Managing Wildlife Populations
Sage and Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse Workshop: Biologist Heinlen attended the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 34th Biennial Sage and Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse Workshop hosted by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). The workshop provided an opportunity for scientists, managers, and students to share results of their latest research, activities related to management and conservation, and strategies for dealing with the many issues impacting Sage and Columbian sharp-tailed grouse in western North America. The workshop was well attended with state managers, biologists, university scientists, Tribal managers, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), United States Geological Survey (USGS), The Nature Conservatory (TNC), Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS), and others representing many western states and provinces. The Workshop Planning Team did an excellent job planning and implementing this workshop and the associated field trip to grouse habitat in Douglas County.
Lewis’s Woodpeckers: Biologists Eilers and Jeffreys, along with other WDFW and Chelan Public Utilities Department biologists, are wrapping up the final Lewis’s woodpecker (LEWO) surveys at five project areas in Rocky Reach Wildlife Area. Throughout the summer, surveyors completed occupancy surveys and monitored 20 occupied LEWO cavity nests throughout their nesting cycle. Now that birds are fully fledged and nests are unoccupied, surveyors completed habitat assessment around each of the cavity nests. The next steps are summarizing the data and writing a report of this year’s findings.
The goal of this year’s cavity nest surveys was two-part. First, learn more about LEWO nesting phenology and ecology of the population within the Rocky Reach Wildlife Area including clutch size, number of eggs hatched, number of hatchlings to reach fledging or late nestling phase, etc. Secondly, examine these data alongside habitat and microhabitat characteristics for the purpose of drawing inferences regarding nest success of LEWO at both the local scale and microsite scale (breeding territory). These inferences may in turn be useful for informing habitat management considerations at the regional scale (North Central Washington).
Lewis’s woodpecker habitat assessments: Biologist Turnock and Technicians Hara and Force have been assisting District 7 biologists with Lewis’s woodpecker habitat assessments at woodpecker nest cavities. These assessments quantify vegetation and forest characteristics around cavity nests. Biologists hope to link some of these characteristics to nesting success of Lewis’s woodpeckers in the area. These woodpeckers are declining throughout much of their range but are doing quite well in their Washington range, so information learned from this study may inform management of these birds, both where they are thriving and where they are declining.
Northern leopard frog surveys: Technicians Hara and Force and Biologist Turnock have been conducting late-season northern leopard frog surveys in new areas to get a clearer picture of this species’ current distribution. Late summer and early fall can be a fruitful time to survey for northern leopard frogs because juvenile frogs have completed metamorphosis and are more abundant on the landscape. Their tendency to disperse through wet meadows and upland habitat at this time of year can also make them easier to detect. Many of these areas historically contained leopard frogs but have not been systematically searched in over 20 years. It is likely that these surveys will not yield any new leopard frog detections, but these non-detections are just as important as positive detections to give biologists a better understanding of where these frogs are located and where they are not.
Pygmy rabbit captures: Biologists Gallie and Turnock and Technicians Hara and Force assisted with pygmy rabbit captures in the Beezley Hills area. Staff members captured 17 pygmy rabbits in the primary breeding enclosure and moved nine of them to another breeding enclosure in the area. Only the rabbits with the best body conditions were moved to avoid putting undue stress on rabbits with less body fat stored up. This translocation will more evenly distribute rabbits across breeding enclosures and will hopefully ensure that forage is more uniformly available to these rabbits.
Bumble Bees: Biologist Eilers and volunteer members conducted the fourth and final bumble bee survey of the year at a site south of Wenatchee. This year’s survey efforts included four repeated visits to the same site every few weeks to monitor changes in bumble bees and flowering plants throughout the summer season. Habitat data were collected for the grid including identifying and photographing flowering plant (food source) species.
Bees were gently caught in a net, identified to species, and released on-site. The data collected from this survey were entered into the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Bumble Bee Atlas online database. The PNW Bumble Bee Atlas is a collaborative effort between the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, WDFW, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and citizen science volunteers to track and conserve the bumble bees of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon.
Biologists Eilers and Jeffreys hosted the first WDFW public outreach bat night event in early August. This event was a collaboration with WDFW, Wenatchee River Institute, and Bats Northwest for members of the public to see bats up close and learn more about these commonly misunderstood animals. The event was a success with registration booking out with thirty attendees, including a variety that traveled from across the state of Washington. Biologists caught five bats that were a mix of Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis) and little brown bats (Myotis californicus). We look forward to hosting this event again next year – stay tuned with Wenatchee River Institute's newsletters.
Providing Recreation Opportunities
Hunter Access: Biologist Morris continued work on updating five hunter access contracts that are expiring this month. These hunter access contracts are developed with farmers/landowners to provide regulated public hunting access on private lands. If these five contracts were to expire and not be renewed, over 10,000 acres of private land would be lost to public hunting access. Ensuring the contracts get renewed and private landowners are satisfied is an important part of Biologist Morris’ job. Morris also checked and posted signs on recently enrolled and recently renewed hunter access contracts and updated the sites on the private lands hunting access website.
Private Lands Hunter Access Program: Private Lands Biologist Braaten replaced hunter access signs burned by wildfire for landowners in Douglas County. Braaten continues to maintain and update hunter access contracts, mapping and signs.
Fishing Access: August 31st is the last day of the fishing season on Grimes Lake. Morris checked the site, which was free from trash and debris. Responsible recreation and cleaning up after yourself/respecting private property allows continued access to private lands hunting and fishing access.
Conserving Natural Landscapes
Weed Management: Wildlife area staff members have been conducting further herbicide sprays of rush skeleton weed on the Chelan Butte. Significant improvements over the last year have been made and doing controls of bull thistle where forest thinning has occurred.
Native Grass Habitat Plots: Private Lands Biologist Cook and Private Lands Habitat Technician Blanchard mowed a native grass planting in preparation for a fall herbicide application. The herbicide will target downy brome weeds to help native grasses planted this past spring to better establish. Broad leaf weeds were treated in early summer but there was no treatment option for invasive grasses due to newly seeded native grasses.
Supplemental Food and Cover Plots: Private Lands Biologist Cook and Private Lands Habitat Technician Blanchard mowed parts of an irrigated supplemental food and cover plot where Sudangrass was a main component. Mowing is encouraged because it increases root and stem density. Organic matter was added to the soil. This plot was mowed with more height to maintain some cover.
Fire Recovery Potential: Private lands Biologist Cook drove by a wildfire near Lind that affected several landowners that participate in the Hunter Access program. The farmed areas generally were not burned. Some of the burned area is in a Conservation Reserve Program. Native vegetation often regrows if there is not high weed pressure and is present before the fire. Based on the apparent high fire temperatures and the previous vegetation on site, there may be potential for assistance to landowners with revegetation efforts.
Fires: Fire season is still going strong. There have been several small fires in Morris’ area, but luckily only one has grown to a catastrophic size (the fire near Stehekin).
Providing Education and Outreach
Swakane Shooting Range: The Swakane shooting range was cleaned up so that it will be ready to be used once fire restrictions are no longer in place.
Fire Restrictions for Public Notice: To better inform the public about fire restrictions, and hopefully prevent any incidents, new and larger signage is starting to go up around high traffic locations of the wildlife area.
2024 WAFWA Grouse Workshop (Wenatchee, Washington): Private Lands Biologist Braaten gave a tour stop presentation on importance of private landowner relationships, the design of the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement Conservation Reserve Program farm bill program and discussed the realities of conservation to landowners in Douglas County. Braaten also brought along the new Private Lands Program tree/shrub planter to show tour participants the kind of equipment WDFW uses in habitat restoration projects. The field trip portion of workshop was a big hit, providing a great opportunity to connect and share knowledge with partners.
Conducting Business Operations and Policy
Annual Evaluation Process: Supervisor Rickel completed the annual evaluation process for Wildlife Conflict and Private Land staff.
