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Josh, Minda, & Amy,
Sounds like another historial TB trip! I am so glad you all are back in one piece. Many thanks for getting the fish into the lakes and for being safe.
Rex
Chuck,
We are all very glad that you are safe and sound. There could not be a better ending to this story.
Hope to see you at the meeting,
Rex
Hey Dave,
Thanks for the photos of the stocking sheets from Tokul; very handy for me in keeping tabs on who has stocked their lakes since not everyone goes on line to fill in their stocking information.
Thanks again,
RexHI John,
I have posted an answer to your question of “How are we doing towards completing our plants this year?” under “High Lakes Maintenance, so I hope you will not mind going there to read it.
Thanks,
RexI sent a copy of DNR’s response to Chris Donley, WDFW Inland Fish Manager. He has been trying to work out an MOU with DNR so we can stock the NRCA waters. He replied that what DNR’s said in their letter was news to him and that to his knowledge, DNR has made no such agreements with WDFW. So, as I suspected, the letter from DNR is just a batch of bull.
We need more people to send letters to DNR on this subject. I think this will have a possibility of breaking the deadlock with DNR. So I am asking everyone to write a letter. Feel free to use my letter as a template.
Thanks,
RexHey Mick,
What are the arrangements for getting all the people to the east trailhead, leaving cars on the west, and then getting people back to pick up their cars on the east side?
Thanks,
RexI think this is basically a good idea and there have been several interesting alternatives offered as well. I personally contacted Brian Curtis to see if any of the ideas would be a problem to implement and he indicated no problem. As much as I like the idea of a graduated incentive, my logical brain says it is a bit too complicated, so I would recommend that we pick a simple solution like the first one proposed in Rich O’Connell’s first message. Since the bottom line to me is to promote more surveys, I would prefer to stay with the 10 surveys for 8 years or 200 overall, or pick even higher numbers. The present 5 surveys a year to see other surveys is to me a bare minimum and we should really be promoting more than that.
Rex
Cliff,
Yanling and I were shocked to hear about your injury. Our thoughts are with you and we hope your recovery is complete. Please take care.
WOW!
If you have not gone to see and hear this, you are missing out.
I am blown away by what Steve Norris has been hiding from us.
Steve, You are amazing!
Since I will be gone to China until November, John Taylor will be stepping in to help with HLM while I am gone. So if anyone cannot stock their lakes or if you are willing to help stock a lake for someone who can’t, send an email to John, Brian, and please include me too so I know what is happening. I will be able to do email from China but not on a regular basis.
Have a good time while we are gone and be safe out there in the woods.
I will have to disagree with Vlad on no Yellow Jacket Bees when it is raining. A couple months ago, Yanling and I were up Stossel Creek checking out some beaver ponds. It was raining. We had stopped to take a picture. As I positioned myself to take the photo, I noticed that something was wrong. I felt this stinging sensation on my stomach? For a second or so, I tried to ignore it and just take the photo, but as you can imagine, it finally got my attention and I figured out it was a bee. We took off running, but of course my pack was still sitting there so I had to go back. It appeared that I stopped to take the photo with my foot right on top of their nest. As I moved my feet a little to get in the best position for the photo, I must have knocked on the door to their nest several times. Since it was raining, they could not fly very well, but it appeared that they crawled up my pant leg and nailed me pretty good.
So, I do not think a rainy day can totally eliminate the risk of bee stings, especially if you are really persistant like me and keep stomping on their nest until they come out to play.
Rex
Pete Smith has asked me to comment on the fish stocking situation on the Snoqualmie Tree Farm. Since I was directly involved with the process that restarted the stocking in 2008, I can provide some clarification. If you want to read all the details for yourself, I wrote an article in the April 2008 Hi-Laker Newsletter (Issue 13.2), which is available on our web page. Here is a breif summary. When Weyerhaeuser sold the property and Hancock became the new managers, Chad Jackson (WDFW Biologist for Region 4 at that time) had to get a new agreement with the landowner before there could be any further fish stocking. For a multitude of reasons, communication difficulties, WDFW reorganization, work load, new biologist in Region 4, biologist retiring, etc, an agreement was not reached for a number of years. By the time that all the dust had settled and Chad was re-assigned at the Biologist in charge of these waters, Hancock was no longer in the mood to discuss fish stocking on their property due to costs to meet new legal requirements for culverts to allow for fish passage. To try to resolve this issues, Bill Henkel arranged a meeting with Hancock Biologist Tim McBride. Chad Jackson, Steve Regis, Bob Pfeifer, and myself were also at this meeting. We were able to convince Tim that allowing fish stocking on the tree farm would buy Hancock a lot of good will with the public, so he agreed to present the stocking idea to the owners. When there was no timely response, a letter writing campaign was intiated. This did the job and Hancock agreed to allow the fish stocking on the Tree Farm once again. So in 2008, the Trail Blazers stocked 5 lakes on the Tree Farm and we had our foot in the door.
In 2009, the Trail Blazers once again stocked several lakes on the Tree Farm and Chad Jackson agreed to work on getting a 5 year agreement in place in 2010 to avoid having to arrange an agreement each year. We were all very optomistic. Then came the state financial crunch. WDFW was heavily affected. Chad Jackson was re-assigned. Region 4 was left in disarray. The new biologists were very busy just trying to learn what they were suppose to do. To add to the mess, here came the 2 new clubs that requested to stock lakes that have been historically stocked by the Trail Blazers. As a result of all these demands on the new biologists who were just getting their feet on the ground, the complicated negotiations with Hancock did not occur and we were not able to get permission to stock any waters on the Tree Farm in 2010.
To try to avoid a repeat of this in 2011, as the Low Lakes and Beaver Pond Chairman for the Trail Blazers, I have requested that the Region 4 biologists start the negotiations with Hancock now and I have been told that they plan to send Hancock a letter soon. I am hopeful that we will be stocking lakes on the Tree Farm in 2011.
The situation with Nadeau, Moolock, and SMC is totally unrelated. These lakes are on DNR property. At present DNR has drawn a line in the sand and said they will not allow any stocking on these lakes and several other waters on certain of their lands. At present, WDFW is trying to change this through negotiations with them. Perhaps it is time for another letter writing campaign?
Ken,
Another great adventure with a successful stocking trip. I have to admit that you have beat me with the most elevation in one day; well done. Thanks for sharing and thanks for getting it done.
The Trail Blazers kick butt!
Rex
John and Andy,
Well done! I have to say that I remember the route and trail being very brushy; it must have been fun being so wet.
Thanks for getting the job done!
Rex
