The Penn Cove Whale Watchers

Many of my shore walks to visit slides and bluffs are non social events. I most often do not see anyone particularly on chilly breezy day in winter. But on this trip on southeast corner of Penn Cove on Whidbey Island I came across a group with long camera lenses. Their aim was well out in the water beyond my ability to see with my own eyes and out of my field point and shoot camera.  

The whale watchers looking out over Saratoga Passage with 

Camano Island across the water and Mount Baker and Twin Sisters in the distance

 The group was tracking a pod of Orcas and with their lenses were able to identify specific wales by their dorsal fins. 

Penn Cove was the location of a rather notorious Orca capture in the early 1970s when Orcas were herded into Penn Cove and young Orcas were taken from the pod and at least 5 Orcas died. 

Debris Flows, Logging and Marbled Murrlets - Lake Cavanaugh

Lake Cavanaugh is located within the northwest Cascades near the southern Edge of Skagit County. The 2.75 mile long lake was formed by continental glacial ice that flowed eastward from the northern portions of the Puget ice lobe into the North Cascades. 

Lidar bare earth imagery of Lake Cavanaugh area

Blues arrows indicate ice flow direction with the arrow on the left being the main flow path of the Puget ice lobe and the blue arrow across the top indicating the ice flow from the Puget lobe up into the North Cascades. 

Lake Cavanaugh may have been an area of weaker fractured rock as it is aligned with the Darrington-Devils Mountain Fault zone.   

The south shore area of the lake consists or a series of alluvial fans associated with steep creek drainages coming off the north side of Frailey Mountain. Frailey Mountain is a steep ridge that rises about 2,000 feet above the lake. The bedrock on the mountain is mostly metamorphosed ocean floor basalts of the Eastern Melange Belt, a tectonic terrain. Sandstone and conglomerate of the Oligocene age Bolson Creek Formation underlies some of the mountain as well and there are areas of glacial sediment on the lower slopes.

Due to the steep slopes and narrow drainages the small creeks on Frailey Mounatin are subject to periodic debris flows.

Debris flow on one of the unnamed creeks in 2016.

There are some policy issues associated with these creeks but that will be another post. 

Lake Cavanaugh area was heavy logged in the past.  Bob and I came across this stump while heading up the slope to assess a potential debris flow source area.

The 1941 aerial image looks a lot like a lidar bare earth image. The clear cut logging throughout the area was very intense.   

  

1941

Note that there was a stand of trees left on some of the steeper upper slopes (but not the ridge line) in the 1941aerial. As the forest grew back the old trees are still evident in 1974 aerial. 

1974

They are not as apparent in the 2017 aerial, but logging in the area has started up again as the second growth is now merchantable and logging in the area has been intensive over the past 10 to 15 years. 

2017 - old tree stand circled in red

But the old trees remain. This remnant stand of old trees provides nesting habitat for marbled murrelet, an endangered sea bird that nests within old forest stands. A buffer around this habitat area is required for forest practices (proposed harvest). An added benefit is that bird's nesting presence and protection also reduces the potential for the very steep slopes from being damaged by tree harvest and has limited some of the recent proposed harvest on the north slope of Frailey Mountain.   

Scene of Run Appaloosa Run

The Okanogan valley in north central Washington has been a bit smoke choked from fires in the North Cascades.

The valley has been shaped by glacial ice. The Okanogan ice lobe flowed down this valley to the Columbia Valley where it blocked the Columbia River and covered the northern half of the Waterville Plateau. As the ice retreated, ice margin terraces were formed along the valley sides and have been further enhanced by the erosion from the Okanogan River.

One of the terraces in Omak is used in a horse race. A race that Disney made famous with the movie Run Appaloosa Run. I visited the starting line area of the race that is still run as part of the Omak Stampede.

Start line

View from start

Approaching the edge of the terrace

The plunge to the river

Getting a sense of the steepness of the Suicide Run slope

Galloping a horse down this slope into the river is hard to imagine. But it is an old tradition with deep cultural roots. It takes a special horse that can tolerate a steep run, a swim across a river, and lots of distractions.

Bioturbation of Upper Soil in Eastern Washington Range Land

Whenever I visit a burned over area of eastern Washington range land I am impressed with the bioturbation as it shows up a bit better with the surface of the ground covered with blackened plant remains. Within days there are piles of freshly dug silts covering the landscape. A good reminder of how much soil turnover takes place in the upper soil horizon. These critters will do a very good job of disrupting carbon horizons and volcanic ash layers. 

 

 

Horses and the Horse Heaven Hills

Gaylord Mink has put together a short documentary on the history of horses in the the Horse Heaven Hills (When Wild Horses Roamed). 

A very simplified order of events and impacts could be thought through that was covered by the film:

1) Pre horse the Horse Heaven Hills would have been grazed by a combination of pronghorn, bison, elk, deer and big horn sheep.

2) After the arrival of the horse, hunting by First Nations peoples likely ended the bison and pronghorn presence in the Horse Heaven Hills as well as other areas of eastern Washington and greatly diminished the elk and deer populations.

3) The horse rapidly became the dominant grazer in the Horse Heavens.

4) With few predators and rapidly increasing numbers combined with new invasive weeds, the ecosystem of the Horse Heaven scrub steppe would have changed rapidly.

5) With the arrival of farming with cattle, sheep and dry land wheat and economic shifts as well as petroleum powered machines huge round ups and slaughters greatly reduced and in most areas eliminated the wild horse population. Horses were pushed out into the more remote western Horse Heaven Hills.
 

6) Population of wild horses slowly rebounds and grows.

Thinking about the above process might inform how the remaining scrub steppe lands of the Horse Heavens will respond over time.

The wild horse population in the western Horse Heavens has been expanding rapidly and the range land they live on is being altered and likely is reaching its limits to support the horse population that is there. With farm fields in the valleys and to the east the range can not be expanded. Wild horses are now appearing with greater frequency along Highway 97 in the Horse Heavens on an increasing basis. Hence a very real challenge for the Yakima nation on how to manage the resources of the western Horse Heaven Hills. 

But beyond the current wild horse range the change of grazing will and likely already has had an impact elsewhere in the Horse Heavens. Some limited areas still have open range cattle grazing on a seasonal basis (the range land both private and pubic is much better managed than it used to be). Other areas have no grazing of farm animals, but were grazed not that long ago. Isolated pockets have not been grazed and without a dominant grazer may be evolving in a markedly different manner. Past overgrazing combined with invasive grasses and weeds, particularly cheat grass, has greatly altered the intensity and frequency of wild fires in some areas. The presence of farm fields and roads has reduced the fire frequency in other areas thus allowing plants that are fire sensitive to become predominant at the expense of fire tolerant species. The Yakima Nation recently reintroduced pronghorns to the western Horse Heaven Hills.

All in all and interesting mosaic of changing land use and habitats across the Horse Heaven Hills despite the relatively uniform climate. The Horse Heaven Hills are a wide open, big sky kind of place, but on close look there is a lot of detail and change taking place.

View of the lower Yakima River valley from the Horse Heaven Hills

The above picture was taken a few days ago (nice to be out of foggy western Washington). This particular hill slope is on BLM managed land and is covered by bunch grass. It was formerly very heavily overgrazed, but has recovered with native grasses being the predominant species, but has a remarkable lack of scrub plants at least currently. 

Orcas Red Eye and a Wildlife First (for me)

I traveled the "Orcas Red Eye" this morning. This entails rolling out of bed at 4:10 and being on the road by 4:15. At 5:30 I joined the rest of the bleary headed workers on the ferry to Orcas Island at 5:30. I pulled my wool hat over my eyes and was oblivious to the world as the ferry engines took me to my destination. A nice deep one hour nap.

Some good geology work and chance to see some very good bedrock exposures. Also some wildlife interactions including a wildlife first for me.

My first site was bit cliffy and good to be be wide awake. But I enjoyed hearing this loon dive and resurface below me while I plotted and schemed routes down a cliffy slope for a proposed shoreline access trail.

The rhythmic diving and surfacing of the loon (he could hold his breath a long time) was disrupted by the honking of a pair of geese.

I visited three sections of shoreline on Orcas and a pair of geese flew into all three sites honking while I was there. A geese conspiracy? A pair of geese somehow wronged by me in the past coming to disrupt my quiet? Or am I misunderstanding them and they were happy to see me. Most likely they could care less about me and their noise had other purposes.

The tide was way out so I saw lots of starfish. The orange ones are easy to spot, so I always like seeing the purple ones.

But the exciting wildlife was not captured with pictures. While traversing through the forest, I flushed a turkey vulture off of dead deer. A bit unexpected, but the big first came later and made me yelp.

I was walking a rocky shore reach and a wildly chattering bird landed on my head. My hands shot up and I gave a yelp fully expecting a beak to start jabbing my head. Then another bird landed on my head! This very unexpected event ended very shortly with my two "attackers" flying off still chattering madly. Turns out they were having some sort of territorial dispute and my head was just a clever defensive maneuver spot. 

Whatcom County Big Bird

Raven is full control of the kitchen and I have completed my hereditary assignment of preparing the pate.

If we rolled the clock back and somehow Diatryma still lived in Whatcom County, How big would our ovens have to be at Thanksgiving? Nice paper on Whatcom County's Big Bird: giant-eocene-bird-footprints-paper-palaeontology.pdf

Happy Turkey Day.

Mastadon Tusk

I am generally lousy at spotting fossils. Probably saw this mastodon tusk without really seeing it on previous visits to this shoreline bluff. I only saw it on a trip a while back because I was looking for something else at the exact same spot which allowed enough time for the presence of the tusk to sink in to my fossil blind brain.  

Technically it is not a fossil, but a much decayed remnant of a part of the animal that in this case perished approximately 19,000 years ago according to my interpretation of the deposit the tusk was located in. Probably best to leave the specific location out.   

Snow is Gone and Leucistic Robin Has Returned

Leucistic robin on 1400 block Grant Street, Bellingham via Barry 

Headed up the Skagit Valley yesterday to visit a few sites for work. Just did not make sense to be on the writing machine with sunny weather after the bit of cold rain with snow thrown in on occasion of the past few weeks. And I'll be doing field work today as well because the snow is gone and the birds are back - including our neighborhood's Leucistic Robin spotted first by Barry yesterday.
 

Release the River: Condit Dam Removal

The biggest dam removal project in Washington history had a spectacular start this last weekend. Condit Dam built in 1913 had a tunnel blasted through its base with the final blast this past week. The lake behind the hole drained down in a couple of hours. The dam removal came after nearly a 20 year process to get to this point. When Pacific Power applied to relicense the dam in 1991, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner (FERC) provided as conditions for renewal a new fish passage structure and operation of the dam in a manner that was less harmful to fish. The fish passage structure was very expensive and the new operational requirements limited the electric generation that made the dam less profitable. After years of operating with an annual license Pacific Power opted for removing the dam.

However, there was further wrangling over the dam. Skamania and Klickitat Counties sought taking control of the dam but in the end they too decided it was not feasible. The next struggle was just how was the dam to be removed. There was a lot of sediment built up behind the dam. FERC wanted the sediment dredged; however, Pacific Corp argued against the high cost and presented the approach that while the impacts of a sudden breach might be harmful, the period of damage would be short lived. In the end Pacific Power prevailed with sudden breach approach. And I will say that it makes for good video as well as interesting geology processes.

Two videos: first is some great footage of the breach, flooding and erosion assembled by Columbia River Keeper and the second an overview of the project by Pacific Power. The term "release the river" is a quote of Treebeard in Lord of the Rings.

  

Cascade Rain Shadow, Edge Habitat and Wolves

Cascade rain shadow

After flying up through the cloudy sky of western Washington last week I got an overhead view of the rain shadow while crossing the Cascade Range. The sky or in my case the view changed abruptly from complete overcast to clear. With the change in cloud cover and rain fall amounts there is a rapid change in the landscape from tree covered thick forest to grass and scrub steppe. 

Vegetation shift from forest on the west (right) and grass lands to the east

I was particularly interested in this landscape as just a few days before a wolf pack had been confirmed near this area. The mix of forest and grass lands on the east slope of this part of the Cascade Range makes for very good elk and deer habitat. Wolves have been reported in this area for some time by a locals but were very recently confirmed to be present via motion cameras and DNA testing.

On the ground I have always thought of the ecosystem in this area as being very dynamic. It is an area with cold snowy winters that sometimes can be very severe. The summer can be exceptionally hot and is very susceptible to big grass land fires and forest fires. The elk and other wildlife move east and west and up and down in elevations with the seasons moving to where the forage is best. With wolves entering the area, the elk will likely make moves to avoid predation as well. And of course how this plays out with people will be a new episode in natural resource management for Washington State.  

Horse Heaven

Horse Heaven Hills

I have been traveling and took this picture in the Horse Heaven Hills this week. The Horse Heaven Hills are a continuous set of east-west trending ridges that extend from the Cascade Range to the Blue Mountains across southern Washington. As can be seen in the picture, these hills are aptly named. The hills supported large horse populations for local First Nations including the Yakimas, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla and Nez Perce. Even today on the western end of the hills a remnant herd reported at 5,000 horses (wild-horses-and-prairie-in-sky) roams these hills. The hills are green very late this year due to the higher rainfall and cool spring temperatures.

Glimpse of the South Fork Nooksack Elk Herd

South Fork Nooksack elk

Last week I was out in the South Fork Nooksack River valley checking out a riparian area along the river and got a glimpse of part of the South Fork Nooksack elk herd. I have been told the herd that frequents the valley numbers approximately 70 animals. Elk need a fair bit of room and the presence of this herd is testament to a great deal of cooperation between Washington Fish and Wildlife, tribal hunters, Washington Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Forest Service, Seattle City Light, Whatcom County, Skagit County, non profits, and land owners including some South Fork farmers.

Over the weekend the purchase of land along the South Fork Nooksack River by the Whatcom Land Trust was announced. The Whatcom Land Trust has been taking a leadership role in cobbling together properties in the South Fork Valley for habitat and open space and has worked in a remarkable cooperative manner with Whatcom County and local tribes and property owners. 

 see/click  whatcomlandtrust.org/maps/ for more information.

The unique thing about this latest purchase announcement is the land is in Skagit County - off the above map. But the purchase ties in well with the series of land acquisitions concentrated along the South Fork Nooksack as can be seen in red on the above map. The South Fork Nooksack River is like many Cascade River valleys extends low elevations deep into the mountains. But in the case of the South Fork development does not extend up the valley and thus there is significant opportunity to develop viable habitat areas. Add the cooperation in the farmed section of the valley and one can have a viable elk herd. 

As for my adventures along the river, I appreciated the trail building the elk do to ease passage through the brush areas along the river banks. I came out of this venture with less thorn pokes than I typically have. 

Elk trail leading through the brambles

Pronghorn Reintroduction - A Future Template for Washington Wildlife?

I listen to KUOW, a Seattle based Pubic Radio station, while I putter about in the morning in the kitchen before heading to work. This morning KUOW had a story on the Yakima Nation's introduction of pronghorns onto the Yakima Indian Reservation. The KUOW story can be read or listened to kuow.org/northwestnews.
Back in early December I posted a write up on pronghorns-in-eastern-washington based on some reading I have done on the pronghorn question of Why are there no pronghorns in Washington State? I was aware of some research on the idea reintroduction by First Nations peoples at the time.

The story by KUOW was similar to the story posted by the Seattle PI in late January in that both stories reference the Lewis and Clark Expedition observing pronghorns. There is some debate about the post 1800 pronghorn observation record with some questions as to the observations of Lewis and Clark. The party recorded seeing pronghorn along the Columbia River near the Dalles, but non were reported along the Snake or the high plains above the Snake and none were reported taken for food. In reading David Douglas' journals there are no references to pronghorn that I recall, but he did claim eating buffalo tongue given to him by a Columbia River tribe in what is now eastern Washington north of Hanford. It appears that by 1800, pronghorn were already rare to nearly non existent in eastern Washington and certainly by 1900 they were gone entirely excepting a failed reintroduction effort for hunting in the early 1900s. However, the archeologic record is clear that pronghorn were present in Washington State for a long time.

The historic record indicates that pronghorn were already in severe decline in eastern Washington even before the arrival of Americans and Europeans due to First Nations peoples acquiring guns, horses combined with somewhat limited habitat in eastern Washington. However, the near extermination of pronghorns elsewhere in the 1800s precluded the possibility of migration of pronghorns back into eastern Washington. Settlement with fence building placed further barriers to pronghorn migration back to eastern Washington. So even though pronghorn populations have recovered to healthy levels elsewhere, the only way to get pronghorns back into eastern Washington was likely transplanting as has been done by the Yakima Nation.

Given some of the reaction by politicians and powerful lobby groups, reintroduction could only have been done by First Nations peoples. The reintroduction of pronghorn by the Yakima nation may be a template for reintroducing or augmenting other wildlife species in Washington State in the future.

I do like Lewis' description of the pronghorn from one journal entry while traversing the high plains "We found the Antelope extreemly shye and watchfull insomuch that we had been unable to get a shot at them; when at rest they generally seelect the most elivated point in the neighbourhood, and as they are watchfull and extreemely quick of sight and their sense of smelling very accute it is almost impossible to approach them within gunshot... they will frequently discover and flee from you at the distance of three miles. I had this day an opportunity of witnessing the agility and the superior fleetness of this anamal which was to me really astonishing... I beheld the rapidity of their flight along the ridge before me it appeared reather the rappid flight of birds than the motion of quadrupeds." —Monday, September 17, 1804. I share Lewis' admiration for pronghorns and look forward to seeing them in the Horse Heaven Hills of southern Washington. Perhaps pronghorns will be able to live in other areas of Washington's landscape if they can get past the barriers our landscape and politics place across their range.

Pronghorns Are Back in Washington State

I previously did a write up on pronghorns in eastern Washington HERE. A little over a week ago the Yakima Nation introduced a herd of pronghorns to the Yakima Reservation as report in the Seattle PI HERE.

The PI article is worth reading in that it gives a hint at the complexity of public policy regarding wildlife. The only quibble I have with the article is that it mentions Lewis and Clark's claim that pronghorn were in the Columbia Basin. However, Lewis and Clark never documented a single pronghorn. The Washington State Fish and Wildlife Department had studied habitat areas recently HERE. It should be noted that a hunting club funded the study. However, in this time of budget cuts WDFW was disinclined to take on the additional costs of detailed assessment of likely areas as well as managing another species.

With the help of the hunting club the Yakima Nation has introduced pronghorns to the scrub steppe of the Yakima Reservation. So pronghorns are back in Washington State. The habitat on the Yakima Reservation should be excellent for pronghorns. Perhaps other high quality habitat identified elsewhere will see pronghorns in the future. The WDFW study indicated that perhaps the best location is the Yakima Firing Center as it has a range of elevations, water available and likely is an area where deep snow would be rare.

Bellingham's Caspian Tern Colony

John Stark a writer for the Bellingham Herald has written several stories on the Caspian tern colony on the now vacant former paper mill site on Bellingham's waterfront. I really enjoyed this line Mr. Stark wrote in his latest article: "While Dungeness Spit offered pristine sands, the deteriorating pavement of the old mill site may have been more attractive to the birds for one reason: it is a more exclusive gated community".
Upwardly mobile Caspian terns are apparently getting too good for the riff raff of other wildlife in Washington State. The land is now owned by the Port of Bellingham and has been vacant for several years. It is perfect tern habitat for nesting and the clever terns have figured it out and moved in. Apparently they like to establish large colonies and will congregate at one location for a number of years and then move if bothered too much by predators. Large colonies have been located at Dungeness Spit on the northeast portion of the Olympic Peninsula, near Everett and on the dredge spoils islands in the Columbia River estuary.
The Port of Bellingham plans to make the area less attractive for the terns due to environmental cleanup plans. Early redevelopment will crowd out the terns. It will be interesting to see where the next exclusive tern community will be built.

Aerial Combat Over the Chuckanut Range

Four ravens and a young bald eagle

I had a rare sunny day near the south end of Cuckanut Drive in northern Skagit County in early January. This is the place where the Cascades meet the sea. Bald eagles as well as other birds and for that matter a few humans (parasailers and hang gliders) use this are to soar along the uplifting air as it rises up the south and west slopes of the Chuckanuts. Apparently all is not peaceful in the sky over the Chuckanuts. I watched a great aerial combat between groups of ravens and bald eagles. The ravens kept up their assault for a half hour until the eagles stopped soaring by. I leave the wildlife photography to those with better cameras. 

George Catlin and Our First Nations, Perspectives on Washington State

 

George Catlin, Hee-oh kste-kin, Nez Perce, 1832 and other First Nations Portraits

Smithsonian American Art Museum

While visiting that that far eastern Washington in December, we took advantage of the great art museums in our nation's capitol. Besides appreciating magnificent paintings, I always look for insights on Washington State. This portrait of a Nez Perce caught my attention at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. The Nez Perce Tribe lived in what is now southeast Washington, Idaho and northeast Oregon. They played a vital role in shaping the Washington State we know today from assisting Lewis and Clark to the epic trek and running battles led by Chief Joseph.

The portraits were done by George Catlin in the 1830s. Catlin became obsessed with documenting the First Nations peoples of the west and traveled extensively painting and documenting their way of life. He was well aware that the heritage they represented was disappearing rapidly and made that documentation his life's work. He made numerous trips west to build a large body of work that he intended to sell to the U.S. Government as a complete body of work. In that he failed and sold the portraits to Joesph Harrison who kept the collection mostly intact before the Smithsonian gained the collection.

Although I initially wrongly assigned a set of portraits at the White House to Catlin, I saw numerous paintings by Catlin while in Washington DC.

Charles Bird King First Nations Portraits

 White House

Unfortunately George Catlin never traveled as far as what is now Washington State. But, in addition to the portraits, Catlin attempted to capture First Nations customs, games, living and hunting and some of that information is applicable to understanding our own landscape. I found the buffalo hunting paintings of great interest. Buffalo lived in what is now Washington State up to approximately 1700 and documented buffalo hunt sites have been found in eastern Washington. Furthermore Washington First Nation people traveled over the Rocky Mountains to hunt buffalo well into the 1800s.  

The first painting shows a buffalo hunt using bow and arrows and spears. The painting also captures how the buffalo would attempt to protect their young. But even this painting shows a new technology that had not been available to First Nations peoples for all that long prior to Catlin's painting and that is the horse. The introduction of the horse likely radically changed the hunting dynamic and may have played a significant role in the demise of buffalo in Washington State.

George Catlin, Buffalo Hunt, 1861

National Gallery of Art

But even more interesting is Catlin understood and was able to portray how buffalo were hunted in the wide open plains without the horse. Utilizing deep snow, the buffalo would be herded into snow drifts giving the hunters a big advantage. A bad snowy winter in eastern Washington could thus be taken advantage of if buffalo could be directed into drifts on say the lee of a hillside in the Horse Heaven Hills or the Palouse.

George Catlin, Buffalo Lancing in Snow Drifts, Sioux, 1861

Smithsonian American Art Museum

George Catlin, Stalking Buffalo

A final note on George Catlin is on a more personal level. I saw this portrait in the Smithsonian American Art Museum with the caption "Ha-tchoo-tuc-knee, Snapping Turtle, a half-breed, 1834". Snapping Turtle was also known as Peter Perkins Pitchlynn. He was a great leader of the Choctaw Nation in Mississippi. The connection is a friend of mine that also now happens to live in DC is a descendant of Pitchlynn. He and I had many long distant running ventures in the Horse Heaven Hills including a winter run to the summit of Jump-Off-Joe and back from Kennewick and runs across frozen wheat fields with snow covering the furrows. We saw no buffalo on those runs, but we did sea packs of coyotes, deer and cattle. I had no idea I was running with royalty.

Ha-tchoo-tuc-knee, Snapping Turtle, a half-breed, 1834

Pronghorns in Eastern Washington

Pronghorn (Image from Wikipedia)

 I have a clear memory of our family encyclopedia with the a great chart showing animals running speed. Cheetahs were the fastest on the chart with the pronghorn of North America second. Cheetahs can reach 70 mph and pronghorns clock in at 60. But pronghorns can maintain high speeds for long distance and for that I always admired them. The same chart showed that a top human marathoner could out run all animals with one exception - the pronghorn. Being a long distance runner I have always been a great admirer of the pronghorn.

A few years ago while traversing an alluvial fan in Nevada on foot in a snow storm I surprised a pronghorn that was in the incised stream channel. Being within 25 feet of a pronghorn that bolts was a thrill. It put hundreds of feet between us in seconds. After a minute of running it stopped and turned to look back at me. I realized it was at least 3/4 of a mile away! I was no match. Nor would any known predator match the running of a pronghorn.

Significant portions of eastern Washington look a lot like Nevada and eastern Oregon. In fact pronghorn preserves are located in southeastern Oregon and northern Nevada. While we have wild horses like Nevada on the scrub steppe (HERE), there are no pronghorns in Washington State. This question has perplexed me as well as a number of biologists.

Pronghorns used to live in eastern Washington. Lyman (2007) provides an excellent summary of the information that has accumulated regarding pronghorn from archaeological sites. Based on the archaeological record, pronghorn lived in eastern Washington throughout most of the last 10,000 years and were a food source for First Nations people; however, they were never as abundant as elsewhere in their range and eastern Washington was likely marginal habitat with limited connectivity to other pronghorn habitat. Pronghorns appear to have disappeared in eastern Washington prior to the Lewis and Clark Expedition and other explorations into eastern Washington as there are no unambiguous documented pronghorn observations. Bison were similar to pronghorn in that they were formerly in eastern Washington in numbers less than elsewhere in their range.

While hunting likely impacted pronghorn and bison populations, there were plenty of pronghorn and bison east of the Rocky Mountains well through the mid 1800s. Hence, other factors likely played a role besides hunting by First Nations peoples given that northern plains peoples were highly dependent on hunting.

Lyman (2007) and Lyman and Wolverton (2002) suggests a combination of forage quality, migration obstacles and human predation limited pronghorn and bison populations in eastern Washington. Williams (1987) suggests water content of snow played a factor.

Pronghorns prefer forb plants over grass. Grassier areas of eastern Washington hence would limit pronghorn range. In addition, eastern Washington is very dry in the summer so nutrient values, particularly protein in forage are lower during critical summer months while mothers need milk for young. Access to water would also be a limiting factor for pronghorns in eastern Washington. Deep long lasting snow also poses a problem for pronghorns particularly in areas where forb plants are low growing. A deep snow winter is not uncommon in significant parts of eastern Washington and in areas with generally low snow, one bad year would devastate the population.

Migration corridors between eastern Washington and other pronghorn habitat areas is very restricted. The limited scrub steppe and grass lands of eastern Washington are relatively isolated from other pronghorn areas. Pronghorn habitat in eastern Oregon is continuous with vast tracts of similar habitat in Nevada and Idaho and points beyond. But the Oregon range is separated from eastern Washington by the Blue Mountains and other high forested areas between the Blues and the Cascade Ranges with only a relatively narrow area of suitable habitat connecting the two areas. The very large Columbia River and Snake River as well as a few other rivers also present a significant barrier to in migration. The limited migration would play a role if numbers declined due to any number of factors. One very bad winter with deep wet snow even if rare would be take a long time for population recovery due to the limited migration routes.
Regardless of the natural challenges facing pronghorns in eastern Washington, pronghorns were apparently present throughout the past 10,000 years up until just before the first American and fur trading explorers arrived in the early 1800s. The predator-prey balance with humans may well have been tilted against pronghorns when eastern Washington First Nations obtained horses in the 1700s. The fact that pronghorns were present in eastern Washington for 10,000 years until they disappeared when they did certainly implies some change had taken place. Perhaps a marginal population could not survive the added pressure of hunters on horse back.

I would propose another factor to be added to the forage, migration and snow factors - the local geology and topography. Eastern Washington would be full of potential hunting traps to drive pronghorns toward. Large rivers and cliffs in the scab lands would provide excellent drive locations for hunting relative to other areas where humans and pronghorns interacted. Add the use of horses and perhaps the human predation would have been just enough to finish off the already low pronghorn numbers.

Given our current impacts on the landscape, it is extremely unlikely that pronghorns will ever return to eastern Washington on their own. For one thing, despite their amazing running ability they go under or through fences as the are lousy jumpers. Pronghorns were introduced as a game animal to eastern Washington in the early 1900s, but the population did not survive. Some First Nations groups are considering pronghorn introduction. Perhaps portions of The Yakima Nation Reservation would support pronghorns or the Hanford Reach National Wilderness Area in combination with the adjoining Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Area, Hanford Nuclear Reserve and the Yakima Firing Range or the public lands of the Telford scabland area. I for one would love to see pronghorns eyeing the cars crossing through the Hanford area or on the high ridges between Yakima and Ellensburg.

Further Reading:

Lyman and Wolverton, 2002, The Late Prehistoric Early Historic Game Sink in the Northwestern United States, Conservation Biology.

Lyman, 2007, The Holocene History of Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in Eastern Washington State, Northwest Science.

Williams, 2005, Spatial Precipitation Variability, Snowfall and Historical Bison Occurrence in the Northwestern United States, Anthropology Theses Georgia State University.

Orcas on the Port Townsend to Keystone Ferry Run

Two Orcas with Whidbey Island in background

I had a good two day trip to the northwest side of the Olympic Peninsula. Besides the good fortune of the Olympic Mountain rain shadow that allowed for dry work and even sun despite the rain most everywhere else in western Washington, the work was good and I even did a little non work geology trip I'll write up on another day.

Had a special treat on the ferry run from Port Townsend to Keystone. A pod of Orcas were crossing our path. It appeared there were at least a dozen. The ferry had to slow for a bit to let them pass as they were in our direct path. I ride Washington Ferry boats all the time, at least two or three times a month. This is the first time I have seen Orcas while from the a ferry. It got everyone out on deck.