Tweeeters,

This may set the record for over due posts as it has been on my to do
list for 10 months.

In my efforts to check out Washington State waterfalls for
nesting/roosting Black Swifts there was a local one that I figured I
couldn't get to. That was Cedar Falls, five miles south of North Bend.
Being in the Seattle Watershed, my chance of my getting in there for a
sunset observation was probably zero. I thought the only humans who
got into the protected watershed were elk poachers and clear cutters.
Boy was I wrong.

All I had to do was hook up with their Watershed Ecologist, Dwayne Page
and explain what I was up to and the two of us ganged up on the
waterfall for what I'm convinced was an accurate assessment of 0 Black
Swifts. The real eye opener was the long talk we had in Dwayne's truck
afterwards.

My past mountain running adventures had given me a number of views of
the logging carnage that was going on in the Everett, Seattle, and
Tacoma watersheds. Dwayne described this (in Seattle's) as being very
much in the past. Job one is to return the watershed to its pre
settled condition and all kinds of projects have been put in place and
are on going to achieve this. Salmon have gotten the most attention
and (if I remember correctly) there are lots of lifelong computer
chipped salmon that get tagged in the watershed. They also have a
project of computerized infra red tracking of Marbled Murrelets coming
up the cedar River and then on up it's tributaries. Some very
impressive stuff going on here.

The watershed puts on summer educational tours that you might want to
check out.

A big way to go, and thank you, to the City of Seattle and Dwayne Page.

Larry Schwitters
Issaquah