creating/recreating intertidal areas means high tides have to reach/cover
the ground. the trees taken down at Wylie Slough were on land several feet
above normal high tides, which ran up the channel a few tens of feet away.
I'm not understanding ...
Chris
On Fri, Sep 30, 2022 at 9:14 PM HAL MICHAEL <
ucd880 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
Create/recreate intertidal areas.
>
>
Hal Michael
>
Board of Directors, Ecologists Without Borders <http://ecowb.org/>
>
Olympia WA
>
360-459-4005
>
360-791-7702 (C)
>
ucd880 at comcast.net
>
>
>
On 09/30/2022 8:35 PM J Christian Kessler <1northraven at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
but it's not at all clear to me why salmon restoration entails - or
>
requires - destruction of avian habitat. I would think maintaining the
>
tree and brush along the shore was important to enhancing the sought after
>
characteristics of the water column. mud in the water is antithetical to
>
what salmon fry need.
>
>
Chris Kessler
>
>
On Fri, Sep 30, 2022 at 8:19 PM HAL MICHAEL <ucd880 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
Pretty sure that Wylie Slough project is for salmon restoration. Nothing
>
else matters.
>
Hal Michael
>
Board of Directors, Ecologists Without Borders <http://ecowb.org/>
>
Olympia WA
>
360-459-4005
>
360-791-7702 (C)
>
ucd880 at comcast.net
>
>
>
On 09/30/2022 7:23 PM Patti Loesche <patti.loesche at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
Gary,
>
>
I visited Wylie today and actually thought, I am very glad that Gary isn't
>
here to see this. The trees you described have not just been removed, they
>
have been butchered. It's painful to witness. Whatever the goals of the
>
Wylie project, those goals are hostile to trees and birds. And as you
>
wrote, that mean little blind sticks out in the wide open now. The cattail
>
monoculture is doing fine.
>
>
Patti Loesche
>
Seattle
>
>
On Sep 30, 2022, at 4:51 AM, Gary Bletsch <garybletsch at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
Dear Tweeters,
>
>
Greetings from Chautauqua County, NY. Thanks to one and all for the
>
interesting discussion about the Montlake Fill or UBNA, if I have the
>
toponymy right. At least there is some discussion about what trees to plant
>
and what to remove.
>
>
As best I can tell, at the Fir Island Game Range, or Wylie Slough, habitat
>
"improvement" continues to "progress" without much public discussion. This
>
site has been the premier birding spot in Skagit County for a long time. In
>
late July, the last time I birded there, signage stated that the site would
>
be closed for all of August and September. That alone was enough to make me
>
scratch my head--WDFW would close the place for the best shorebirding time
>
of the year, but have it open just in time for hunting. That is usually how
>
they roll at that agency--hook and bullet, hook and bullet.
>
>
A few days ago, a friend sent me some recent photos taken at the Game
>
Range. The project there must have been completed a few days ahead of
>
schedule. My friend was dismayed at what he saw. Apparently, the riparian
>
corridor between the Headquarters Parking Area and the Dike Junction has
>
been damaged, to say the least. Many of the good-sized trees were removed.
>
That includes the big Sitka Spruce, a tree that has attracted all sorts of
>
interesting birds over the years. Many alders were taken down, some of
>
which had nest cavities used by Tree Swallows and Downy Woodpeckers.
>
>
The so-called Viewing Blind is apparently now clear of brush. I call this
>
the Skull-Cracking Blind. Countless people have smashed their foreheads
>
when trying to enter this absurdly low structure. A friend of mine nearly
>
lost an eye after suffering a detached retina in such a mishap.
>
>
Pardon the digression, but over the past few weeks, I have visited ten or
>
twelve lovely blinds here in Chautauqua County, including a brand-new one
>
that is nearly complete. They all have ample headspace, generous viewing
>
ports, and comfy benches. It does not take Frank Lloyd Wright to design a
>
blind. Nowhere in the world have I seen a blind like the one at the Game
>
Range. Even in such places as Papua New Guinea and Madagascar, where the
>
per capita income must rank among the lowest in the world, wildlife areas
>
feature proper, roomy, comfortable blinds, or hides, as the British say.
>
>
I had been grumbling about the Skull-Cracking Blind for another reason.
>
Since it was constructed, WDFW had allowed a towering growth of brush to
>
obscure the view from the blind. Between retinal detachment and an opaque
>
screen of vegetation, this structure offered a new twist on the meaning of
>
"blind."
>
>
Now it seems that no one who succeeds in entering unscathed will complain
>
for lack of view. The shoreline of the slough has been scalped.
>
>
It would be interesting to read some accounts and descriptions of the
>
changes at the Game Range, if any birders visit there in the coming weeks,
>
before waterfowl hunting gets going. It would be good to learn the status
>
of the cattails in the main pond; those cattails had been slowly colonizing
>
the mudflat, making it less and less attractive to shorebirds, and harder
>
and harder for people to observe the ones present. That was the vegetation
>
that I was hoping to see removed--not trees and brush!
>
>
Yours truly,
>
>
Gary Bletsch
>
>
>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
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>
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
>
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>
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>
>
--
>
"moderation in everything, including moderation"
>
Rustin Thompson
>
>
--
"moderation in everything, including moderation"
Rustin Thompson