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Hookah lounge can’t allow indoor smoking

Judge rules in favor of Snohomish Health District

Snohomish County Health District

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. – Hookah lounges are just like bars, restaurants and other businesses when it comes to the state law that prohibits smoking indoors.

Washington’s Smoking in Public Places law, or SIPP, was passed by voters in 2005 and prohibits smoking in public places and places of employment.

On Feb. 26, following a two-day trial in Snohomish County Superior Court, downtown Everett’s Hideout Hookah Lounge, also known as the Wetmore Café, was ordered to comply with the law by prohibiting indoor smoking by its patrons. In addition, the court levied fines of $89,100 against the business owners for “intentionally and repeatedly” violating the law after numerous warnings and an official Health Officer’s Order from the Snohomish Health District, which brought the lawsuit. The fine was based on $100 per day per violation..

A hookah is a glass pipe filled with water that is used for smoking flavored tobacco, often by several people at once. Hookah is a growing trend that has the attention of public health because it attracts young people to a dangerous habit.

“Smoke is smoke,” testified Snohomish Health District Health Officer Dr. Gary Goldbaum. “Hookah tobacco may smell sweet and be cheaper than cigarettes, but it is no less harmful or addictive. Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death and disease in the United States.

“We are glad this ruling makes it clear that hookah is not a potential business opportunity – it’s an unhealthy behavior that people can choose to do in private, but they can’t expose other people to it,” Goldbaum said.

Health District staff made several initial visits to the Hideout Hookah Lounge in February 2012, shortly after the business opened as the first of its kind in Snohomish County. Staff attempted to educate the

owners about SIPP requirements such as prohibiting indoor smoking, smoking at least 25 feet from doors, windows and air intakes, and posting “no smoking” signs which were provided by the Health District. City of Everett police and the state Liquor Control Board were also involved in seeking to enforce the state’s no indoor smoking ban

The court determined that smoking in the Hideout Hookah Lounge resulted in smoke permeating adjoining public uses within the building, directly in violation of SIPP’s goal of protecting people from secondhand smoke. The ruling also established that charging a membership fee or providing a membership card does not make the Lounge a private club. In addition, since it was established that the Hideout Hookah Lounge is a public place and a for-profit business, employees need to be protected from secondhand smoke under the SIPP law. Workers are defined as employees under state law even if they “volunteer” for no pay.

Thirteen follow-up inspection visits and numerous letters and notices directing the business to stop allowing indoor smoking were issued by the Health District before it filed the lawsuit in June 2012.

“It’s important that we provide a level playing field for all businesses that comply with the law,” explained Snohomish Health District Tobacco Program and Healthy Communities specialist Ann-Gale Peterson.

Snohomish Health District officials continue to work with county and city staff to ensure that potential business owners and code enforcement officers understand that SIPP prohibits smoking in all public places and in places of employment.

“Our goal is to educate and gain compliance with businesses through cooperation,” Peterson said. “We always hope to avoid court action and consider it a last resort when all other options for enforcement have failed,” she continued.

To report SIPP violations or learn more about local tobacco programs, call the Snohomish Health District Tobacco Resource Line at 425.339.5237. The state Tobacco Quit Line may be reached at 1.800.QUITNOW (800.784.8669).

Established in 1959, the Snohomish Health District works for a safer and healthier Snohomish County through disease prevention, health promotion, and protection from environmental threats. Find more information about the Health Board and the Health District at http://www.snohd.org.

Lincoln’s Birthday Special to Treaty Tribes

“Being Frank”

By Billy Frank Jr., Chairman, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

OLYMPIA – We’ve been hearing a lot about Abraham Lincoln in recent months after the release of the movie about how he abolished slavery by pushing the 13^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution through Congress.

Not many people know it, but Lincoln’s birthday on Feb. 12 also holds a special place in the hearts of the treaty Indian tribes in western Washington.

It was on that day in 1974 that federal Judge George Boldt handed down his landmark ruling in U.S. v. Washington that upheld our treaty-reserved fishing rights and established us as co-managers of the salmon resource.

Although he was ready to rule sooner, Judge Boldt purposely delayed the court proceedings so that he could deliver his decision on the birthday of one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had, a president who upheld the basic human rights of all people. And that’s what Judge Boldt did. He upheld our rights, and for that we will always be grateful.

It’s been 39 years now since Boldt’s decision, and things have changed a lot since then.

More than 1 million people have moved into western Washington, making a big impact on our natural resources.
Herring populations in Puget Sound – an important food for salmon – have shrunk to a small fraction of former levels.
Our floods and droughts have gotten worse because of climate change and changes we’ve made to our landscape.
We’ve lost nearly all of our old-growth forests, native prairies and salt marshes.
We’ve also lost most of our salmon harvest. Ongoing damage and destruction to salmon habitat have led to tribal harvest levels that are lower than they were in 1974, and this trend isn’t showing signs of improvement.

Nonetheless, we are hopeful as we begin planning for the 40^th anniversary of the Boldt decision next year.

As part of the celebration, a pair of movies that focus on the treaty fishing rights struggle were recently released by our friends at Salmon Defense, a non-profit organization working to turn the tide for salmon.

The first is “As Long as the Rivers Run,” the fundamental documentary about the Fish Wars of the 1960s and 70s by Carol Burns and Hank Adams. They generously donated the film to Salmon Defense so that it can be preserved and shared. The second movie is “Back to the River,” which was produced by Salmon Defense to provide additional perspectives on treaty rights and the natural resources management challenges we face today.

Both of these movies are available for free by contacting Salmon Defense at salmondefense.org or by calling (360) 528-4308.

Checklist of what to do in the garden in March

Published Monday, March 4, 2013, 12:01 a.m.in the Everett Herald, Mudrakers Blog: Digging into all kinds of gardening

By Steve Smith

March is a very busy month in a gardener’s world. There is much to do, so let’s get with it.

Lawns: I continue to be amazed at how well organic lawn foods work. Yes, they seem expensive if you just look at the price on the bag, but they last three to four times as long as the commercial ones and improve the soil. Maybe it is time for you to kick the Scotts Turf Builder habit and start using these all natural and organic feeds. Most independent garden centers will have a turf expert on staff that can help guide you through this transition.

Pruning: Yes, March is the month to trim fruit trees, tidy up hedges, cut back ornamental grasses, massacre the roses and shape up the wisteria and clematis. While we have had some dry days already, I have to admit that I don’t get these chores done until this month, so don’t feel bad if you too still need to do a bit of chopping.

Perennials: Be careful this month when you are tromping through the flower beds. The tender new shoots of perennials are starting to pop through and the last thing you want to do is squash them.

Veggie gardens: It’s time to get the veggie garden in shape. Remove any weeds and spread lime, organic fertilizer and compost and till it all together. You will be ready to plant all the cool season crops like potatoes, carrots, peas, radishes, onions, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower — to name just a few. Buy a sheet of “row cover” to protect your babies on the really chilly nights. This is also the time to plant perennial veggies like rhubarb and asparagus.

Small fruits and berries: Blue berries, raspberries, black berries and strawberries are all itching to be planted this month. They are still dormant and will slip into your garden now and never skip a beat. Grapes and Kiwis, currants and gooseberries can also be planted now. Always use some compost and organic starter fertilizer when you are planting new plants.

Fruit trees: Like I mentioned above, this is the consummate month to prune and spray your fruit trees with copper and oil. It is also a perfect time to plant a few new ones as well. Most trees these days are on dwarf or mini-dwarf root stocks that keep them 10-12 feet tall.

Bulbs: Summer blooming bulbs are now in stock, such as dahlias, gladiolas and lilies. Purchase them this month for the best selection, though I would recommend holding off until April to plant them.

Weeds: Don’t let those weeds get ahead of you and go to seed. My favorite weeding tool is the Hula-Hoe. It is quick and efficient. Remove the weeds and get the ground covered immediately with a layer of compost and some Preen and you will be miles ahead of the weeding game.

Educational opportunity: Two options on this front. Come see me at the Everett Home and Garden Show on Friday to Sunday. On Saturday come to the nursery at 10 a.m. to learn about growing roses in the Northwest. Hope to see you at one or both of these events.

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached online at info@sunnysidenursery.net

Next razor clam dig starts March 7

March 01, 2013

Contact: Dan Ayres, (360) 249-1209

Washington State Dept of Fish and Wildlife

OLYMPIA – State fishery managers have approved an evening razor clam dig that will run March 7-11 at Twin Harbors and some of those days at three other ocean beaches.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) approved the evening dig after marine toxin tests showed the clams on those beaches are safe to eat.

Dan Ayres, WDFW coastal shellfish manager, said the dig will extend for five consecutive evenings at Twin Harbors, the beach with the most clams available for harvest. Long Beach will be open for digging March 8-10, while Copalis and Mocrocks will be open March 9-10.

No digging will be allowed at any beach before noon.

Ayres said an extra evening of digging – March 8 – has been added to the original schedule at Long Beach, because diggers harvested fewer clams than expected there last month.

In planning a trip to the beach, all diggers should be aware that Daylight Saving Time starts March 10, Ayres said.

“If you forget to set your watch ahead, you could miss an hour of prime digging,” he said, noting that the best digging occurs an hour or two before low tide.

Evening low tides for the upcoming dig are as follows:

March 7, Thursday, 3:06 p.m., +0.3 ft., Twin Harbors
March 8, Friday, 4:01 p.m., 0.0 ft., Twin Harbors, Long Beach
March 9, Saturday, 4:50 p.m., -0.2 ft., Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis and Mocrocks
March 10, Sunday, 6:33 p.m., -0.2 ft., Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Copalis and Mocrocks
March 11, Monday, 7:12 p.m., 0.0, Twin Harbors

By law, clam diggers are limited to 15 razor clams per day, and are required to keep the first 15 clams they dig. Each digger’s clams must be kept in a separate container.

All diggers age 15 or older must have an applicable 2012-13 fishing license to harvest razor clams on any beach. Licenses, ranging from a three-day razor clam license to an annual combination fishing license, are available on WDFW’s website at https://fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov/ and from license vendors around the state.

map_beaches — Beaches in Washington with razor clam fisheries include:
Long Beach, which extends from the Columbia River to Leadbetter Point.
Twin Harbors Beach, which extends from the mouth of Willapa Bay north to the south jetty at the mouth of Grays Harbor.
Copalis Beach, which extends from the Grays Harbor north jetty to the Copalis River, and includes the Copalis, Ocean Shores, Oyhut, Ocean City and Copalis areas.
Mocrocks Beach, which extends from the Copalis River to the southern boundary of the Quinault Reservation near the Moclips River, including Iron Springs, Roosevelt Beach, Seabrook, Pacific Beach and Moclips.
Kalaloch Beach, which extends from the South Beach Campground to Brown’s Point (just south of Beach Trail 3) in the Olympic National Park.

Information about the location of Washington’s razor clam beaches, as well as current and proposed digs, is available at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/razorclams/current.html.

Tyonek People in Alaska Set Month of March to Be Friendly: It’s Time for the Ida’ina Gathering

Children are all smiles at the Ida'ina Gathering in 2012. All photos by Becky Pertrovich. — Children are all smiles at the Ida’ina Gathering in 2012. All photos by Becky Pertrovich.

Tish Leizens, Indian Country Today Media Network

What started two years ago in Anchorage, Alaska as a gathering of friends has become a major yearly event for the Tebughna, the Beach People, and it is drawing popular Native entertainers like Redbone and thousands of guests.

The Tebughna Foundation, the sponsor, has set the Ida’ina Gathering for March 29 to 31, at the Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center (for details, click here). The three-day family affair is packed with activities and serves as the main attraction, with several events leading up to it.

“We started this gathering in March 2011. Ida’ina means friends—friendship,” said Emil McCord, executive director of the foundation, adding that they invite all tribes from Alaska and those who just want to enjoy the festivities.

The Tebughna Foundation is supported by Anchorage-based defense manufacturing company Tyonek Native Corporation. Tebughna is the name given to the Tyonek people, who live in Anchorage and in the Village of Tyonek, 40 air miles away.

The first pow wow was an immediate hit, said McCord. “The first year, we got lots of feedback after the gathering. They love the entertainment and atmosphere.”

“We attract about 6,000 people in three days. People come from South Dakota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina and Canada,” he said.

“This year, we expect a little more because we have popular groups coming,” said McCord referring to Rebone and the Barrow Dancers, whose members are Inupiaq. In all, he said, there are 40 group dancers performing.

Among the performers on the list are drums featuring Alaska Nativedancers: Tyonek Traditional Dancers, Ida’Ina Dance Group, Cordova Ikumat Aluttiq Dancers and Ahtna Heritage Dance Group.

Drum groups Namawochi Tribe from North Carolina and Braveheart from South Dakota will also perform as well as a hoop dancer still to be determined.

Headlining the Benefit Concert on the second day is Redbone, a Native American rock group that hit the music charts with the single “Come and Get Your Love,” in 1974, and Medicine Dream, an intertribal First Nations group that perform contemporary Native American music.

Chief Lil Wolf, also known as DJ Braun, 17, who set up his own recording studio in his bedroom and writes his own music will also perform live before his home crowd for the first time.

The run-up to the pow wow are crowd pleasers on their own. On February 8 a sponsor mixer was held where the entertainers and sponsors meet and greet in a food and dance gathering.

On March 12 to 16 the first annual Ida’ina basketball tournament will be be held at the Wendler Middle School. Some 18 adult teams are competing in the tournament.

For the teens, the competition to be Miss Ida’ina ends on March 15, the deadline for Alaska Natives, ages 16 to 25, to write an essay on how they’ve helped their communities and why they should be the next Miss Ida’Ina. The winner gets a $500 scholarship.

Returning this year is the Native Style Runway, where talented artists are given a chance at the Gathering to show their individually designed regalias.

McCord said there is an effort to bring the dates closer. “We started the basketball tournament this year, but the city of Anchorage did not have gym space available close in time to the Gathering. Next year, we want to have it leading up to the Gathering so that visiting teams can attend the Gathering if they chose to.”

Navajo Nation Thawing Out From Devastating Winter

Anne Minard, Indian Country Today Media Network

The Navajo Nation is finally emerging from Operation Winter Freeze, an unprecedented weather-related state of emergency in which more than 3,000 homes lost water due to frozen and broken pipes.

The disaster stemmed from a run in late December and January when nighttime temperatures hovered at around 20 below and daytime temperatures stayed below freezing. “It’s not unusual for temperatures to drop into the negative 20s,” said Erny Zah, spokesman for Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly. “What’s unusual is that it happened for nearly three weeks consecutively. It got to the point where some of us were talking about 15 degrees being warm.”

As a result, the ground froze to a lower depth than it normally does and froze buried water pipes, which started a cascade of breaks—as soon as workers would get a section of pipe thawed, the water would rush to the next frozen section and cause a break there. The freeze reached all the way up to the ends of the lines, freezing hundreds of meters at homes. The bursts and leaks drained millions of gallons from water tanks, depleting pressure system-wide in some cases and threatening the closure of some essential facilities, including a hospital in Fort Defiance, Arizona. The disaster struck far and wide across the Navajo Nation, from Tuba City, Arizona and southern Utah’s Navajo Mountain in the west to Window Rock and Crownpoint, New Mexico in the east.

The governors in both Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency due to problems created by the extreme temperatures. More than 3,500 homes reported water outages, and by the third week in February water had been restored to two thirds of those. The crisis wiped out $780,000 in the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority’s (NTUA) rate-derived contingency fund, and Shelly is seeking $2.8 million more to cover ongoing work by both authority crews and those visiting from other agencies on and off the reservation.

In addition to asking for funds from its tribal council and a hodgepodge of tribal, state and county agencies, the Navajo Nation has a new source of support in the federal government. The tribe is working on its own emergency declaration, made possible when President Obama amended the Stafford Act on January 29 to allow federally recognized tribes to seek a federal emergency or major disaster declaration directly from the president. “A lot of tribes are watching us to see how we handle this,” Zah said. “It’s a brand-new process. It’s something that has never been done in U.S. history.”

Tribal personnel have been working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to quantify disaster-related costs, and they expect to appeal to the president in late February for funds.

Rex Kontz, deputy general manager for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, said that although many of the frozen pipes were installed in the 1950s, the freak weather was much more to blame than any engineering shortfalls. For starters, most of the pipes are buried at a safe depth of three to four feet beneath the surface. “We’ve discovered some pipes that are shallow, from people who have regraded roads or from erosion,” he said. “But we had some pipes at normal depth that were freezing, big control valves that just completely split and cracked. In the 26 years I’ve been at [the authority], I’ve never seen a main line freeze at that depth.”
Kontz said pipes installed before the 1960s were laid by the Navajo Nation or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and after that, Indian Health Service took over. He worked with the Indian Health Service in the 1980s, and at that time they were using PVC pipes, which withstand freezing better than older, galvanized iron pipes that underlie most of the reservation—including the tribal office complex.

To some extent, he said, the pipes that were likely to be problematic have now been revealed—that is, busted. To revamp all the old, at-risk piping could cost close to copy billion. “It’s something we’re going to have to scale over years,” Kontz said.

Meanwhile, 15 Navajo utility crews, plus eight from the Navajo Engineering and Construction Authority and two from the Salt River Project in Phoenix, have been fixing pipes; and most remaining jobs are in the most remote areas. The freezing temperatures and snow of weeks past have given way to much warmer days, so getting work equipment stuck in mud has become a regular challenge. Often it takes a crew an entire day to restore water to a single home.

Lydia A. Lee, an elder in the eastern Navajo community of Red Gap, waited two weeks for a crew to fix the broken pipe outside her home. She had to buy bottled water for drinking 30 miles away in Fort Defiance, and needed a donation of wash water from her church. On the bright side, her pipes might be more reliable than before, said NTUA engineer Jason Corral.

As for the crews slogging through the mud to restore water to Navajo Nation residents, they seem more than willing to help. Zah noted that federal safety regulations limit workers to 75 hours a week, and up to 15 hours a day. “They’re hard workers,” he said. “They’d work more if they could.”

Their sacrifice and dedication can be seen in Rico Burbank, a young Navajo utility pipe-layer who has a newborn at home with his wife in Chinle, Arizona. He said it has been hard to be away from his 3-month-old son, but he seems resigned to answering the call of duty. “I see him once a week,” he said. “Every Friday I go home, see him and come back to work again.”

Keith Harper, Cobell Lawyer, Bundled at Least $500,000 for Obama’s Re-Election

Keith Harper. Courtesy Flickr/Center for American Progress Action Fund/Ralph Alswang

Rob Capriccioso, Indian Country Today Media Network

Keith Harper, one of the principal lawyers who negotiated the $3.4 billion Cobell settlement with the Obama administration, has been listed by the Obama-Biden campaign as one of the top voluntary campaign finance bundlers for the president’s successful re-election in 2012.

Harper is part of a list of what the Center for Responsive Politics calls “758 elites” who directed “at least copy80,100,000 for Obama’s re-election efforts—money that has gone into the coffers of his campaign as well as the Democratic National Committee,” according to opensecrets.org.

Harper is listed as a bundler of “$500,000 or more.” The donations he collected are largely believed to have come from wealthy tribal donors, as he oversaw multiple Indian donor events during the 2012 election season, while also working for Indian interests in the Cobell settlement with the federal government, which was first announced in December 2009 and became final after appeals from four Indians drew to a close late last year.

Harper’s bundling effort matched the contributions of such notables as actor Will Smith, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith, actress Eva Longoria, filmmaker Tyler Perry, singer Gwen Stefani, and producer Harvey Weinstein.

The Center for Responsive Politics also indicates that Harper personally contributed $2,500.

Obama’s re-election campaign voluntarily released its latest batch of bundler data in early March. The campaign for failed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has not disclosed its complete list of bundlers, and has not said it will.

Harper is a partner with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. Beyond the Cobell case, the firm has also represented several tribes in separate multi-million dollar trust settlements with the Obama administration.

The Cherokee lawyer has been a principal in the ongoing Cobell litigation since he worked for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) in the 1990s. Harper left NARF in 2006 to work for Kilpatrick Stockton.

As the Cobell settlement payment process to individual Indians continues to take place over this year, lawyers with NARF are currently battling Kilpatrick Stockton and other lawyers involved in the case for a share of the approximately copy00 million designated for lawyers involved with the litigation. A hearing on the lawyers’ fees is scheduled to take place March 18 in Judge Thomas Hogan’s U.S. district courtroom in Washington, D.C.

March 1 was the deadline for Indian class members to have submitted their applications to receive the second payments of the Cobell settlement, the trust administration class payments. Most Indian beneficiaries in the case will receive less than $2,000.

Wolf comeback spurs hunt for nonlethal controls

Robert Millage shows his rifle with a wolf he shot Sept. 1, 2009, on the first day of wolf hunting season along the Lochsa River in northern Idaho. Photo: Associated Press

Oregon may serve as a model for limiting livestock losses without having to kill wolves.

By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — As long as wolves have been making their comeback, biologists and ranchers have had a decidedly Old West option for dealing with those that develop a taste for beef: Shoot to kill. But for the past year, Oregon has been a “wolf-safe” zone, with ranchers turning to more modern, nonlethal ways to protect livestock.

While the number of wolves roaming the state has gone up, livestock kills haven’t — and now conservation groups are hoping Oregon can serve as a model for other Western states working to return the predator to the wild.

“Once the easy option of killing wolves is taken off the table, we’ve seen reluctant but responsible ranchers stepping up,” said Rob Klavins of the advocacy group Oregon Wild. “Conflict is going down. And wolf recovery has got back on track.”

The no-kill ban has been in place since September 2011. That’s when the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it planned to kill two members of the Imnaha wolf pack in northeastern Wallowa County for taking livestock. Conservation groups sued, arguing that rules allowing wolves to be killed to reduce livestock attacks did not comply with the state Endangered Species Act. The Oregon Court of Appeals stepped in, prohibiting wolf kills while the two sides work to settle, although ranchers who catch wolves in the act of killing livestock may still shoot them.

At the end of 2012, wolf numbers in the state had risen to 46 from 29 in 2011, according to state fish and wildlife officials. Meantime, four cows and eight sheep were killed last year by two separate packs, while 13 cows were killed by one pack in 2011.

Wallowa County cattle rancher Karl Patton started giving nonlethal methods a try in 2010, after he fired off his pistol to chase off a pack of wolves in a pasture filled with cows and newborn calves. State wildlife officials provided him with an alarm that erupts with bright lights and the sound of gunshots when a wolf bearing a radio-tracking collar treads near. He also staked out fladry at calving time. The long strings of red plastic flags flutter in the wind to scare away wolves. The flags fly from an electrically charged wire that gives off a jolt to predators that dare touch it.

The rancher put 7,000 miles on his ATV spending more time with his herd, and cleaned up old carcasses that put the scent of meat on the wind. And state wildlife officials text him nightly, advising whether a wolf with a satellite GPS tracking collar is nearby.

“None of this stuff is a sure cure,” said Patton, who worries the fladry will lose its effectiveness once wolves become accustomed to it. Such measures also can’t be used in open range.

Seen as a scourge on the landscape, wolves were nearly wiped out across the Lower 48 by the 1930s. In 1995, the federal government sponsored the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. They eventually spread to Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington and California.

With wolf numbers approaching 1,800, the federal government dropped Endangered Species Act protection in 2011 in the Northern Rockies, eastern Oregon and eastern Washington, and turned over recovery management to the states.

While ranchers are not happy with the wolf comeback, the wider public is. A 2011 survey for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife found 74.5 percent of Washington residents believe it acceptable for wolves to recolonize their state.

Wolf advocates hope the Oregon experiment can spread elsewhere, especially Idaho, which had 746 wolves in 2011. In 2012, hunters and wildlife agents killed 422 wolves, compared with 296 for 2011. Sheep and cattle kills, meantime, went up from 192 in 2011 to 341 in 2012.

Idaho Fish and Game biologist Craig White said it “raised eyebrows” on both sides of the wolf debate when the livestock kills rose even as more wolves were killed. Previously the trend had been for livestock kills to go down as wolf kills went up. The state plans to continue killing wolves until elk herds — their primary prey and a popular game animal — start increasing, he said.

The Idaho numbers show “you can’t manage wolves using conventional wisdom and assumption,” said Suzanne Stone of Defenders of Wildlife in Idaho. “Using these old archaic methods of managing predators by just killing them is not working.”

In “no-kill” Oregon, ranchers disagree. Wallowa rancher Dennis Sheehy puts bells on his cattle to help scare away wolves. He also spends more time with his herd, and cleans up old bone piles. Nevertheless, he believes a kill option should always be on the table for wolves that prey on livestock. The 2011 ban, he said, “really upset people around here.”

Patton has never lost a cow while using the fladry and alarms. But two were killed on the open range and one in a large pasture where such protection measures are impractical. He has also found tracks showing wolves crossed the fladry and walked among his cows without, for some reason, attacking them.

He still believes the only way to deal with wolves that attack cattle is to kill the whole pack.

“It’s frustrating, more than anything, because we have our hands tied,” he said. “You can kill a man (who) comes into your house to rob you. Wolves are more protected than people.”

4 in Congress back bill to halt removal of wilderness lookout

A bill in Congress would overturn a court order to remove the historic Green Mountain lookout.

By Gale Fiege, Herald Net

DARRINGTON — Lawmakers are pushing to protect the Green Mountain forest fire lookout and establish federal wild-and-scenic status for Illabot Creek, both in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

Four members of Washington state’s congressional delegation — Democratic U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Democratic Reps. Suzan DelBene and Rick Larsen — introduced legislation this past week.

In the case of Green Mountain Lookout, the aim is to protect the lookout, located in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. The legislation comes after a Montana-based group filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service for using a helicopter and machinery to repair the lookout, in violation of the federal Wilderness Act.

The Forest Service maintained that the lookout’s historical significance made it an allowable project. As a result of the lawsuit, the U.S. District Court in Seattle ordered the Forest Service to remove the lookout from the 6,500-foot mountain.

George Nickas, director of Wilderness Watch, the group that sued, says the proposed legislation picks away at the Wilderness Act.

Federal wild-and-scenic status for Illabot Creek would protect it as an important habitat for threatened wild chinook salmon, steelhead, bull trout and other wildlife, while maintaining recreational opportunities such as hunting and fishing, said Murray’s staff in a joint press release from the four law makers.

Martha Rasmussen, the head of the volunteer group Darrington Area Friends for Public Use, said she has a mixed reaction to the proposed legislation.

Rasmussen and many people in Snohomish County support the protection of the Green Mountain lookout, one of few surviving fire lookouts in the West, she said.

“It’s a shame that those who want it torn down pit history and heritage against wilderness. The effort to save the lookout failed in court because of the language presented. It needs to be challenged,” Rasmussen said.

Illabot Creek is actually in the Skagit County part of the forest, but it always has been a destination from Darrington, she said.

“The thing I worry about with the wild-and-scenic designation is that repairs to access roads may be too expensive or not be allowed in the protected area, so we stand eventually to lose Illabot as a destination,” Rasmussen said. “I don’t want the designation.”

Green Mountain’s lookout was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Along with its use as a key fire lookout in the logging heyday, Green Mountain also was an early warning station for aerial attacks during World War II. The lookout is on national and state registers of historic places.

Illabot Creek flows into the Skagit River watershed, which includes parts of northeast Snohomish County. The watershed supports one of the largest concentrations of wintering bald eagles in the country.

The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by Congress in 1968. It prohibits dams and other water projects that impair the free-flowing nature of listed rivers and establishes a protected corridor on both sides of the river.

The proposed laws are the same as those that were presented last year, according to Larsen’s office. The bills expired at the end of the past congressional session and had to be re-introduced. Green Mountain and Illabot Creek now are in DelBene’s 1st Congressional District, redrawn last year and removed from Larsen’s 2nd district.

Celebrating the Historic Ties of Native Americans to the Bison

Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on March 1, 2013

By John Calvelli

[Note: This is the third in a series of blogs by Calvelli celebrating the history and conservation of the American Bison.]

Native American groups joined with bison producers and conservation organizations in 2012 to initiate a campaign called Vote Bison. The campaign, which grew to include 35 coalition members across the nation, had a simple goal: to urge all members of the U.S. Congress to support the National Bison Legacy Act, which would designate the American bison as our country’s National Mammal.

The Vote Bison campaign continues in 2013 and is currently working with Congressional champions in the 113^th Congress.The participation of Native American tribes derives from cultural and spiritual connections to the American bison, or buffalo, spanning many centuries – one that is richly reflected in Native American historical and religious narratives.

Read the rest of the article here.