EARLY LAST YEAR, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife floated a proposal to purchase a parcel of land that would restore recreational fishing access to Wentworth Lake near Forks.
The idea of a land donation began when Rayonier, which owns much of the neighboring forest land near the site, locked its gates to the public and imposed a $30 access fee.
Rayonier’s decision was made to stem a tide of illegal dumping and various untoward activities taking place on the timber firm’s land holdings.
A reader recently inquired about the lake’s status for the coming summer, so I followed up with Julie Sandberg, Fish and Wildlife’s Real Estate Services manager.
“When the original owner of the property near Wentworth Lake first offered a portion to WDFW as a donation, he was actively logging the property and we couldn’t gain access for a thorough assessment,” Sandberg said. “The property was then sold and the new owner called to inquire about Fish and Wildlife’s interest. We made a site visit and determined the access would prove costly to provide both road access across other private landowners’ [property] and to construct a boat ramp for the public.”
That’s a letdown for West End anglers, particularly those who would like to fish a lake a little more off the beaten path than Lake Pleasant or with less restrictive rules like Beaver Lake where selective gear rules limit anglers to unscented artificial lures or single-point barbless hooks.
Trout plants intended for Wentworth Lake have instead gone to the rearing ponds at the Bogachiel Fish Hatchery, so look for continued limits at what has become a popular, if not at all difficult, fishing hole. That type of experience sounds tailor-made for young children, a perfect opportunity to get the youngsters hooked on fishing, if you will.
As an early reminder, kid’s fishing days are set Saturday, April 7 at the Lincoln Park Ponds in Port Angeles; Sunday, May 6 at the Bogachiel Hatchery Rearing Pond and Saturday, May 19 at the Water Reclamation Pond at Carrie Blake Park in Sequim.
Check this column for further details closer to those dates.
Jefferson lakes stocked
Four Jefferson County lakes have been stocked with trout in the last month.
Anderson Lake near Chimacum received the majority, a total of 2,595 smaller rainbows.
Tarboo Lake was planted twice on Feb. 9 and 15 with 50 total larger rainbows. Gibbs Lake received a plant of 40 large rainbows on Feb. 15 and 40 big rainbows were placed in Sandy Shore Lake on Feb. 9.
The lowland lake season opener is set for Saturday, April 28. Check the current fishing regulations at tinyurl.com/PDN-FishRegs18 to see what lakes are currently open.
Massive cougar tagged
Earlier this month, state wildlife biologists caught, tagged and released a 197-pound cougar north of Spokane near Chewelah.
“This guy was unreal,” Brian Kertson, a Fish and Wildlife carnivore research scientist told the Spokesman-Review in Spokane. “I wish more people could have seen him firsthand because the pictures don’t do him any justice.”
The cougar is the largest captured in Washington as far as Kertson knows.
“He was a monster,” he said. “A cougar that pushes 200 pounds I don’t care where you are in the world that’s pretty extraordinary.”
Kertson has caught a number of cats that weighed more than 170 pounds. On average, tom cougars weight between 150 and 155 pounds.
The cougar’s head measured 56 centimeters in circumference and Kertson described the big cat’s size as “cartoonish. Like how a little kid would draw a cougar.
The animal was 9 years old.
According to Bart George, a wildlife biologist for the Kalispel Tribe, the cougar was eating mostly elk.
The big cat was captured as part of Fish and Wildlife’s predator/prey study. Kertson said the study is aimed at trying to better understand the relationship between wolves and ungulates. However, a secondary consideration is how wolves and cougars interact.
Since Dec. 2016, Kertson has captured 20 cougars and collared 16.
“General dogma is that wolves are dominant to cougars,” he said. “I’m a little more skeptical of that narrative.”
The biologists got the collar on the cougar and took some basic measurements. But even after receiving two and a half doses of tranquilizing drugs the animal didn’t stay out long. Just 55 minutes after being first tranquilized the king cougar was up and heading back into the woods.
“That was definitely a once in a lifetime thing for us,” Kertson said.
As for wolves, Washington’s wolf population continued to grow in 2017 for the ninth straight year, according to the results of an annual survey conducted by Fish and Wildlife.
The state was home to at least 122 wolves, 22 packs, and 14 successful breeding pairs, based on field surveys conducted over the winter by state, tribal and federal wildlife managers.
Survey findings reflect information from aerial surveys, remote cameras, wolf tracks, and signals from radio-collared wolves.
Ben Maletzke, statewide wolf specialist, said that all of those totals were the highest recorded since the department began conducting the surveys in 2008. Last year’s survey documented 115 wolves, 20 packs, and 10 breeding pairs.
Maletzke emphasized the surveys represent “minimum counts” of wolves in Washington state, due to the difficulty of accounting for every animal – especially lone wolves without a pack.
Maletzke said the study documented four new packs — the Frosty, Grouse Flats, Leadpoint, and Togo packs — all located east of the Cascade Mountains. Two previously identified packs – the Skookum and Sherman packs — were not included in the pack totals for last year because the first could not be located and the second now appears to have only one member.
Wildlife managers have also been tracking the movements of a wolf in the North Cascades in Skagit County that was captured and fitted with a radio-collar last June, but so far no other wolves have been confirmed in the area, Maletzke said.
All but eliminated from western states in the last century, Washington’s wolf population has rebounded since 2008, when wildlife managers documented a resident pack in Okanogan County. According the 2017 survey, 15 of the 22 known packs are located in Ferry, Stevens, and Pend Oreille counties in the northeast corner of the state.
Maletzke said five of the 22 known packs that existed in Washington at some point during 2017 were involved in at least one livestock mortality. After conducting investigations, Fish and Wildlife confirmed that wolves killed at least eight cattle and injured five others last year. The state processed two claims totaling $3,700 to compensate livestock producers for their losses in 2017.
“We know that some level of conflict is inevitable between wolves and livestock sharing the landscape,” Maletzke said. “Our goal is to minimize that conflict as the gray wolf population continues to recover.”
The survey also documented 11 wolf mortalities in 2017 attributed to legal tribal harvest (three), legal “caught-in-the-act” shootings (two), vehicle collisions (two), and four other incidents involving humans that are still under investigation.
Contributors to the annual survey include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program, the Confederated Colville Tribes and the Spokane Tribe of Indians.
