To all of you who use and enjoy the Wenas Campground, this article was in
today's Yakima Herald-Republic:

"Cleanup day planned

Recreationists are invited to participate in a cleanup event set for Sunday
in the Upper Wenas/Cascade Park area.

According to organizers, landowners in the area have expressed concerns and
are talking about closing the Boise Cascade Park area.

Participants will meet at 8 a.m. at the end of the pavement on North Wenas."

>From what I've heard, it's actually Boise Cascade, which is having financial
difficulty, thinking about closing the park due to the cost of repairs needed
due to destruction from vandals.

This is from Dan Kinney of Yakima Valley Audubon:

"Auduboner's

According to our resident Naturalist, Andy Stepniewski:

The Wenas Campground was identified as early as 1965 as one of the
prime areas for eastside biodiversity in WA and it continues to be. Because
of openings from logging and fire, brushy terrain and forest, the area forms
a
forest/steppe mosaic that harbors outstanding natural history
values: plants, and birds. This has been thoroughly documented by
Audubon and others over the past three decades.

Following this year's Wenas campout, there were several episodes of
vandalism, tipped-over outhouses, teenage parties, and the best is yet to
come - hunting season. The problems caused several meeting to be held to
discuss public access to Wenas Campground. The meetings have been
attended by representatives from Boise Cascade, Yakima Sheriff,
WDF&W, DNR, several local landowners, the Wenas Lake RV resort
operator, and numerous user groups - Back County Horseman, a couple
sportsmen's groups, a motorcycle group, jeep group, a couple of snowmobile
groups and, of course, Audubon.

We have formed a loose-knit organization and our first project has been to
design a sign which reads:

Entering Cooperative Land
Management Area

To Insure Continued Public Access to these
Properties
1) No Campfires from April 15-Oct 15
2) Pack out all litter - leave a clean camp
3) Please keep all gates closed
4) No motorized vehicles off-road
5) Wood cutting by permission only
Wenas Valley Landowners

Then the bottom 1/3 lists the enforcement agencies,
their logos, and their phone numbers and the following:

Yakima County Crime Stoppers pays for information leading to
arrest and filing of charges on any serious crime Phone #

We are getting six metal signs (Walla Walla Prison) at a cost of about $800
and we have agreed to split the cost among the organizations - about ten of
us so the cost should be around $80. Perhaps Audubon's can come from
the Wenas Campfire fund, Seattle Audubon, or Yakima Audubon - any
suggestions?

The other thing we have arranged is for a clean-up day - scheduled for
Sunday Sept 8th. We are meeting at Malloy/Audubon Road at 8AM. Let
me know if you can help.

Other programs/activities may be planned at future meetings (next
scheduled 9-23). Boise Cascade made it pretty clear that they do NOT
want to get into the campground business and if the problems get
unmanageable they will just close the area. I'm sure we all agree that we
do not want to lose the Wenas for the future.

Let me know if you have any other concerns and the solutions you think we
should advocate.

Thanks,

Dan"

Maia Kelly
Yakima Valley Audubon