Our top posts in May: Volcanos, turtles and wildfire safety were popular topics

 Here’s a round-up of some of Ear to the Ground’s most popular posts during May.

Photo: Keith Stoffel (c) 2010

Mount St. Helens blew its top 32 years ago
Highly popular with readers in May was our blog commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980. This posting apparently spurred many to glance back at other blogs we’ve published about Mount St. Helens, including one we published on the 30th anniversary, Unique vantage point gives a very close look at the eruption of Mount St. Helens in which former DNR employee Keith Stoffel describes his too-close-for-comfort encounter with the mountain back in 1980. Stoffel, his wife, and the pilot of the small plane in which they rode barely escaped when the volcano exploded just as they happened to be flying over it. Stoffel managed to take a few photos including the one at the left.

Pitiful fire pits get marvelous makeovers from volunteers
Our description of the fine work that Boy Scouts of America and other volunteers put in over a couple of weekends in May preparing campfire pits in DNR campgrounds for summer recreation was a popular read.

 

Community wildfire preparedness prevents a costly fire
Sometimes what doesn’t happen is what’s most interesting. Many of you read our description of how a rural community’s attention to wildfire prevention (especially brush clearing and tree maintenance) helped save at least one rural home from a wildfire.

 

DNR-managed inmate crews aid restoration of native turtle habitat in Columbia River Gorge
Many of you are drawn to stories about wildlife. Our blog on how DNR-managed inmate work crews are playing a major role in habitat restoration for the native western pond turtle in the Columbia River Gorge was one of the most highly read stories that we posted last month.

 

Hiking Alert: Mount Si and Teneriffe Falls Trails Temporarily Closed
Our blog about a temporary closure of trails in the Mount Si Natural Resources Conservation Area for a helicopter operation also was a popular posting during in May (though the closure wasn’t very popular). All in all, more evidence of how popular this scenic area is with hikers and Ear to the Ground readers.

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Commissioner will celebrate National Trails Day® with volunteers – June 2

The 10,270-acre Middle Fork Snoqualmie Natural Resources Conservation Area in eastern King County designated NRCA by Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark. Photo: DNR

Commissioner of Public Lands, Peter Goldmark, is lending his hand to celebrate the launch of construction on a new Mailbox Peak Trail and trailhead in Middle Fork Natural Resources Conservation Area (NRCA) in the Snoqualmie Corridor during National Trails Day®.

The Middle Fork NRCA is conserved to protect native and unique habitat, while providing trails and facilities that offer low-impact and sustainable recreation, such as hiking and wildlife viewing.

Commissioner Goldmark also will talk about other enhancement projects including:

• Conversion of roads to trails in Granite Creek Basin
• Improving access to the Middle Fork NRCA  (including paving the access road and building  a 42-car parking lot).

This event is a joint project with the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and will also feature a presentation by Sally Jewell, immediate Past President of the Greenway Trust, and CEO of REI.  

Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust have enjoyed a 20-year partnership in many efforts in the I-90 corridor. This partnership has resulted in the Greenway landscape that you see today– a matrix of working forests and conservation lands connecting 1.5 million acres with recreational access for a variety of low-impact activities. The best part: This area is less than an hour’s drive from Seattle.

Mailbox Peak Trail – Did you know?!
The Mailbox Peak Trail is one of the highlights of this National Trails Day® event. It is a hiker magnet, but dangerous conditions and environmental damage have inspired the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and DNR to work with stakeholders to redesign the trail to be sustainable and user friendly. 

…And guess what! You can be a part of the solution by volunteering to kick-off trail construction at Mailbox Peak Trail on June 2! Or join one of the other National Trails Day activities going on across the state.

Happy Trails!

 

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Federal and state agencies to coordinate services to forest land owners

Representatives of several federal and state agencies (including Aaron Everett, Washington State Forester, DNR) sign an agreement for coordinating landowner assistance services. Photo: Washington State Conservation Commission

Woodland and family forest land owners of Washington State will get better coordinated service to help improve their conservation and management under a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by state and federal agencies.

Help answering technical questions about forestry, education and planning opportunities, and incentives to enhance economic value or improve environmental performance are available through an array of state and federal programs. These programs help forest owners plan for the future and prevent forest loss, protect their property against wildfire and forest health hazards, grow better wildlife habitat, protect clean water and restore salmon runs. 

As public budgets tighten, it’s important that these opportunities are closely coordinated to maximize public benefits. But because these forms of assistance come from many different sources and agencies, it can be confusing to know where to start. For example, having a written management plan is almost always required as a condition to receive incentive program benefits, but until now different agencies had different standards for what plans must contain. This agreement aligns those standards, so that one plan works for all.

Forest and woodland property owners learn more about forestry at a Forest Owners Field Day in Jefferson County. Photo: Washington State University Extension.

The agencies and signatories working together on the Washington State agreement include:

• Washington State Department of Natural Resources  (Aaron Everett, State Forester)
• Washington Association of Conservation Districts (Dave Guenther, President)
• Washington State University Extension (Randy Baldree, Associate Director)
• Washington State Conservation Commission (Fred Colvin, Chair)
• USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (Roylene Rides at the Door, Washington State Conservationist)
• US Forest Service (Peg Polichio, Director of State & Private Forestry, Pacific NW Region)

The newly signed Washington State MOU mirrors a national-level collaboration agreement among many of the same parties, who participate in an organization called the Joint Forestry Team.

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DNR Stewardship Forester receives top award

Thanks to his efforts to provide advice and education to small forestland owners, DNR Stewardship Forester Mike Nystrom was named Tree Farm Inspector of the Year by the Washington State Tree Farm Program. Photo: DNR

DNR Stewardship Forester Mike Nystrom was recently named Tree Farm Inspector of the Year by the Washington State Tree Farm Program at its annual awards program in Spokane.

What’s a stewardship forester and what does the State Tree Farm Program do?
As part of DNR’s Forest Stewardship Program, Mike provides forestry advice to family forest owners (generally, small landowners) across Western Washington to help them meet their habitat, revenue and other goals for their forest. The Tree Farm Program certifies that qualifying family forest owners manage their lands in a sustainable manner.

The award recognizes the inspector who performed the most certification inspections in the past year. Mike was selected for the top honor from nearly 100 volunteer inspectors statewide.

Mike is widely known among peers and clients for his exceptional dedication and willingness to go the extra mile to help Washington’s family forest owners. In addition to his days spent advising forest owners, Mike spends many evenings and weekends helping landowner education programs conducted by Washington State University Extension Service across Western Washington. Washington’s small forest owners are very fortunate to have access to Mike’s vast forestry knowledge and experience.

Mike is now being nominated for the Regional Tree Farm Inspector the Year.

The American Tree Farm System began with the certification of the nation’s first Tree Farm near Montesano in 1941. Today, more than 96,000 family forests across the nation are certified by the program.

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Are you ready for the Great Washington ShakeOut? Sign up today and get important earthquake safety tips

The 2001 Nisqually Earthquake caused a masonry parapet to fall from a building in downtown Olympia. The downtown area is built on fill dirt and loose sediments, making it susceptible to earthquake damage. Photo: Joe Dragovich/DNR.

What are you doing at 10:18 a.m. this coming October 18th? We hope you will join with DNR and thousands of other people to take part in the Great Washington ShakeOut (though businesses, communities, schools, etc., can hold their own drill anytime in October). It’s a statewide opportunity to practice ways to be safer during big earthquakes, with a focus on preparation and learning the “Drop, Cover and Hold On“ response.

The annual ShakeOut is organized to encourage you, your school, your business, and other organizations to review and update emergency preparedness plans and supplies, and to secure homes and workspaces to prevent extensive damage and serious injuries during a major earthquake.

Read answers to frequently asked questions about the ShakeOut.

You can register online. And we hope you do. Fewer than 75,000 of Washington State’s 6.8 million residents have registered for the 2012 ShakeOut. Sure it’s not until October but British Columbia already has more than 120,000 people signed up. Even Utah (population 2.8 million) has 940,000 people registered! So, let’s get shaking, Washingtonians!

DNR is an organizer of the Great Washington ShakeOut along with Washington Military Emergency Management Division, the Washington State Seismic Safety Committee and the Washington State Emergency Management Association.

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Preparations underway in Penn Cove to raise sunken vessel

 

The dive vessel Prudhoe Bay is on the scene in Penn Cove at the site where the Deep Sea sank. May 25. 2012. Photo courtesy of the WA Dept. of Ecology

If you were in the vicinity of Coupeville this Memorial Day weekend, you may have seen a parade, watched jets from NAS Whidbey Island fly over, and observed a whole lot of activity on the water as teams of divers and boat operators get ready to remove the sunken fishing vessel Deep Sea.

The vessel, which had been anchored in Penn Cove, caught fire Saturday, May 12, and sank the following evening. It now rests on the bottom in about 60 feet of water and is lying on its port (left) side.

Last Monday, DNR and partners with state, local and federal agencies made the decision to proceed as quickly as possible to remove the vessel.

As barges, dive teams, and environmental-response vessels mobilize to raise the Deep Sea, you can follow the progress. The Washington Department of Ecology, our partners in the removal, have set up a web page specifically for the Deep Sea incident. The web page has photos and underwater videos of the vessel as well as a map of the location where the vessel sank. Check in, also, with Ecology’s Facebook page and Twitter feed for even more current information.

News releases about the Deep Sea removal effort:

• May 22: Removal of sunken vessel in Penn Cove to begin soon
• May 25: Preparations advance for recovery of Penn Cove sunken vessel, with raising seen no sooner than Monday
• May 25: Preparations continue for recovery of sunken vessel in Penn Cove 

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DNR weekend reading: Is the bark beetle infestation contributing to haze and air pollution in forests?

Lodgepole pine killed by mountain pine beetle at Shady Pass in Chelan County, Washington. Photo: Darci Carlson, US Forest Service.

Here are summaries of articles about science topics that we’ve selected for your weekend reading:

Science Daily: Bark Beetle May Impact Air Quality, Climate
The hordes of bark beetles that have bored their way through more than six billion trees in the western US and British Columbia since the 1990s do more than damage and kill pine, spruce and other trees. A new study finds that these pests can make trees release up to 20 times more of the organic substances that foster haze and air pollution in forested areas.

National Science Foundation: Seagrasses Can Store as Much Carbon as Forests
Seagrasses are a vital part of the solution to climate change and, per unit area, seagrass meadows can store up to twice as much carbon as the world’s temperate and tropical forests, say authors of a paper published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.

USGS: Watershed Scale Response to Climate Change—Naches River Basin, Washington
A fact sheet recently published by the U.S. Geological Survey summarizes the potential impacts of climate change on the Naches River Basin below the Tieton River. Global climate change simulations indicate less runoff in the late spring and summer in the future, which would have large implications for water managers who rely on snowmelt from the spring snowpack to replenish reservoirs and provide early season irrigation. As the largest tributary of the Yakima River, the Naches plays a large role in irrigated agriculture in the Yakima Basin. Thirteen other major basins were also studied.

Green (New York Times blog): Hatched and Wild Salmon: A Bad Mix?
Hatcheries are an important piece of salmon sustainability, but a collection of 23 studies published this week in a special issue of the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes presents significant evidence of ecological problems posed by salmon hatched in captivity and then released to live in the wild.

Scientific American: Once-Rare Butterfly Species Now Thrives, Thanks to Climate Change
More evidence that there will be winners as well as losers due to climate change: the once-rare brown argus butterfly is on the move, expanding its range and numbers in the U.K.—and it may be due to climate change.

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Extended Memorial Day weekend is a good time to remember wildfire safety

DNR specialists investigate an illegal campfire that escaped into a wildfire. DNR photo

With evacuations, road closures and the deployment of National Guard and Air Force Reservist crews, the wildfire season got off to a blazing start across the West and Midwest this week. Colorado and Arizona ordered evacuations due to wildfires threatening homes earlier in the week. A wildfire in New Mexico has scorched 82,000 acres and destroyed a dozen homes, and crews are also working on wildfires in California, Michigan and Nevada.

This year, DNR has dealt with more than 140 wildfire incidents on 812 acres within its jurisdiction. The weather remains cool but the extended Memorial Day weekend brings more people into the forests, raising wildfire concerns.

Find the current fire dangers and burning restrictions in your county on the Washington State Burn Risk Map. Read DNR’s wildfire prevention tips.

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YOU can make a difference. Volunteer for National Trails Day,® June 2!

Volunteers making a difference on National Trails Day 2011. Photo: Ray Lapine

Are you ready to make a difference and get some fresh air? Join DNR on June 2 and participate in a national movement to celebrate trails.

On National Trails Day,® formed by the American Hiking Society, you can celebrate trails and make a difference by volunteering with DNR and our partners at events across the state.

 

Where can YOU make a difference?
Check out one of our DNR-sponsored events:

• Yacolt Burn State Forest – Maintain trails on the Cedar Creek Falls Trail
• Elbe Hills State Forest – Enhance horse trails and Sahara Creek Campground
• Middle Fork NRCA – Celebrate and listen to remarks by Commissioner Goldmark and Sally Jewell
• Mailbox Peak – Participate in new trail construction
• Bradley Bike Trails – Improve trails on the Olympic Peninsula
• Tiger Mountain State Forest – Break ground on new bike trails
• Blanchard Forest – Recover trails on the Lower Trailhead
• Capitol State Forest – Get dirty and install culverts on motorized trails
• Capitol State Forest – Lay gravel on new Equine Loop Trail

We’ll see you on the trails!

Volunteer events are happening all the time! Check out our volunteer calendar for a complete listing.

Hold your horses! Barbecue Flats area closed

Getting ready for Memorial Day adventures? Be sure to adjust your plans if you had planned on heading to Barbecue Flats dispersed recreation area in Yakima County— public access is closed.

DNR is working with other landowners to restore public access to this popular area, so stay tuned.

We recommend Cascade Camp as your best alternative for your hiking and equestrian adventures (see map for details).

Warning: There is no turn-around point once you hit the road closure.

What’s worse than being up a creek without a paddle? Driving a horse trailer to a road closure without a turn-around point.

On a more serious note, we are concerned about public safety. Please forward this blog to those you know who may want to visit this area.

The road closure is on Meloy Road, one mile from the junction of Wenas and Audubon Roads.

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