoration begins at the mouth of Beaver Creek.  The search for a noxious invader begins.

A warm thank you goes out to all the great Stewardship Volunteers that helped us with special projects this spring!  Here is an update on some of these projects. 

The Great Blue Heron Watch
Our volunteer season began with a search for Great Blue Heron activity around two potential nesting sites.  Several residents had noted active nesting on conservation easement properties north of Winthrop and up the Twisp River.  The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)is a WDFW State Monitor Species.  Monitoring them for status and distribution is intended to prevent them from becoming sensitive, threatened, or endangered.  Great Blue Herons are colonial breeders that form group nest sites in the tallest deciduous and evergreen trees available in order to avoid predation.  A site with multiple nests is known as a “Heronry,” a fancy term for a rookery with herons. 

Several enthusiastic volunteers, including Jan and Will Fohrell, Julie Muyllaert, Brian and Carole Reid, and Teresa Skye headed out to see what was happening this season.  Here is what they learned:

Cage-A-Tree
As of April 2008, the Chelan/Douglas P.U.D. Tributary Fund Small Grant Program funded our seedling and sapling tree caging project, a.k.a. the Riparian Regeneration and Restoration Initiative.  This project works to improve the health of degraded riparian habitats by caging naturally regenerating trees and shrubs to prevent over-browsing by the large deer populations in the Methow and Twisp River drainages.

Several hardworking volunteers including Sam and John Owen, Carole and Brian Reid, and Karen Edwards and Tom Ise jump-started the project at the confluence of Beaver Creek and the Methow River on Laura Fine’s property.  Laura’s snacks and beverages provided the fuel, and our volunteers brought hard work and great ideas to make the process more efficient.  As the river rolled by, we found that 60+ seedlings and saplings had been deer-proofed in just three hours. 

This project will continue for at least three years with the goal that the cages will give young saplings a fighting chance to create some of the riparian forests of our future. 

We will need more volunteers for more cage-a-tree projects later this summer and into the fall, so please give us a call or watch for enews for more information.

Monkey Flowers and Starthistles
Back in the upper valley, Karen Edwards, Tom Ise, and Tim Hall were on a search for a sensitive and rare species, known as the Pulsifer’s Monkey Flower (Mimulus patulus).  This DNR State Sensitive Species was observed in 1981 in the vicinity of three conservation easement properties south of Mazama in muddy fine gravels and near seeps along stream banks and channels.  During their search, these intrepid volunteers avoided high water, valiantly battled thick riparian shrubbery, and waded through wetlands to locate this rare flower in bloom.  Our group has not yet found the monkey flower, but it has not been due to a lack of effort.  We’ll keep you posted!

Finally, Teresa Skye, and Sam and John Owen are currently hiking the shrub steppe highlands above Davis Lake on a conservation easement property to map locations where Yellow Starthistle (Centaurea Solstitialis), a nasty new noxious weed, may have established.

Thanks again to our great team of spring stewardship volunteers!    As summer kicks into high gear, there will be more volunteer opportunities available, so please contact Mary, Eric or Steve at info@methowconservancy.org or 996-2870 if you would like to be alerted to activities. 

Free Conservation & Ecology Outings

July 9th:  Kid’s Nature Walk at Pearrygin Lake State Park, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. 
Kids ages 7 and up, are invited to join the Methow Conservancy for an hour fun, environmental education at Pearrygin Lake State Park.  We’ll talk about the climate on the dry side of the Cascades, the water cycle, and water conservation.  Volunteers from the Methow Conservancy will lead the one hour outing with fun activities about water.  Take a walk with us along the shore of Pearrygin Lake and play games on the lawn.  The event is free.  Wear walking shoes and be prepared for heat and/or mosquitoes.  At least one parent must accompany the children they bring.  Drive into the main state park entrance and look for directions at the entrance booth.  Call the Methow Conservancy at 996-2870 if you have questions.

July 19th:  Native Plant and Fire Ecology Hike, 8:00 a.m.  If you’re interested in native wildflowers and plants and how fire plays a role in our forested landscape, this is the hike for you.  With the help of Native Plant Society volunteers, Therese and Pete Ohlson, we’ll learn about native wildflowers, talk about forest community recovery after a burn and explore fire's role in our landscape.  Pete is the Forest Service’s Okanogan-Wenatchee Fire Ecologist and Therese is the Forest Service’s Methow Valley District Botanist, with a WSU master's degree in fire ecology.  This hike is jointly sponsored by the Methow Conservancy and the Okanogan Chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society.

We’ll carpool from Winthrop at 8:00 a.m. and drive about 45 minutes mostly through areas of the Tripod Fire to the Tiffany Springs Campground.  Rain or shine, we’ll hike 6 – 7 miles to Tiffany Mountain and Freezeout Ridge on a one-way route (we’ll leave some cars at the end for a shuttle).  There are great vistas and lots of burned and unburned habitat to see.  There are some minor passes to hike up, but generally the hike will be rolling, though moderate to arduous depending on your fitness level.  We’ll have lunch at Honeymoon Pass or on top of Tiffany Mtn.  Bring your own lunch and plan to be out most of the day.  This event is free and open to the public but we’d like to hear from you so that we have a sense of group size.  Contact Mary at 996-2870 or info@methowconservancy.org.

Help Shape the Future of the Methow Valley
At Okanogan County’s second Growth Summit on June 11th, the county unveiled the initial draft of the update to the County Comprehensive Plan and announced that County Staff will be working with neighborhood groups to further refine this plan over the next few months. 

The Comprehensive Plan is important because it provides the road map for future land use, taking into consideration everything from farmland protection to future infrastructure.  Taking the time to get involved today will help to ensure that the Methow Valley of the future remains a place that is grounded in the values of our local community. 

Here is how you can help be a part of shaping the future of the Methow Valley through this planning process:

• Download the current Draft of the Comprehensive Plan Update at: http://www.okanogancounty.org/planning/ and get familiar with how the Comprehensive Plan is structured.
• Contact the Planning Department to learn which “Neighborhood Group” you are in and when it is meeting next.  Participating in these meetings and sharing your thoughts regarding how best to plan for the future of the Methow Valley is critically important.
• Take a minute each month to review the minutes from the meetings of your Neighborhood Group.  They can also be found on the Planning Department web page under the “Neighborhood Group” heading.
• Watch for future updates to the Draft Comprehensive Plan as well as for opportunities to provide written comment to both you Neighborhood Group and the Planning Department. 
• Get familiar with good resource sites where examples of other successful Comprehensive Plan updates can be found and share this work with your Neighbors.  Check out the Municipal Research and Services Center and the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development for good resources for your Neighborhood Groups.
• Talk to your neighbors and encourage them to join you in participating in this important process that will guide land use decisions and development patterns throughout Okanogan County for the years and decades to come. 

For more information, feel free to contact Jason Paulsen, the Methow Conservancy’s Executive Director, at 996-2870.

Events
Below, you'll find announcements about events or publications (ours and those of other organizations) that we think you might find interesting.

   

July 5th:  “Conservancy in the Commons,” 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.  Join us in the “Twisp Commons” during the Saturday Farmer's Market for fun, interactive, and family-friendly activities and booths on farming, wildlife, plants, land stewardship and more.  You’ll have a chance to win great prizes too!