1 OREGON WILDLIF NOVEMBER, 1975 ',, 111 I! ' 1 u, w ', 4 et; on ef _ o t": 9 o a, 'St E8151'Ì li tie J 1 I, 7 v s,,, z ' y ` ol, ^ 1f 4 s, 4t `1 : ' 4 _i,i _, J Y i 74 P è 711 ' S] o o
OREGON WILDLIFE NOVEMBER 1975 Volume 30, No 11 OREGON FISH & WILDLIFE COMMISSION Allan Kelly, Chaiman Potland Fank Pozzi, Vice Chaiman Potland Ms Allen Bateman Klamath Falls John Boye Bellfountain Walte Lofgen Potland McKee Smith Potland Jack Steiwe Fossil JOHN W McKEAN, Diecto Oegon Wildlife is published monthly by the Oegon State Depatment of Fish and Wildlife Volumes 1 though 28 wee entitled Oegon Game Commission Bulletin RON E SHAY, Edito Pemission to epint is ganted; cedit would be appeciated Oegon Wildlife is ciculated fee of chage Please epot change of addess pomptly giving both new and old addesses and zip codes Second class postage paid at Potland, Oegon All coespondence should be sent to: Oegon Depatment of Fish & Wildlife PO Box 3503 1634 SW Alde Potland, O 97208 The Cove A tanquilized elk being hauled out of a canyon fo tansplanting Tials and tibulations of elk eseach ae discussed in featue aticle Photo by Bob Mace HUNTER EDUCATION PROGRAM INSTRUCTORS APPROVED Month of Septembe 58 Total active 1,777 STUDENTS TRAINED Month of Septembe 3,135 Total to date 225,365 HUNTING CASUALTIES REPORTED IN 1975 Fatal 2 Nonfatal 24 PROGRESS OF MERGER With the assistance of the Executive Depatment, a plan fo meging the pogams, popeties, and people of the fome Fish Commission and Wildlife Commission into a single Depatment of Fish and Wildlife is now nea completion but subject to appoval by the Emegency Boad of the Legislatue in Novembe The pimay objective of Senate Bill 613 was to ceate a single policy making Commission to conside the welfae of fish and wildlife esouces and the inteests of all Oegonians That goal was achieved on June 27 when the Goveno appointed the seven membe Commission Most obseves agee that the new Commission has done a commendable job with the many contovesial decisions that have been equied duing the last fou months On Septembe 1 the heads of planned divisions and sections of the oganization wee appointed and on Octobe 10 the Fish and Wildlife Commission appoved an oganization and housing plan fo consideation by the Legislatue One of the majo poblems faced by the new agency is that of housing the expanded opeation The Wildlife Commission acquied an old gaage in 1947 and emodeled it to povide a headquates office It was a cowded facility fo the Wildlife Commission and is gossly inadequate fo the combined agency At pesent the Depatment's staff is distibuted as follows Wildlife Building SW 17th and Alde, Potland (229 5551) Administation Wildlife Division Potion of Fish Division Infomation and Education Business Management and Accounting State Office Building SW 5th and Columbia, Potland (229 5660) Envionmental Management Engineeing Fish Cultue Lands Clackamas (657 2000) Potion of Fish Division This divided household and the esultant changes in addesses and telephone numbes have ceated some intenal and extenal communication poblems Ou intent is to give all inteested pesons a complete epot on the new oganization afte the Emegency Boad has appoved the plan In the meantime, please bea with us We ae confident the new system will povide moe effective and efficient pogams fo the benefit of fish and wildlife esouces and the people of Oegon John McKean, Diecto The Fish and Wildlife Commission will hold a public heaing stating at 8:30 am Novembe 25 at its Potland headquates office at SW 17th and Alde The heaing will be pimaily to conside adoption of administative ules connected with the holding of public heaings Also the Commission will eview staff ecommendations concening changes in the methods used to issue vaious contolled hunt tags Page 2 NOVEMBER 1975
COMPLEXITIES OF WILDLIFE RESEARCH by Jim Hape Envionmental Management Section Edito's Note: If one wee to believe evey animal life pogam shown on television, the only conclusion to be eached would be that all of the ills of the wild wold could be solved eithe by tanquilizing and tansplanting ceatues, o though eseach Intepid scientists ae shown casually dating eveything fom hinos to ingtails and the esult is always the same The animal esponds immediately, pedictably, and gently falls to eath in a convenient spot A viewe can have no idea how much film must have ended up in the waste bin befoe the coect effect was obtained Additionally, eseach conjues up visions of white smocks, micoscopes, test tubes, and all sots of neat, odely pocedues in a shiny laboatoy Though some biological eseach can be accomplished in this setting, esults in wildlife eseach must be found afield Ove a peiod of yeas the pocedues in many types of eseach poject have been efined and somewhat appoach the type of thing shown on televison Howeve, wheneve one woks with biological sciences, the pocedues neve become 100 pecent outine In ou featue this month Jim Hape, who is now in the Envionmental Management Section of the Depatment, tells of his ealy expeiences in eseach a numbe of yeas ago We've come a long way since Jim stated his poject but, still, in the athe new science of wildlife management, answes gained though eseach always seem to bing foth a whole new set of questions ; it,43! I I/ Don Holm, Oegonian outdoo edito, and Dave Stoup of DFW staff examine the colla placed on the neck of a tanquilized elk Animals ae blindfolded to lessen thei alam at being handled The dug used immobilizes them but they can still see OREGON WILDLIFE A L t; In ealy 1963 a biologist joined the eseach staff of the then Oegon State Game Commission and was assigned the duty of detemining movements of Roosevelt elk Techniques wee up to him but the Game Commission needed infomation on the home ange of elk The task seemed simple and he ventued foth with geat optimism Daktai was then a popula television pogam and the ease in which elephants, lions, monkeys, and othe jungle dwelling species wee tanquilized led the biologist to believe elk would be a snap Meely dug the animal, attach visible tags, ecod his movements fo a yea, and bingo, the poject was a success Fist, dug the animal That would equie a dat gun, dats, and dug A company in Geogia advetised a gun which used cabon dioxide to popel a dat like pojectile Howeve, the pojectile was a syinge, not a dat, and syinge size vaied fom about 1 inch to 10 inches in length, depending on the dug dosage equied Dug dosage? How about the type of dug? A seach though vaious books evealed ove 100 chemicals that had been used on animals, but none ovely successful on elk One Page 3
dug seemed to wok well on a vaiety of antelope type animals in Afica and the biologist easoned that what's good fo an Afican antelope should be good enough fo elk The poblem how to obtain succinylcholine chloide How should it be odeed, quat, pint, gallon? Was it liquid o powde? The local phamacist evealed that the dug was available in 20, 50, and 100 milligam concentations Not wanting to appea ovely ignoant, the biologist odeed the 20 milligam, then went home to figue out the size of syinge to use with that concentation How much succinylcholine chloide should be used on an elk? Back to the books It takes 216 milligams fo a zeba, 21 fo a gazelle, and 13 fo a wildebeest An elk weighs moe than all thee By guess and by golly the syinges wee odeed, hopefully the coect size While waiting fo the tanquilizing equipment, the biologist decided to make some ea steames and collas Seemed simple, but imagine selecting a mateial with enough stength to endue at least one yea at tempeatues anging fom below feezing to nea 100 and ainfall up to 80 inches annually; duable enough to stand ough teatment, igid enough so it wouldn't fold and obliteate the numbe, yet weak enough to beak if the animal became tangled in bush; have a suface coating on which a numbe could be painted and the paint would last all yea Finally a suitable mateial was found in an upholstey shop Five yads of the fabic was puchased along with acylic paint and a set of stencils Two weeks late things wee eady, o so it seemed Anothe poblem aose How much dug was needed to immobilize an elk? Too little would be ineffective; too much would be fatal The safest appoach appeaed to be to stat at 5 milligams and wok upwads until an adequate dosage was found Afte all, if Daktai could do it, so could a Game Commission wildlife eseache In those days the Millicoma Tee Fam in Coos County had lage numbes of elk The animals wee elatively docile because of the logging taffic and, as long as a peson emained in a vehicle, he could appoach within 20 o 30 yads befoe Page 4 An ea tagged cow elk In addition to small ea tags as shown hee, animals wee sometimes dessed with wide, numbeed collas and eventually with small adio tansmittes so thei movements could be monitoed they spooked Eveything was eady The syinges wee loaded, the gun was chaged with cabon dioxide, and the moment of tuth had aived It was shotly afte dawn and the biologist had taveled a little moe than a mile into the aea when lo, within 20 yads of the oad fed 12 elk Easing alongside the animals, the eseache caefully cocked the gun, aimed fo the hip, and fied With a poof, the syinge left the gun, made a complete loop in the ai and hit a stump, 10 feet in font of a cow Huiedly the gun was eloaded and fied again, the syinge hitting at the animal's feet; anothe eload, aim high to allow fo the dop, fie The syinge took off like a ocket ight whee the gun was aimed, landing in 3241591"J/ the hillside 20 yads beyond the cow That's the way it went fo a month Shoot high, low, in a cicle, but neve ight on The gun had to be completely dismantled, cleaned, and oiled befoe it would wok popely Finally, a hit with 5 milligams, no eaction; 10, 15, 20, 25, still nothing At 30 milligams the fist animal was dugged and tagged, nealy fou months afte the poject was initiated Ove 700 animals wee to follow the fist one but it was soon leaned that the numbe of animals tagged had little to do with leaning about animal movements What happens afte the animal is tagged? That's easy Dive aound, find it, and ecod the numbe Sounds geat, but thee's a hitch, o ' : 4 NOVEMBER 1975
,, E ; 1 A" 4 o ~,` 00); ; '+äa`,, f Movement studies showed that Roosevelt elk may spend thei life in a elatively small aea compaed with thei cousins, the Rocky Mountain elk As a esult, tapping and tansplanting pogams wee initiated to move animals to unused habitat Though individual animals wee moved at fist by dating them, late effots have utilized coal taps athe seveal hitches One animal tagged in a hed is insufficient to detemine movements of all animals within the hed Elk inhabiting level teain tend to move longe distances than those living in steep, ugged county Bulls have diffeent movement pattens than cows and calves Theefoe, seveal animals should be tagged in each hed A simila numbe should be tagged on idgetops, in canyons, in valleys Diffeent age of animal and sex should be well epesented in the total numbe tagged Anothe poblem encounteed was if a tagged animal was not obseved, whee was it ove the next idge, lost its tag, dead? Some additional technique had to be available to OREGON WILDLIFE i, 6_ ; c W :,: ò + ""t gi4,,,,, 1 qrs v`0 i, ',' 'Vo ti, 4 á : ` «ks t, s :,, 1,:s 441 :s ft " t w _ K E Ìw L410;," a ~ e), ;, itsk: answe that question Hee was a eseach biologist nealy two yeas into a poject with a simple objective of detemining how fa an elk moves So fa, about all that had been accomplished was 1) how a dat gun woks, 2) how to hit an elk, 3) how to tag an elk A confeence meeting with the head of eseach was in ode Afte consideable debate with the Chief of Game Reseach, it was decided adios would be the answe Simply slip a adio aound an animal's neck, tune in the eceive, find the beep beep, and you find the animal Geat Back to the field, full of enthusiasm and optimism The adios and eceives wee odeed and eceived A cow elk was '' i, VOL :,,;,,i,at u M: + V44;" 4 _ amop w "4` _ 1 ue? `, dugged and the adio attached aound he neck The eceive, with a esounding beep beep, gave assuance that all was well The next day only inceased the optimism The cow was located in a dense stand of Douglas fi The following day the same geneal aea was visited and the eceive tuned on nea the timbe whee the cow had been located peviously No beep beep A few hunded yads down the oad a hed of elk was feeding on a side hill The sunlight glistened fom the tansmitte aound the neck of one of the cows but the eceive gave out no impulse Zeoing in with the spotting scope evealed that the case caying the batteies had been smashed and the batteies completely boken off Evidently the cow had hit a had object with sufficient foce to beak the case So it went fo anothe thee months Tansmittes wee boken o just plain wouldn't wok The animal would be ove a idge and couldn't be picked up with the eceive Gadually, howeve, poblems wee eliminated and the question was answeed of whee a tagged animal was when not obseved Nealy thee and one half yeas following initiation of the poject it was finally detemined how fa an elk moves and the size of aea used by the animals annually It may be of inteest to note that 92 pecent of the cows and 80 pecent of the bulls spent the entie yea within a 4 squae mile aea Daily distances taveled vaied fom 500 to 1,200 yads, depending on foage availability The elk movement poject is typical of poblems that can be encounteed in wildlife eseach In many pojects it takes moe time to pepae fo the study than it does to actually find the answe Think how difficult a poject would be to detemine the food habits of couga, the movements of wolveine, the epoductive ate of goillas Much gound has been coveed in wildlife eseach; much moe emains to be coveed The next time you ead o see on television the esults of such eseach, the sea otte tansplant to Oegon fo instance, think a bit about the fustations and failues that went into the poject befoe the objective was eached Page 5
';f,' Camp Ceek: Rebith of a Section Steams and wetlands ae unique units of the land equiing special consideation to pepetuate thei many values Camp Ceek, a tibutay of Cooked Rive, is located some 27 miles east of Pineville Resevoi in Cook County It is about 20 miles in length About 9 miles flow though public land managed by the Bueau of Land Management and 11 miles though pivate land The ceek aea and adjacent lands have been gazed fo about 100 yeas Notes of the Suveyo Geneal of Oegon made in 1875 descibe the Camp Ceek valley floo as a wet meadow and the existence of seveal mashes was noted A U S Geologic suvey made only 28 yeas late in 1903 descibed the aea as it is today Camp Ceek and its tibutaies nea the main channel ae now gullies 15 to 25 feet deep and 25 to 100 feet wide Duing fomation the valley floo was scoued out of the John Day beds and then filled to a depth of about 20 feet with fine gained steam deposited silt This soil is pincipally clay deived fom volcanic sediment Heavy livestock gazing on both the upland aeas and the valley educed the stabilizing vegetation This intensified wate un off and tiggeed the gullying of the valley floo The acceleated eosion not only cut though the soft bed of silt and the iegula sheet of steam deposited gavel but, in places, excavated channels to a depth of 4 to 6 feet into the undelying shales As the wate table dopped, the plant community changed fom wet meadow to sage and abbitbush It has been established that steam channel and steamside plant communities ae the single most poductive wildlife habitat, type To impove wildlife habitat, a coopeative Oegon Wildlife Commission Bueau of Land Management fencing poject was initiated in 1965 on the eoded Camp Ceek channel About 1 /10 mile of baen gully was fenced to exclude livestock and pemit vegetative ecovey Tall wheatgass and sweet Page 6 by Haold Winega Wildlife Habitat Biologist, Pineville $i +`v' " ; X*h `,,?z;s1` = s4 1 df:,íc i`+,th w i Y a `, ;l itj i ß ' lti`` k *4; f ' Above and below, befoe and afte Uppe photo shows Camp Ceek as It looked afte 100 yeas of had gazing and little potection When cattle wee fenced out, the ceek quickly stated ehabilitating itself In the lowe photo, note the new plant gowth in the ceek bottom and thickening of the gowth along the cut bank Eosion was slowed and many foms of wildlife etuned to the aea i `` ` '' '`'!ly 1` e, 5 : : `,_, _ `, ;,,,,, Aatly 0,yí`~ ai l + á Î : '7+} 4Y 7 J;t 4f "f?, ` ti, ;, i 1,N4%,! `' :_ 7 a '`voss," ;' "110 is A ` R z NOVEMBER 1975 "Th
i" clove wee seeded to speed the ecovey In the sping of 1966 some willow cuttings and Russian olive seedlings wee also planted in the fenced aea Continued concen fo wildlife habitat plus a seious tubidity poblem in Cooked Rive have since boadened objectives of the poject Fo this eason an additional 22 miles of channel was fenced in 1969, 11 miles in 1971, and 6 mile in 1974 Thee ae now 4 miles of fenced channel Being studied ae plant and animal esponses and the effects of egowth on wate quality Uninhibited plant gowth appeas to be the key to the functions of the steam community Plantings of intoduced species wee successful but the phenomenal gowth of native plants which took place appeas to be of geatest value Of 42 plant species identified and found abundantly within the potected aea, 18 wee known to be pesent befoe fencing The steamside plants, in thei natual sequence, exhibit specializations fo soil stabilization and the eventual establishment of a community Two ecognized functions of the plants ae the stabilization of the channel and the influencing of soil deposition by educing wate velocities Anothe function of these plants, not fully undestood, has been the filtation of soil paticles fom flowing wate To detemine the impotance of these plant functions, it was necessay to compae sediment loads of wate befoe and afte flowing though the potected channel Wate samples wee taken fom flows enteing the fenced channel, leaving the fenced channel, and at a point about 35 miles downsteam fom the poject Sampling was done duing thee un off peiods on Febuay 23, 1972, Febuay 10, 1973, and Novembe 9, 1973 Reductions in sediment loads of 79 pe cent, 48 pe cent, and 69 pe cent, espectively, occued in the 4 miles of potected channel An inteesting obsevation was made fom the Novembe sampling elating to tubidity caused by suspended sediments in Cooked Rive Wate taken fom inflow of the Middle Fok of Camp Ceek contained cetain sediments which emained in suspension in the sample bottle In contast, the wate sample taken fom the outflow, below the poject, settled and contained no suspended mateial afte thee hous, indicating the capacity of the vegetation within 4 miles of ungazed steam channel to etain the extemely fine soil paticles Futhe studies will have to be made to find all of the souces of tubidity in Cooked Rive Two steams, howeve, have been labeled as majo contibutos Camp Ceek was identified as a souce of suspended sediments and Bea Ceek as the lagest single contibuto of total sediments Bea Ceek, which flows diectly into Pineville Resevoi and sampled duing one un off peiod in 1972, povided nealy one half the total sediment dischage to the esevoi The sediment dischage ate measued at that time was 693 tons pe hou In addition to downsteam benefits, the sediment etention by plants in Camp Ceek is esulting in a build up and a ise in the wate table within the potected channel A ise in the wate table could mean an incease in vegetative poductivity of the adjacent land though which it flows This building pocess is simila to that which oiginally ceated the meadow The plants, binding togethe a mat of plant mateial and soil at thei espective levels, ae often buied in the deposition of watebone soil They then egow to thei nomal statue and epeat the pocess With this infomation concening plants, soil, and wate, one might now be inquiing: What about wildlife? Wildlife esponses ae being studied and, although infomation is incomplete, some inceases have been obseved Two of the most noticeable wildlife esponses wee with beave and watefowl No beave had been seen in the Camp Ceek Valley in the thee yeas pio to the fencing in 1966 Thei pesence was fist noted in 1971 whee they had constucted a dam nea the upsteam end of the poject In 1972, beave wee seen and dams wee located on two sites By 1973, beave had constucted eight dams within the 4 miles of fenced channel Pio to the fencing, watefowl wee aely seen and no watefowl nesting had been obseved in the immediate aea Since 1969, fou to six nesting pais of ducks have been seen annually and boods of pintails and mallads have been obseved Systematic obsevation outes have ecently been established to monito changes in wildlife numbes and species To detemine wildlife esponses which can be attibuted to the fencing, epesentative unfenced contol aeas ae also being censused Ten species of mammals, 30 species of bids, and two kinds of eptiles have been identified in the aea The Camp Ceek study is one of seveal steam channel fencing pojects unde way in cental and easten Oegon Thei pimay pupose is to study and demonstate the multiple esouce value of the steamside plant community Most ange types ae composed of plants which can be maintained in good condition and often impoved with managed gazing The steam side o ipaian plant community, howeve, is an extemely sensitive ecosystem in which natual functions ae impaied o lost by gazing distubance In semi aid egions, soil loss in excess of natual eosion will continue to occu in gazed steam channels Gazed steams will contibute only pat of thei potentials fo fisheies and wildlife habitat and clea wate In a New Yok Times aticle entitled "Spacecaft Eath is Oveloaded ", Nathaniel P Reed, Assistant Secetay of the Inteio, commented, "When astonaut Neil Amstong stood on the moon gazing at ou planet, he eflected, `Although it is vey beautiful, it is vey emote and small We have all been stuck by the similaity to an oasis, an island Moe impotant, it is the only island we know that is a suitable home fo man' "The Ameican deam, based as it is on the concept of unlimited esouces, is witheing away The eath as a place to live has a limited amount of ai, wate, soil, mineals, space and othe natual esouces and today we ae pessing had on ou esouce base We have been living high on the hog without egad to the long ange consequences of achieving ou shot tem goals" OREGON WILDLIFE Page 7
Dift Boat Shocking An impotant esponsibility of Oegon Fish and Wildlife Depatment fishey biologists is to maintain and impove spot fishing oppotunities fo Oegon's angles Lakes and steams within the state ae eceiving a continuing incease in angling pessue and it is essential that fishey management pactices insue poduction of desiable fish species in suitable habitat This esults in today's fishey manages spending an inceasing amount of effot in fish habitat impovement activities One of the most widely used techniques of fish habitat impovement employed in the state of Oegon is the contol o elimination of populations of undesiable fish This educes competition fo food and space with desiable fish species and may eliminate o educe the pedation aspect of undesiable fish on a by Gay Andeson Fishey Biologist, Entepise desiable fish population Chemical contol, using otenone, has been caied on widely thoughout the state fo many yeas This method has one majo disadvantage in that it eliminates all fish, both wanted and unwanted, in the wate body being teated This has led the fishey biologist to seek out methods of contolling populations of selected unwanted species without eliminating the desiable species that may be pesent, such as tout, salmon, and othes One such method of contol cuently being used on notheasten Oegon steams uses electoshocking equipment mounted on dift boats This technique fo ough fish contol has ecently been used on the lowe 10 miles of the Wallowa Rive and on 36 miles of the Gande Ronde Rive fom the mouth of the Wallowa Rive down Fish scooped out afte a shocking expeience Patial contol of unwanted species is accomplished this way Tout and othe desiable species ae etuned to the wate with no pemanent damage fom the electical shock to the community of Toy These sections of steams ae fo the most pat unoaded and have been vey popula ove the yeas fo eceational float tips A suvey conducted in 1971 indicated that 3,200 eceational days wee spent on these sections of the Wallowa and Gande Ronde Rives by float boat paties Of this numbe, 2, 000 eceational days wee enjoyed by angles who took about 1,800 fish, mostly ainbow tout Inteviews with angles who fished the Wallowa and Gande Ronde Rives ove the yeas seemed to indicate that tout fishing was not as poductive as in past yeas and that angles wee catching moe undesiables species such as suckes, squawfish, and cap Catch infomation indicated a low population of tout in these steam sections Subsequent fish population sampling poved that a vey high pecentage of the fish population in the lowe Wallowa and Gande Ronde Rives consisted of suckes, whitefish, squawfish, cap, and edside shines with suckes and whitefish t, 91 L 1 _ 0 ` ' ti [ I t, l I 1',; ti 1 o 31 Page 8 ^a / i w4 Il :: mou _ t!` ' ` _!; / i do s '}!+'s+,! t t, 4 1 ` / i P % / 11 NOVEMBER 1975
' pedominating It appeaed that a ehabilitation poject in the fom of eithe a complete kill o a patial kill of the undesiable fish population was necessay to impove the conditions fo tout A complete kill was uled out because seasonal timing made it impossible to use the chemical without eliminating numeous juvenile salmon and steelhead that ea in these steams as well as adult salmon o steelhead and the existing population of esident tout It was unde these cicumstances that dift boat shocking was employed to attempt to emove as many as possible of the undesiable fish without killing the vaious game fish species that wee pesent Electoshocking equipment used fo collecting fish basically consists of a potable geneato equipped with a convesion unit to poduce DC electicity Chain electodes ae mounted on each end of the boat and hang into the wate to intoduce the diect cuent into the wate As the boat passes ove fish, they ae momentaily stunned and can be dipped fom the wate This type of equipment seems to wok best in wate fom about 2 feet to 5 feet in depth As the fish oll to the suface, the opeato can visually select out the undesiable fish such as suckes, squaw fish, cap, edsided shines, and othes Desiable species ae left in the ive and quickly ecove Duing the summe of 1974, appoximately 6,000 pounds of suckes, squawfish, cap, and edsided shines wee emoved fom the lowe Wallowa and Gande Ronde Rives in notheasten Oegon using the dift boat shocking technique The void in the habitat was then filled by estocking 25,000 fingeling ainbow tout In the summe of 1975 an additional 3, 600 pounds of undesiable fish wee emoved and 20,418 ainbow tout fingeling stocked Hopefully, by continuing this pactice of emoving a potion of the ough fish population each yea and then estocking with a fish species desied by the angling public, fishing oppotunities can be impoved in the lowe Wallowa and Gande Ronde Rives In addition, the poject impoves the eaing capabilites of these steams fo juvenile salmon and steelhead ;, Spotsmen Lend a Hand Ca+ The Klamath County Fly Castes assist in putting ock filled gabions in Sping Ceek to hold back wate to cove newly placed spawning gavel just upsteam Ove the yeas, vaious spotsmen's clubs have contibuted time, labo, and money to pojects to benefit the fish and wildlife esouce We've epoted a few of these instances in ou magazine and we'e sue we've missed a numbe of them Fom Wendell Stout, fishey biologist at Klamath Falls, comes the stoy and pictues of anothe such incident Ealie this yea the Klamath County Fly Castes wee appoached to see if they would be inteested in helping to ehabilitate a section of Sping Ceek The aea to be woked on lies about 150 feet upsteam fom the confluence of Sping Ceek and the Williamson Rive adjacent to U S Highway 97 This aea is a histoical spawning aea fo the wild Williamson Rive ainbow tout Howeve, ove the yeas the spawning gavel had eoded away, leaving mostly a siltstone bedock bottom with almost no spawning oppotunity emaining Some ainbow do spawn fathe up the ceek The lowe eaches of the Williamson ae now managed as wild tout wates with emphasis on quality angl I } ivi,, ' t, íi +11,: a t ' o 'w fs a ', ^? f, * "" ing fo lage, natually spawned fish The poject was an attempt to enhance the wild tout population fo both steams by impoving this fomely poductive spawning aea Afte the necessay pemits wee obtained fom the State Land Boad and the State Paks Depatment (the aea is within Collie State Pak), the Fly Castes, with assistance fom the Depatment of Fish and Wildlife, flew at the task On the 27th of Septembe the cew went to wok and placed 30 yads of lage quay ock in sceen gabions to make a slight baie acoss the ceek Then 300 cubic yads of steam gavel, 1/a to 1 1/4 inch size, was placed upsteam behind the gabions This was leveled out to an aveage depth of 1 to 2 feet The gabions, which ae basically lage boxes made of chicken o simila wie filled with ocks, ae designed to keep the gavel fom washing downsteam Only time will tell of the success of the spawning aea ehabilitation but the poject couldn't have been accomplished as quickly o economically had it not been fo the assistance of a goup of concened and willing citizens OREGON WILDLIFE Page 9
This and that compiled by Ken Dubin Ancient Species The littebug is one of the oldest living species on eath Keep Ameica Beautiful, the national litte pevention oganization, epots that littebugs wee active in the days of ancient Rome Achaeologists ex cavating Heculaneum, a Roman city buied unde lava fom Mt Vesuvius in the fist centuy of the Chistian ea, found a sign at a cossoads waning that littees would be fined o subjected to copoal punishment Visitos to William Shakespeae's bithplace in Statfod, England may see a sign on the wall of one of the ooms epoting that "John Shakespeae, the poet's fathe, was fined fo depositing ubbish in Henley Steet in 1552" One of the fist ecoded actions against litte in the U S was an editoial in a Boston newspape in 1784 condemning the litte left behind afte an Independence Day celebation The city fathes wee uged to pevent a ecuence The majo diffeence between ancient and moden litteing is that thee is a lot moe of it in pesent day civilization Litte today takes a half billion dolla a yea tax bite out of the national pocketbook That is the amount of the annual cleanup bill The species could be eliminated, howeve, if each peson would assume esponsibility fo the pope disposal of his own litte and tash It is the individual who ceates litte, and only the individual can pevent it This means you and me New Jesey Outdoos * Junk In Obit Litte isn't eathbound anymoe Thee ae appaently about 3,000 objects, fom castoff junk to woking satellites, now obiting planet eath * Page 10 Peanut Butte Fo Bids Question: Seveal times ecently I have head that bids love peanut butte I mentioned this to a fiend who told me that she used to use it but a fiend had told he that, though they love peanut butte, they cannot swallow it and so die of asphyxiation Please put us staight on this Answe: Seveal yeas ago when I fist head that umo, I checked with the Laboatoy of Onithology at Conell and was eassued that the peanut butte I was using wasn't a tap fo innocent bids I checked again and D Sam Weeks knows of no documented evidence that this is a poblem, and uses peanut butte in his feede He commented that evey bid dies soone o late and suspects that someone found a dead bid nea thei feede and, by coincidence, it and been eating peanut butte That, as you know, is the way umos get stated Paul Kelsey, The Consevationist Consevation Coins A seies of legal tende coins featuing endangeed and native animals will be issued by 24 counties, the fist time a numbe of nations have made issues on the same theme The Wold Wildlife Fund and the Intenational Union fo the Consevation of Natue ae sponsoing them to collectos Poceeds will be used to set up an endowment fund to finance consevation activities Fo infomation, wite to Spink and Son, Ltd, 5, 6, 7, King St, St James, London SWI * Defecting Duck A tese dispatch fom the "Ringing Cente ", Moscow, USSR, epots that a pintail duck banded in Coloado has been ecoveed less than a yea late in Russia The duck was oiginally banded at Anteo Resevoi August 26, 1972 as pat of a high county duck banding eseach poject designed to tace the flight of ducks found in high altitude mountain aeas of Coloado The defecting duck was ecoveed May 25, 1973 at Nunligan, USSR, whee it is sumised (with tongue fimly in cheek) he may have gone to eat US wheat sold to Russia that yea Instead he was shot Wildlife Reseache Richad Hoope, watefowl banding coodinato fo Coloado, states that as long as he has been keeping ecods of banding this is only the second Coloado duck to show up in Russia The fist one was banded in the San Luis Valley and was ecoveed at an unknown location in the USSR Coloado Outdoo News Domestic Pedation Moe and moe pedation on domestic livestock is being taced to fee oving pet dogs and ones that have simply gone wild and un in packs Suplus cats dumped into the wild by misguided individuals have long been ecognized as seious pedatos on all types of gound nesting bids Now the pet population explosion is becoming an impotant public health poblem, accoding to D Robet Humme witing in Vol 65 No 10 of the Ameican Jounal of Public Health D Humme states, "Accoding to a ecent suvey, only 50 pecent of the estimated 34,000,000 dogs in the USA wee licensed," and in addition, " one eseach goup epoted that while appoximately 415 human beings ae bon each hou in the USA, appoximately 2,000 to 3,500 dogs and cats ae bon duing the same peiod" Quite a cop of potential pedatos! * Kids and Ecology Childen ae tue ecologists They ae able to see inteelationships in natue invisible to the adult eye Hee ae a few obsevations as published ecently in Pacific Seach 1 The theoy of evolution was geatly objected to because it made man think 2 The cuckoo does not lay its own eggs 3 Dew is fomed on leaves when the sun shines down on them and makes them pespie 4 Vegetative popagation is the pocess by which one individual manufactues anothe individual by accident 5 The human is moe intelligent than the beast because the human bain has moe convulsions * NOVEMBER 1975
Scambled Heitage by Bill McCaleb Distict Wildlife Biologist, Rosebug In the beginning (which was quite some time befoe the "good old days ") all that bae eath that was left by the constuction was put to gowing plants of all sots This, besides helping temendously with the eosion poblem, povided food fo the nibbles of all shapes and sizes that followed along shotly and hiding places fom the bites that ate the nibbles Things wee unning so smoothly that man was bought in and given the title of Manage of Eveything It wasn't long at all until things ween't unning so smoothly This, to keep it simple, has been petty much the patten eve since As fa back as histoy is ecoded, man has existed on what is gown upon the eath Whethe his life is easy o had depends lagely on how well things gow in his aea When all 7 things wok togethe in hamony, much is poduced and life gets easy If moe is demanded of the land than it can poduce, thee will soon be a time of low poduction If one poduct is encouaged to expand geatly, othe poducts will have to give way In ancient China only the geat Khan could affod to own land that was set aside fo wildlife The est of the land could not poduce enough food to pevent peiodic famine, even when most intensely famed The same can be said of most of the est of the globe India, the Middle East, Afica, cental Euope In each case, as cops became inadequate, much of the wildlife was sacificed to fill the gap This usually seved the double pupose of poviding a tempoay food souce and emoving conflicts with moe intensively managed domestic cops, eithe plant o animal Thee have been othe inteesting effects One of the ealiest is the upsetting of the pedato pey elationship The atificial shotage of food (game) animals foced changes in the habits of pedatos, one of which added pessue on domestic animals and fowl The esultant effots to potect livestock and estoe populations of game again evesed the pedato pey atio, often quite dastically, putting temendous demands on the potential of the land to poduce plant gowth A side effect of temendous impotance is much less spectacula It is based on the fact that the geat bulk of the food eaten by most pedatos consists of animals smalle than abbits and of insects These, by eason of thei temendous numbes, often consume o destoy as much of the plant gowth as game and livestock combined The effect goes into opeation when the pessue of the pedatos is emoved fom these smalle species and the esults ae majo losses of ange, pastue, and cops In the past, fantic measues taken to elieve one poblem have often esulted in goss ovekill that tiggeed new poblems which fa exceeded the old Release of the pedato in ode to "balance" the small cittes can pove to be one moe tun of the cycle, this time at the expense of wildlife which has been cowded into seveely educed aeas of cove and subjected to much geate human pessues than when the cycle began Today we ae seeking to unscamble the heitage that has come to us fom past geneations We still have most of the old danges, hopefully to a lesse extent We have new danges that ae tuly fightening, not the least of which is the escalating human population The esouces left to us ae basically the same as in the past Thee have been a few ietievable losses Thee ae many moe cases in which losses in population numbes can be egained if such a couse is found feasible and desiable within the patten of eoganization of all the factos of ou envionment Thee ae even many cases whee locally appaent losses of wildlife numbes ae the esult of elocations o changes in habits, and total numbes ove lage aeas ae at o above histoic levels The same animal that exhibits an innocent cuiosity unde emote foest conditions quickly acquies an extemely way natue as the fequency of encountes with humans aises, theeby appeaing moe scace than is eally the case On the gain side of the ledge we have an equally impessive fund of advantages As a base, thee is the wealth of infomation gained fom past successes and failues in the field of wildlife contols Thee is the much moe pecise contol that can now be pacticed in most land management Much of the fantastic efficiency of computeization and applied electonics is applicable to both planning and execution of wildlife pogams, if a way can be found to meet the costs Cetainly not the least of the advantages is the gowing public awaeness that all of the factos of the envionment ae moe o less dependent on all of the est of the factos and man himself is definitely a facto It is his fields, ochads, gadens, buildings, highways, factoies, and cities that now occupy the ich valley bottoms and olling hills that fo ages past poduced the ich yields of plants upon which most wildlife fed and whee most ae still dawn by instinct and adaptation In summay, we might think of wildlife as a liquid You can't just dig a hole in it because it will flow back in to fill up as fast as you dig Neithe can you compess it like ai, to put moe into an aea than it will hold, without destoying the containe and losing what it held befoe To keep coplands fee of animals o bids, effective baies to thei entance must be povided To maintain inceased populations of wildlife in any aea, soils must be eniched, wate povided, impoved plants cultivated, all of which seve to "enlage the containe" o incease the caying capacity Using the pope combination of these pinciples, the best possible balance can be maintained between agicultual poduction and abundant wildlife OREGON WILDLIFE Page 11
COMMENT: by Ron Shay By now the epecussions fom the CBS TV pogam, THE GUNS OF AUTUMN, have been head fom thoughout the United States It would appea that CBS may have put the show on the ai to see how much esponse they could get We athe hate to help them achieve thei goal but feel that some comment is appopiate We held ou comment until the follow up show, ECHOES OF THE GUNS OF AUTUMN, was aied It appeaed that this second show was an attempt to placate some of the pesons stied up by the fist pogam It cetainly couldn't have been an attempt at equal pesentation of the othe side of the stoy ECHOES was not only pesented at a less desiable time (on the Potland CBS outlet) but was shote and pesented both sides of the pictue If the fist pogam had been done moe in the fashion of the second, it might have been moe acceptable Thee ae pobably two main things the fist pogam bought out One is a message to huntes that thee ae "slob" huntes that must be eliminated fom the goup It has to be unbelievable in the mind of a spotsman that some of the things shown on the pogam could occu, but even moe astounding that the pepetatos would allow themselves to be filmed Secondly, it makes one wonde how much can be believed as epesentative in any of the "documentaies" poduced by CBS news The pogam was billed as a look at the spot of hunting, not a one sided view of some of the ills of hunting The segment with Bill Size, Chief of Infomation and Education fo the Aizona Game and Fish Depatment, was put togethe to make the necessay contol of numbes in thei caefully nutued buffalo hed appea to be an un The Guns of Autumn necessay execise in sadism It may be vitually impossible to tuly convey via television exactly what hunting is and what motivates huntes This is a deeply pesonal thing made up of many vaied emotions, sensations, and feelings Some wites have tied to captue the feeling and most have fallen shot CBS didn't even ty Fom the scientific point of view, little cedence o time was given in eithe pogam to the pofessional wildlife manages while two outspoken anti huntes wee allowed to comment at length Fed Evenden, Executive Diecto of The Wildlife Society, which is the association of pofessional wildlife biologists, was asked to pepae a statement fo the second pogam and was inteviewed Howeve, one hou befoe the aiing of the show he was infomed his section had been dopped Among the points M Evenden had to make wee these two: "THE GUNS OF AUTUMN was extemely biased in showing what must be the vey wost aspects of spot hunting in Ameica The Wildlife Society does not condone the types of hunting featued, if in fact they could be called hunting" And, "Pogam plannes, with one exception, went out of thei way to avoid displaying any contact with wildlife pofessionals and, though innuendo, discedited and ignoed the vast body of facts amassed by wildlife science and management pofessionals" THE GUNS OF AUTUMN may have done some good if it made huntes awae that they must clean out thei anks Howeve, it pobably did moe ham than good by widening the ift between the hunte and non hunte, and futhe masking the tue theats to wildlife, to the detiment of the esouce But we wonde does a big city CBS poduce eally cae about wildlife esouces? BIGHORN HUNT SUCCESSFUL Thiteen Oegon huntes wee successful in a once in a lifetime oppotunity to bag a bighon sheep tophy am in this yea's seasons Only 19 tags wee authoized in fou sepaate seasons on Hat Mountain, Steens Mountain, and on the beaks of the Owyhee Rive Thee of the fou tag holdes fo the Owyhee aea wee successful The Owyhee sheep live in a deset imock envionment which povides less physically igoous hunting than on Steens o Hat Mountain but the animals can be moe difficult to locate A split season was held on Steens Mountain with five tags authoized fo each season Huntes saw good numbes of tophy ams and fou out of the fist five huntes wee successful in taking animals Afte a two day beak the season opened again and thee of the second five huntes wee successful Steens Mountain offes the toughest sheep hunting available in Oegon because of the pecipitous teain of the east face Only two of the five huntes on Hat Mountain wee successful in bagging a legal 3/4 cul am Estimates now place the sheep population on Hat Mountain at moe than 100 animals It was the site of elease fo the fist sheep successfully eintoduced to Oegon fom Canada in 1954 Bighon sheep have since been tansplanted to a numbe of sites in southeasten and notheasten Oegon and ae gadually expanding thei numbes to fill many of the niches whee native wild sheep existed befoe the tun of the centuy The bighon sheep has been poviding limited hunting oppotunities since the fist season in 1965 A hunte who has been successful in dawing a tag fo sheep may not apply again the est of his life The bighon sheep is consideed by many expeienced huntes to be the most challenging and egal of all big game animals Oegon 4 killi1n Depatment of Fish and Wildlife I 1634 S W ALDER STREET P O BOX 3503 PORTLAND, OREGON 97208