Renaissance Outdoorsman

Avid hunter, fisherman is also a renowned music composer ||

TIETON, Wash. — Doug Nott is every bit an outdoorsman, right down to the Cabela’s cap on his head and the worn-to-fraying jeans and tattered vest.

Douglas D. Nott is an award-winning composer whose music is performed by symphony orchestras and high school bands not only around the country, but around the world.

The storage room in Doug’s home between Naches and Tieton is cluttered with the accouterments of his avocation, right down to the hunting bow on one wall and, on another, the mounted, 17-pound northern pike he reeled in during a break from caribou hunting in the frigid Canadian hinterlands far north of Montreal.

In the garage at Douglas’ house, sharing space with the garden sprayer and the little Gator utility vehicle his grandchildren consider their own, rest the fruits of his vocation — boxes upon boxes of the sheet music he has written. And he wrote none of it as what he might refer to deprecatingly as a “finger composer,” one who must first run through those embrionic wisps of melody on a piano to hear how they sound.

No, Douglas hears the music in his head and pens it before ever playing it out loud, just the way Beethoven did.

That creative epiphany may come anywhere. Douglas once had an inspiration for a choral piece soon after beginning a drive from Bellingham back to Yakima, bringing his then college-aged son home for the holidays. He had it written, on the composing pad that is forever within reach, before he got to Issaquah, without ever giving up the steering wheel. His son cringed the whole way.

Kids, don’t try this at home.

A composition Douglas calls simply “the most beautiful piece I’ve ever written,” is one for oboe and string orchestra called “In Memorium, H.P.”

H.P. stands for Harold Godfrey of Selah, who died in 1998 and, says the composor, was “just a super, super guy.” And a hunting buddy.

Douglas and Doug are one and the same, of course, comprising a true renaissance outdoorsman.

Prior to his 1999 retirement from the faculty at Yakima Valley Community College, Nott, Doctor of Musical Arts, had for 28 years taught music theory, jazz history, music composition, orchestration and woodwind, and also directed the college’s jazz and concert bands.

He also, over those same 28 years and for another two years after, taught a class on fly-fishing.

Nott, 65, is a dichotomy no less enigmatic than his father, who was both an opera singer and a truck driver, or his mother, Caroline Paulson, 89, who was both a country-western singer and a champion bowler.

One of Nott’s better-known compositions, “The Kalama,” was inspired by his love of steelhead fishing on the Kalama River. “Cascade,” his most popular symphonic piece, was inspired by the mountains in the panoramic view from the living room of his hilltop home.

His in-boxes and answering machine are regularly full of messages, e-mails and letters from around the world, many of them from aspiring musicians still in middle and high school asking his insights on the best ways to approach his compositions, on which passages to let emotion carry the moment and when to keep the playing close to the vest.

His freezer, at least today, is full of elk meat, venison, Hungarian partridge, rooster pheasant and half a steer, the latter raised for the beef in partnership with a neighbor.

If you look in a New York publication called “Best Music For High School Band,” it’s full of Bach, Mozart, Dvorak and Bernstein … and one Douglas N. Nott. “Isn’t that funny?” Nott says with a grin. “I think it is.”

And if you look in “The Elk Hunters Cookbook,” you will find two recipes by Doug Nott — one for “Grouse Au Gratin,” which he concocted to break up the culinary monotony on a deer-hunting expedition with buddies into the Colorado wilderness, and “Nott’s Steelhead Delight,” a seafood ambrosia including sauteed mushrooms, lemon, bacon and an oyster stuffing.

The walls of Nott’s home don’t tell much about who he is. There are no hunting trophies, no elk and deer mounts — “I’m not into that,” he says — and the only decorative concession to his backwoods bent is that northern pike in the storeroom. If you look closely, you might find the frame containing first royalty check — from Shawnee Press in Pennsylvania — that was made out in the whopping sum of one dollar and 13 cents.

“That’s not the worst one I ever got,” Nott says, chuckling as he tells the story about the one he got from music publishing behemoth ASCAP for an Irish public radio performance of “The Kalama” that earned him 35 cents — minus the 35 cents automatically taken out for the stamp. “The check was actually made out for $0.00,” he laughs. “That’s almost like something out of a ‘Seinfeld’ episode.”

His rule of thumb with his music publishers was that he wouldn’t write music between September and December, because it would cut into his hunting. He once turned down a lucrative Hollywood offer to compose film scores when the studio refused his demand to be allowed to live here and commute between Yakima and California during the soundtrack process. “This was pre-Internet,” he says with a shrug.

Nott also once wrote a textbook on how to write music on computer, but it wasn’t mass-published because, like so much in the computer age, it was obsolete by the time it was finished. Instead, he self-published it and donated all the sales to the YVCC Foundation.

Nott isn’t wealthy, in large part because of his choices and his priorities. But what he considers most important to him is obvious in the copse of trees behind the house on the 20-acre property he shares with his wife, Deb; there he has created a wooded maze for the seven grandchildren who regularly run through it, passing the wooden signs carved in their honor, like “Easton’s Trail No. 1,” “Kya’s Pass” and “Ada’s Corner.”

“I like my lifestyle,” Nott says. “It’s certainly not perfect. You make choices.”

And, in Doug Nott’s case, a lot of friends and a lot of music. Sometimes the two are one and the same.

11/17 What’s Happening

Elections, film top fly-fishing meeting

The election of officers and a video on the aquatic life of the most commonly encountered insects associated with fly-fishing around local lakes and streams will be the highlights of tonight’s regular monthly meeting of the Yakima Fly Fishers Association.

The video is described as having some “spectacular” underwater photography. As always, the meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at Bert’s Pub, downstairs at Glenwood Square (5110 Tieton Drive., Yakima).

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CWU hosts Banff mountain film event

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will hit Central Washington University next Monday.

The university’s Outdoor Pursuits and Rentals program is the host for the film event, which takes place at 7 p.m. Nov. 23 at the Student Union Theater. Admission is $8 for students/Rec Center members and $12 for all others.

CWU has become a regular stopping point for the popular film festival tour, which features a selection of inspiring, often thought-provoking action, environmental and adventure mountain films that were spotlighted at the prestigious festival in the Canadian mountain mecca that bears its name.

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BIRD ALERT

There was a report of a great egret, a long-legged, S-necked white bird about the size and shape of a great blue heron, was spotted in the wetland between Sarg Hubbard Park and Buchanan Lake.

At the nearby Arboretum, a sooty fox sparrow was seen, as well as a slate-colored fox sparrow; the latter is a sub-species of fox sparrow that breeds in Yakima County but is a rare wintering bird in Eastern Washington. A western screech-owl was napping in the cavity of a cottonwood tree and a brown creeper spotted spiraling upward, picking invertebrates from the bark with its curved and pointed bill.

Interesting birds observed along the Poppoff Trail this week included white-throated sparrow, evening grosbeak, cedar waxwing, hermit thrush, Bewick’s wren and the slate-colored subspecies of the dark-eyed junco.

Snow Mountain Ranch was the place to be this week if you wanted to see common bushtits. Among the smallest birds in North America, bushtits are a fairly rare find in Yakima County. Also noted at the ranch were western scrub jay, Steller’s jay, varied thrush and Lewis’s woodpecker.

A female prairie falcon flew through the intersection of Nob Hill and Fair Avenue laboring with a heavy load consisting of a rock pigeon. A few minutes later she was sitting atop a power pole, creating a blizzard of feathers as she ate the prey. A peregrine falcon was spotted coming from the east side of Interstate 82 heading toward the mall area at a very high rate of speed.

Please call your bird sightings into the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 248-1963

— Kerry L. Turley

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Around and About

CHRISTMAS TREES: Christmas tree permits are on sale for $5 each at the Naches and Cle Elum ranger stations, limited to two permits per family. Each permit allows a family to cut one tree (maximum height 15 feet) or dig a small live transplant tree.  Permits are non-refundable.

Private vendors include Eagle Rock Grocery, Whistlin’ Jacks Resort and Rimrock Grocery Store on State Route 410; Helms True Value Hardware and Save-On Foods in Selah; Oak Creek Ace Hardware and Slim’s Market in Naches; KOA Campground at Squaw Rock; and, in the Cle Elum Ranger District area, Roslyn Cyclery, Pioneer Coffee, Intermountain Radio Shack, Morning Star Chevron/Deli and Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce.

Christmas tree permits may be placed on the driver’s side dashboard in lieu of a Northwest Forest Pass when parking at a trailhead. At designated Sno-Parks, you must have a Sno-Park permit.

WINTER RECREATION NOTICES:  Signs posted at the Pinegrass and Little Naches areas will notify users that Forest Service roads may be closed to wheeled vehicles as early as December 1st if adequate snow depths allow for grooming snowmobile trails.  Pinegrass road system includes roads 1204, 1205 and 1241.

The Little Naches road system includes Road No. 1900, beginning at the junction with the Road No. 1904 (gravel pit) and Crow Creek Road No. 902.

In most cases, Sno-Park signs are also posted in these areas once grooming begins.

NON-MOTORIZED SNO-PARK PERMITS:  Many of the ranger stations on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest act as vendors for Discover Your Northwest (DYNW), a nonprofit organization that promotes public lands.  This year Washington State Parks and Recreation will sell their non-motorized Sno-Park permits through DYNW at a cost of $41 for an annual permit and $21 for a day permit.

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ON THE CALENDAR

TODAY: The Cascadians’ Tuesday group will meet at 8 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot and head out to whatever adventure the trip leader determines is appropriate for the weather and the snow conditions, whether a hike, a cross-country ski or snowshoe. Come prepared.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies group will do a trek of the Cowiche Canyon uplands. For meeting time and place, call trip leader Shara Wright at 457-5643.

SATURDAY, DEC. 12: This is just a way-out-there thing for the calendar of anyone who has wanted to get more active in the winter but isn’t quite up for downhill skiing. The relatively new and still little-known Yakima Nordic Skiing and Snowshoeing Council will host a cross-country ski and snowshoe jamboree on this date at the White Pass Nordic Area, with members of the council team newcomers (including kids) how to cross-country ski and snowshoe.

Fundraising efforts give go-ahead to Sno-Parks

YAKIMA, Wash. — Faced with the possibility of the Department of Natural Resources closing its five Sno-Parks this winter over lack of the money to provide “oversight” and minimize vandalism, the Yakima Ski Benders and other snowmobile enthusiasts responded.

The group’s fundraising campaign raised enough money to offset the DNR’s $25,000 budgetary shortfall in such short order this autumn that, last week, the DNR announced that those five Sno-Parks (Ahtanum Meadows, Ahtanum Guard Station, Rattlesnake, Manashtash and Lily Lake near Wenatchee) would be open.

“As with anything new and unsettling, it certainly was frustrating at the beginning, but we pulled up our bootstraps and made it happen,” said Carl Denton, the Ski Benders’ first-year president. “Everybody was understanding of the situation — there was nothing else we could do, otherwise we wouldn’t have a place to park.”

It was a moment for the snowmobile community to breathe deeply, pat itself on the back and celebrate that their season — at least at those popular local areas — would not be erased.

The sobering side to this celebratory feeling, though, is that the issue is likely to arise again next year.

This winter is the first of the state’s two-year budget biennial budget process, and that means next year will have the same $25,000 shortfall resulting from the DNR’s recreation budget being slashed from $1.2 million per biennium to $440,000.

“Next year we’ll be in the same boat, pretty much,” said Mike Williams, recreation manager for the DNR’s Ellensburg-based southeast region. “We’re looking at other avenues for funding, but not having a lot of success yet. We’ll be pursuing grants, and we’re just not sure what’s out there yet.”

Williams said that, should the agency have to come with its hands out to the snowmobile community once more, “Hopefully some of the other clubs will pony up more money rather than have the Ski Benders having to carry so much of the load.”

The Ski Benders spearheaded this autumn’s fundraising campaign that has already generated more than $25,000 in pledges, with $21,900 of that already collected in cash. The club presented a $10,000 check last week to the DNR as the first installment, guaranteeing that the Sno-Parks would be open for the start of the state’s grooming season.

The snowmobilers have what amounts to an ally in their campaign for continued trail funding — the four-wheelers and motorcyclists who use the trails in the non-snow months.

Last spring, state legislators passed House Bill 1244, which swept $9.56 million into the general fund from the Nonhighway and Off-Road Vehicle Activities (NOVA) Fund. State officials said the move was necessary to prevent the closure of as many as 40 state parks, but it left NOVA with no operating funds for the biennium — money that is typically issued in grants by the state’s Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) to public and private entities for trail-maintenance and improvement projects.

Because NOVA money is derived from off-road vehicle license tab fees and recreationists’ portion of gas-tax funds, trail-use groups were up in arms. Dave Walters, land-use coordinator for a Tri-Cities-based off-road group called the Peak Putters, called the legislators’ move “an illegal taking” of the NOVA money.

Last week, the Washington Off Highway Vehicle Alliance and the Northwest Motorcycle Association joined forces to file a lawsuit against the state to block the transfer of NOVA funds to Washington State Parks.

Should that suit be successful and NOVA money be returned, the DNR would be one of the numerous groups lining up to apply for grants through the RCO.

“Hopefully the NOVA funds will come back and we’ll be able to apply for grants that way,” Williams said, adding that obtaining money would still be difficult. “We saw a ahuge jump in the number of grant proposals to the RCO this year.”

Steelhead numbers a welcome diversion

OK, here’s something to think about. So far this year, more than 600,000 summer steelhead have climbed up over Bonneville Dam on their way up the Columbia and Snake rivers.

That is one of the highest totals since they’ve been keeping track of such things. That many steelhead makes it tough to think about going hunting, or doing the leaf-raking or anything else for that matter. It makes a guy want to go fishing.

Right now the steelhead can be caught in several locations. Basically, near several of the dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers can be very good during November. From John Day to Wells and above on the Columbia and from Ice Harbor Dam to Little Goose Dam on the Snake, anglers working these waters will catch fish in the days and weeks ahead.

And if you have a boat and want to drive three hours to get there, fishing around Clarkston should really be kicking in about now.

Closer to home, fishing on the Columbia at McNary just south of the Tri-Cities on the Washington-Oregon border can be great this time of year.

Anglers work the waters both above and below the dam, trolling lures or fishing bait below bobbers.

One guide who does well above McNary during November is Bruce Hewitt of Going Fishing Guide Service.

“As the water cools, the fishing above McNary gets good,” Hewitt said. “And below the dam, on the Washington side, below the I-82 Bridge can be really good, too.”

Hewitt likes to troll with FatFish and Wiggle Wart plugs. Above the dam, he will troll the plugs along the buoy line or up and down the Washington side. And he is very adamant about keeping the sun at his back as he trolls.

“In the morning I troll downstream,” Hewitt explains. “Then at midday, I will switch to back and forth along the buoy line.”

In the afternoon, he starts trolling upstream.

“I have a much higher percentage of fish caught when the sun is at my back,” he says.

Anglers also troll at night for steelhead above McNary. Hewitt said anglers will use both lighted and unlighted plugs, and he recommends trying different-sized lures. He says one night the fish will hit a bigger plug, one that dives deeper with a bigger profile and the next night they might want something smaller, that dives not as deep.

“Milfoil can be a problem this time of year,” Hewitt says. “So if you are running a smaller lure, you sometimes won’t notice the change in action once it has picked up the weeds, especially at night.”

As far as lure colors go, he mentioned the metallic pink with the black bill as his favorite at this time of year. And the standard black with silver flecks, or the black-silver-fleck red butt are also good. If those don’t work, try chrome with black back or chrome with orange back, or even some of the different purple colors.

Even though the Columbia above the dam might be 100 feet deep or more, most of the time the steelhead will be holding in the top 15 feet of the pool, so adding weight to your line above a plug that dives 8 to 12 feet isn’t necessary, especially if the water isn’t too cold. As the water temperatures drop, the fish will hold a little deeper, but even then they may only be 20 or 30 feet deep. Most of the time, those colder temperatures don’t arrive until December or later.

Trolling speeds might vary some, but for the most part speeds of 1 to 11?2 mph are normally best.

Below the dam, back-trolling, rather than trolling, is productive. Same style and color of plugs, but the best method involves pointing the boat upstream and allowing it to slowly slip downstream, backing the diving lures into the faces of the fish headed upstream.

Hewitt said plenty of fish are caught on bait this time of year, too, and as the water temps cool, a bait-and-bobber combination can be better than trolling. Dyed shrimp is a favorite of the bait anglers, and Hewitt said either pink or purple seems to be the favorites of the majority of steelheaders.

They will put the shrimp on a steelhead jig and fish it fairly shallow below the bobber.

Bucktail or marabou jigs in black, or black and red jig are preferred according to Hewitt.

Some of the boat anglers will even slow troll the bobbers and bait. Using electric motors they will just barely move upriver or down, slightly pulling the bobbers and bait behind the boat.

Bank anglers can enjoy some good fishing above the dam, too, but most of the bank fishing, according to Hewitt, is a little way upstream.

“Some of the best bank angling is near the mouth of the Walla Walla River,” he said. “Near the grain terminals. Walk about 400 to 500 yards to the river, across the railroad tracks. They do pretty good right there.”

He said the same bobber and jig and bait set-up is used there and normally works fairly well.

Many of the fish working upriver now are the smaller 6- to 10-pound “A” run steelhead, but it is also possible to catch a bigger “B” run. Those fish will run anywhere from 12 to 20 pounds or bigger.

No matter what size you catch, there are over a half-million steelhead working their way up the Columbia and Snake right now. Even though it is a bit cool and feels more like hunting season, now might be the best time to go fishing for a steelhead in this near-record run.

• Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.

Good times ahead for Cowiche Canyon

By RON GRAHAM

Plenty of signs exist that 2010 will be the greatest year yet for the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy. Many of those signs were in evidence on the Saturday before last along a series of hiking trails at the nonprofit group’s Snow Mountain Ranch property.

Those attending the guided hike event were introduced to four different routes all marked with a series of new signs intended to make the lands extending from Cowiche Creek to Cowiche Mountain more user friendly.

“The trail signs are in now and that’s pretty exciting,” said Cec Vogt, interim director for the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy.

The recent event was basically “a dry run” for next year’s planned dedication of the property’s entire trail system, Vogt said. By next October, the group intends to establish another new trail currently dubbed the Riparian Overlook route.

More guided trail hikes and nature walks are also intended to coincide with the group’s 25th anniversary. Members of the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy have already been urged to mark their calendars for “Cowiche Canyon Rocks,” a series of events to commemorate the anniversary.

The organization originally got its start in 1985, forming to develop an abandoned railroad bed into a three-mile hiking trail. The vision of the group then extended to include a large preserve area to protect land within the canyon and on adjoining uplands from encroachment and development.

But the group’s vision took a quantum leap forward in 2005 with the purchase of the 1,766-acre Snow Mountain Ranch property for $1.1 million, which “kicked our organization up to the next level,” Vogt said.

The conservancy hopes to hire an executive director by the end of the year, with Vogt scheduled to leave her temporary post at the end of 2009. The group has raised enough money to provide for a director’s salary for the coming year, Vogt said, and also pays a part-time office worker.

As Vogt finished taking two of the recent guided walks, she remarked with satisfaction, “I love seeing the parking lot full.”

• Ron Graham, an elementary school teacher and native of the Yakima Valley, is an avid outdoorsman who has hiked throughout the Pacific Northwest.

11/10 What’s Happening

Input on fishing rules continues until Dec. 1

A new rule that would require the use of single-point, barbless hooks for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River from the mouth of the river to McNary Dam and one that revise the list of waters on which a Columbia River endorsement will be required for adult salmon and steelhead anglers are two of more than 100 rule-change proposals that will go before the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission at its Dec. 4-5 meeting in Olympia.

The commission received a briefing on the proposed 2010-2012 rules package in last weekend’s meeting, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will continue to take public comment on the proposals through Dec. 1.

Other proposals would close fishing for bottomfish and halibut off the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula; create earlier closures on hatchery-steelhead fisheries on several North Puget Sound rivers to minimize mortality among wild steelhead, and also moving the opening day for wild steelhead retention back 21/2 months on some coastal stream fisheries; add protective measures for rockfish, lingcod, “unclassified” marine fish and invertebrates; and

The proposed rules are available on the WDFW Web site.

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There’s no losing in this turkey shoot

Each participant in this Sunday’s turkey shoot at the Pomona shooting range is guaranteed to take home a turkey, making it a win-win proposition for anybody who ponies up the $25 fee for the five games of shooting.

The turkey shoot, put on by the Yakima Valley Sportsmen trap club, gets under way at 9 a.m., with classes available for shooters of all ages and skills. For any shooter who isn’t lucky enough or good enough to win a turkey in the shooting, the club will give him or her a turkey. Eye and hearing protection is required and shooters need to bring their own shells.

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BIRD ALERT

Visiting birders from Portland clearly heard a boreal owl above their car near Clover Flats Camp Ground in Ahtanum Meadows. Before dusk, they stumbled on a male spruce grouse along one of the closed logging roads not far from the Grey Rock Trailhead.

A woman who lives near the Pomona Tavern had a peregrine falcon fly into her house. She had the front door open and walked into the living room to discover the falcon perched on the entertainment center. The falcon had leather bands on its legs, which indicated it was someone’s falconry bird.

They were able to catch it using a fish net and put it in a cage. A little while later she found they also had a pigeon in their house.  Evidently the pigeon flew into the house to try to escape from the falcon.

One Yakima resident went out to fill his bird feeders and heard a commotion and noted all the little birds were scattering rapidly as a beautiful male merlin settled in on the corner of the fence.

A rough-legged hawk was spotted on River Road near Naches. The bird was observed hovering, then it glided to a perch just a few feet off the ground, giving the observer a pretty good look at one of the coolest of the winter hawks.

The highlight of a hike at Snow Mountain Ranch was a flock of bushtits along the “Ditch Bank Trail” below the rock formation that you can see from the new kiosk. Also noted at the ranch were three western scrub-jays.

Please call your bird sightings into the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 248-1963

— Kerry L. Turley

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AROUND AND ABOUT

HATCHERY REFORMS: The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted last weekend to adopt a new state hatchery and fishery reform policy designed to accelerate recovery of wild salmon and steelhead while also supporting sustainable fisheries. Key provisions of the policy (available online at wdfw.wa.gov/commission) include developing and promoting alternative fishing gear to minimize mortality to native stocks while maximizing hatchery catch, and working toward meeting broodstock standards on all state hatchery programs by 2015.

DNR COMMENT MEETINGS: The state Department of Natural Resources is hosting public-comment meetings this month on population recreation areas in Snoqualmie and King counties. A 6:30 p.m. Nov. 18 meeting at Monroe High School will focus on a draft recreation plan for the Reiter Foothills Forest between Gold Bar and Index; a 6 p.m. Nov. 23 meeting at the North Bend Railroad Depot is about a proposal to designate 10,270 acres as the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Natural Resources Conservation Area.

FREE DAY FOR VETS: Well, it turns out all park visitors — not just military veterans (or active members) and their families — can visit Mount Rainier National Park without having to pay entrance fees on Wednesday as part of the Department of the Interior’s celebration of Veterans Day. The park had previously announced the fee-free aspect would apply only to veterans and their families. The Longmire Museum and National Park Inn will be open, as will the road to Paradise (weather permitting), though the Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center won’t be open.

BEAVER LAKE LUNKERS: Beaver Lake near Issaquah will be full of lunkers today, with the WDFW having been scheduled to release about 2,000 hatchery rainbows averaging 3 pounds each on Monday. The lake is best fished by small boat.

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ON THE CALENDAR

TUESDAY: The Cascadians’ Tuesday group will meet at 8 a.m. and head out to whatever trek the trip leader determines, based on weather conditions. Be prepared — at this time of year it could be a hike, a snowshoe or cross-country ski adventure.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies group will do a hike on the Powerhouse Canal Path. For meeting time and place, call Stephanie Weise at 678-5560.

SATURDAY: The Yakima Valley Audubon will host a birding trip to the McNary National Wildlife Refuge and other birding destinations in the Tri-Cities. Participants should call trip leader Bill (965-5808) so he can have a head count, then meet the group at the Valley Mall parking lot just west of the IHOP at 7:30 a.m.

Local elk season ends Sunday

YAKIMA, Wash. — Elk hunters in the true-spike-only elk season currently going on in the Yakima-area game management units 328 (Naneum), 329 (Quilomene), 334 (Ellensburg) and 335 (Teanaway) will only be hunting through this Sunday, not Nov. 15.

A story in Tuesday’s Outdoors section gave the wrong season end date. The season ends Nov. 8, as stated in the state’s big-game hunting rules pamphlet.

Hunter safety starts early

YAKIMA, Wash. — At 4-foot-6 and 68 pounds, Faith Torres doesn’t look like your typical hunter, but she has earned the right to be one. In fact, the 75-question written portion of the state’s hunter education course was a breeze.

She answered just one question wrong.

“The one I missed, it asked if you could stand up in a boat and take a shot, would that be legal,” Faith explained. “I thought it was illegal, but it wasn’t illegal. It was just … stupid.”

She giggled then, like the 9-year-old fourth-grader she is — albeit one who is fully qualified to be a hunter. For that matter, so is her little sister, 8-year-old Sophie, as well as brothers Jordan, 14, and Ryker, 11.

The Torres quartet of Yakima took the week-long hunter education course in early  September — Jordan for the second time just as a refresher — and all passed easily. And if their young ages surprise you, well, you’ve never been to a hunter education class.

“In some classes, I get all young kids, and in some classes I get adults,” said Byron Kent, who taught the class attended by the Torres kids. “The students have stayed pretty much the same age over the years — they get to 9, 10, 12, that range. In some classes, I get parents or kids who will never hunt, but they do it for the firearm safety.”

The Torres kids, though, come from a hunting family, and they’re accustomed to eating game brought home by their dad, Eric Torres, a Yakima construction contractor. Both Jordan and Ryker had gone out as learners and observers on multiple trips with their dad before they ever hefted a gun.

Jordan took hunter education at 9 and is a regular hunter now, Ryker’s early Christmas present this year was his first hunting rifle and when Faith’s birthday was coming up last May, one of the gifts she really wanted was to be enrolled in hunter-ed.

“As for Sophie, she’s just kind of game for anything and everything,” Eric Torres said. “It was one of those things where I included her in the class and didn’t really hold out an expectation either way. I didn’t know if it would capture her interest and if she would fully comprehend all the material, comprehend all the material, but she just totally took to it, paid attention, passed the written exam, did the field work. I was really pleased.”

The field test, though, was tough on the girls — particularly the shooting part.

“The recoil,” Faith said, her eyes wide at the memory. “It was so much.”

“It almost knocked me over,” Sophie added. “My arms were so sore. It knocked my ear thingies out.”

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Hunter education is a serious undertaking in Washington; all hunters born after Jan. 1, 1972, have to pass the course in order to get a hunting license. The class calls for four 4-hour evening classes, typically Monday through Thursday. That’s followed by a five-hours-or-more field test on Saturday in which students must demonstrate weapon handling and carrying safety. They must know not only how to load and unload a gun but when that’s necessary, and be able to fire at targets or clay pigeons without difficulty.

And even if a student aces the written test, the instructors — all of whom are volunteers, not even paid for their mileage — have plenty of latitude when it comes to the field test.

“If I do not feel that student is going to be safe walking behind me with a loaded firearm,” Kent said, “he’s not going to pass my course.”

Kent has a deeply personal reason for having been a devoted hunter-ed instructor for 15 years. Two of his boyhood buddies died as the result of gun accidents. And any student not taking his class seriously, especially when it comes to firearm safety, is going to have a very difficult time getting certified.

“The academic part is pretty simple,” Kent said. “Where I have failures is when I get out on the range. If they get to playing with the guns, horseplay, if they can’t load and unload safely or maintain muzzle control, if they can’t control themselves … I tell the parents (to) bring them back next year. They’ll be a little more mature then and can understand.”

Maturity was never a concern when it came to the Torres kids, who, Kent noted, “were very focused.”

Even Jordan, at 14 already an experienced hunter, got something out of his second time through the course.

“You definitely forget some of the little teeny things you learned the first time,” he said.

Jordan’s first experience as a rifle-carrying hunter came that fall after his first time through the class. In retrospect, he says, he hadn’t been quite ready to maintain the stealth and patience necessary to be a successful hunter.

“I was all jittery and nervous and couldn’t stay quiet,” Jordan admitted.

The next year, though, he took a buck and remembers well the rush of adrenaline when his first shot put the deer down.

“Volcanic,” he said. “My hands were like this” — he shook his hands like branches quaking in a strong wind — “or at least they were after, when (the deer) was on the ground. That’s when it started to kick in: ‘Wow, I just shot a buck.’”

Ryker didn’t have the same kind of success when he went on his first official deer hunt this fall with his dad, but he knows his time will come. It may be a while, though, before either of the Torres girls goes hunting.

“Maybe I could go,” Faith said, “but I don’t really want to go because that gun really makes me sore.”

Sophie had another reason altogether for being in no hurry.

“I don’t like being quiet that much.”

Elk season has arrived — which means it’s time to leave the state

YAKIMA, Wash. — The general elk hunting season opened on Saturday. Luckily, I won’t have to go elk hunting this year. I have drawn a deer-hunting tag for Colorado for this week and fortunately for me, while thousands of hunters from around the state descend on the Cascades west of Yakima, I will be 1,000 miles away.

It is hard to put a finger on what has soured me on elk hunting over the years, but of all the hunting seasons that pop up during the fall, the elk hunting season is one I really dread. Yes, I would love to put some tasty elk meat in the freezer, but I look forward to the actual hunt about as much as preparing for a colonoscopy.

I think back on all of my past elk hunts and unfortunately, very few are remembered with much fondness.

From the time I was a kid, elk hunting with my dad — and facing the snow, cold, rain, wind and lack of elk — to the recent trips where I’ve been literally overrun by orange-clad nimrods with no hunting manners or sense, it has tarnished the experience for me.

Like the time hunting partner Doug Jewett and I were elk hunting up in the Gold Creek area. We were sitting in his rig waiting for legal hunting hours, when four guys rolled up next to us and piled out of their truck, right into the section of woods we were planning to hunt.

Yes, it was a public area, open to hunting for everyone, but all common sense and hunting ethics say you don’t go barreling out into an area someone else is about to hunt.

Elk hunting seems to bring out all kinds.

Of course the classic was the time the two guys moved in on a ridge where I was sitting and glassing and sat down right next to me, because they had set up green plastic chairs to reserve “their spot.” I had been there since first light, but that made no difference to these dolts. Because they had put their chairs there at some point earlier in the season, and because they had hunted there before, they believed it was “their” spot.

It didn’t bother them one bit that they moved right in where I was already set up. They sat in their chairs, not 20 yards from me, and weren’t moving.

After an hour or so I got tired of looking over and having them grinning at me like a couple of simpletons, so I moved. Who knows what would have happened if an elk had wandered through.

To say the least, elk hunting is extremely popular. And when you have basically two regions of the state where the majority of the elk live, you are going to get large concentrations of hunters. And when you get large concentrations of hunters, you get quite a mix of those who are experienced and inexperienced.

For me, part of the joy of hunting is getting away from people, and being out in the wilds by myself. Unless you have horses, or are willing to do some serious backpacking into the wilderness, that is just not going to happen much during elk season.

I can’t tell you how many times I have hiked my way during the early morning darkness to a spot I wanted to hunt, only to start seeing orange figures all around me when it got light enough to see. It’s very frustrating. But that is elk hunting.

I know much of the appeal of elk season to many hunters is not so much the actual hunting, but the camaraderie and fellowship that comes in building a big camp and participating in the tradition of it all. I totally understand that. I enjoy that, too. But I also enjoy the hunting part. Or, at least, I try to enjoy it. During a typical elk season, however, it’s tough.

The rest of the elk hunting world could probably care less, but this week there is one less hunter working the hills above Rimrock Lake looking for an elk. One less hunter overlooking that saddle. One less hunter sitting on that rock. Once less hunter to try to avoid.

I won’t be among the throngs of people who are scouring the woods today, tomorrow and the rest of the week looking for an elk, and honestly, I’m not too broken up about that.
• Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.

WIldlife Moment: Keep an eye out for diving ducks

The ring-necked duck is truly misnamed.

Do you see any ring on this bird’s neck? Nope. There is a ring on its bill, though. Why not ring-billed duck?

Well, back in the 1800s before the advent of birding with binoculars, science progressed alongside the barrel of a shotgun. In hand, early scientists noticed a chestnut band ringing this duck’s neck, thus its name.

This species is a diving duck — as opposed to a dabbler, such as mallards and pintails, which do not normally dive for food. Ring-necked ducks habitually dive for food and are related to other diving ducks such as scaup (“bluebills” to the hunter).

WHERE AND WHEN: Look for this bird from November through March on any pond in the Yakima area, especially those rimmed by trees. The various ponds along the Yakima Greenway or arboretum are likely spots. Most migrate to north to Canada to nest come spring; only a few nest on nearby mountain lakes. Clear and Leech Lakes along the White Pass Highway are known local nesting areas.

A pair of ring-necked ducks relax on a small pond southwest of the Yakima Air Terminal on a recent afternoon. (Photo courtesy of DENNY GRANSTRAND)

HOW TO SPOT ONE: Males of this species are very distinctive with their jet-black backs and white, peaked head and white vertical mark at the waterline. Females are tougher to distinguish from redhead females, another diving duck.

CHOW TIME: This duck makes frequent shallow dives, using its big feet for propulsion to swim to the pond bottom, where it can snip at aquatic plants and their seeds. They go for pondweeds, sedges, smartweeds, grasses and algae. In the warm months, this duck relishes water insects. Bugs are especially sought by the ducklings; they grow quickest on a diet rich in protein.

SOCIAL LIFE: Pair bonding takes place in the winter. The male performs odd courtship rituals that include laying his head far backward, then thrusting it forward in a spastic motion. If this doesn’t get the hen’s attention, he will swim alongside her, nodding his head rapidly. Evidently, what looks nerdy to humans really gets female ring-necks scooting.

The nest is near the water’s edge — perhaps on a dry hummock — and is a shallow bowl of grasses and sedges, lined with lots of down (a habit shared by the eider ducks in the Arctic). The hen lays 7 to 12 eggs. The eggs are incubated by the hen for 25 to 29 days. Once the ducklings hatch, the female leads her brood to the water within a day or so. If danger appears, the female and brood hide in dense marsh vegetation rather than on open water like many ducks. The ducklings find their own food and can fly about 50 days after hatching.

WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW: The tufted duck is closely related to the ring-necked duck that occurs all across Europe and Asia. There it is very common in many city parks. A tiny number of tufted ducks fly the wrong way on their southbound autumn migration and find their way to North America. Birders eagerly scan flocks of ring-necked ducks and scaup in the North America hoping to spot this rare visitor. The male is distinctive on account of its bright white sides (rather than gray as in the ring-necked) and also its distinctive tuft, a duck having a “bad hair” day.
• Wildlife Moment, focusing on native wildlife, typically runs in Outdoors on the first Tuesday of every month, with the cooperation of the Yakima Valley Audubon Society.

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