August 2007 ENews
July 2007 ENews
June 2007 ENews

Margaret Anderson with Salmon, photo by Emily Chenel

7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at the Twisp River Pub
The pub will open at 6pm for attendees who would like to purchase drinks or the dinner special (there will not be a full dinner menu).

Come One, Come All to our Annual Fall events: The Cider Squeeze & Social in Winthrop and the Methow Mixer in Seattle

Huckleberries are ripe in the mountains; serviceberry trees are turning yellow and the cold mornings of the “harvest season” are here.  It’s time for these two great events and you all are invited!

Saturday, September 29th is our 4th Annual Cider Squeeze and Social.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. at Dave and Marilyn Sabold's house in Winthrop
Join us for another entertaining celebration of the harvest season with an apple cider squeeze, great food and conversation. It's free and all are welcome. We'll make apple cider with a distinctive historic press; have kid’s activities, music, food, drinks and more.  Meet Conservancy staff and board members, new friends and old friends.  Please bring your own jugs for cider, and apples or food if you wish. RSVPs (by 9/25) appreciated but not required.  Contact Mary at 996-2870 or info@methowconservancy.org.

Tuesday, October 2nd is our annual Methow Mixer
7:00 - 8:30 p.m. at the Flagship REI store in downtown Seattle
Join us at this unique event where we bring the Methow to the Westside for an evening of food, fun and prizes.  For all of you in the greater Seattle area who have a special place in your heart for the Methow, enjoy an evening of friendship and conservation with interesting booths, news from our Executive Director, free raffle prizes, membership gifts, and the Great Methow Treasure Hunt!  RSVPs (by 9/25) appreciated but not required.  Contact Mary at 996-2870 or info@methowconservancy.org.

Liken’ Lichens – A Free Methow Conservancy Fieldtrip

Join us on Saturday, September 15th from 8:45 to 1:30 for a fun and exploratory field-trip with National Park Service Ecologist and Lichenologist, Peter Neitlich, who will open your eyes and mind to the fascinating world of these unique plants.

From the North Cascades Westside forests to the dry eastside forests, join us for a tour of lichen ecology and landscape changes.  The tour will focus on epiphytes (an organism that grows upon or attached to a living plant, including fungi, algae, lichens, mosses, and ferns) but will also include some species of alpine habitats that are southern representatives of species from arctic ranges.  We will make four stops around the areas of Easy Pass trail, Rainy Pass trail, Kangaroo Pass trail at the Hwy 20 hairpin, and Mazama, looking at the changes in lichen communities as we go from west and wet to east and dry. 

Please meet at the Winthrop Barn at 8:45 to carpool.  Parts of trails may be moderately strenuous with some off-trail talus walking at Kangaroo Pass.  Dress for the weather and bring things you’d like to have, such as a camera, water and snacks/lunch, sturdy shoes, and plant collecting bags.  If you have a hand-lens or lichen fieldbook, bring them too.  For more information, call Mary at the Methow Conservancy at 996-2870.  The field-trip is free. 

Methow Valley Deer Hunting Seasons – Things to Know

Deer and the Methow go hand in hand. The largest population of Mule deer in the state resides in Western Okanogan County and White-tail Deer are locally abundant as well.  In November, we'll host a "1st Tuesday"

program on Living with Deer in the Methow.  Before then, general archery and firearm hunting seasons for deer will take place.  Regardless of how one may feel about hunting, knowing when and where hunting may be happening can be helpful info to have.  Here's a quick list of dates and info relevant to deer hunting in the Methow.

Hunting is permissible on most public lands and private lands with landowner permission (the use of firearms is not allowed in town limits)

Many more details can be found on Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife web pages.  Click here for their homepage for Big Game Hunting.  There, you’ll see a link for the Seasons and Rules Pamphlet.

Natural History Book Club Begins Again

Like the start of school, it’s time for us to say goodbye to the lazy, dog days of summer and put our noses back in some great books.  Our three month Natural History Book Club summer break is over and we are starting the new season with a Rick Bass book, The Book of Yaak.  Discussions are held on the fourth Wednesday of every month at the Methow Conservancy office at 6pm.  The October book will be The River Why by David James Duncan.  See the previous books we’ve read and stay up-to-date with the Book Club here.

Wolves in the Methow?

Wolves not been known to be in the Methow Valley for a long while, but their presence here sometime in the future is a possibility according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and many other sources.

The Gray Wolf (Canis lupus), once found throughout much of North America, was largely eradicated from Washington State by the 1930s and has been listed as a federal endangered species since 1973.  There are no federal or state plans to “reintroduce” wolves in Washington but the success of wolf-recovery efforts in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming has prompted the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to propose removing the Gray Wolf from the federal endangered species list.  If wolves are “de-listed” by the USFWS, individual states will be responsible for managing their wolf populations. 

Like neighboring states, Washington has begun the process of creating a Wolf Management Plan in the likely event that the wolf is removed from the federal endangered species list, and they disperse into Washington on their own from neighboring states and Canada.  The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is the agency tasked with overseeing the state “conservation and management plan.”  They formed an 18-member citizen working group early this year and held seven public “scoping” meetings around the state this August, including one in Twisp where WDFW officials provided biological and background information and took questions and comments.  A draft plan is expected by the end of this year and more public comments will be taken in 2008.

Migrating Raptors

The Chelan Ridge Raptor Migration Project is up and running again near Cooper Mountain at the south end of the valley.  This is the 11th year of the partnership between “HawkWatch International” and the “US Forest Service, Methow Valley Ranger District.”  In the last ten years, more than 22,000 migrant hawks, eagles, falcons, harriers, vultures, ospreys, and accipiters have been counted as they leave breeding areas and move to winter habitats.  Biologists working there have also banded or satellite tagged more than 6,000 of these birds.  The Migration Project site is up Black Canyon Rd in the lower valley, and runs from late August until late October.  More than 2000 people have visited the site and had the unusual opportunity to see a live raptor up close.  You can too!  The project is open to the public every day in September and the first three weeks of October. More information is available at the Forest Service office or the Methow Conservancy, both in Winthrop.  Visit their website for more details.  

Events

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

• September 4th: First Tuesday Lecture Alaska's Proposed Pebble Mine; A Journey Through the Watersheds of Bristol Bay
  7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., Twisp River Pub.   See the top of enews for more information.

• September 26th:  Natural History Book Club discussion of The Book of Yaak by Rick Bass 6pm at the Methow Conservancy office.

• September 29th: Fourth Annual Cider Squeeze
  Join us and meet friends new and old at our annual celebration of harvest season and conservation.  Make apple cider with a historic press, and enjoy food, music, and kid’s activities at the Sabold's house here in Winthrop. Start saving your jugs for cider now!