Bison in Washinton State: Gibbs and Douglas

I came across a reference regarding buffalo and antelope in eastern Washington by George Gibbs in a report to General McClellan in 1854. Gibbs was hired to assess the First Nations peoples of Washington Territory prior to the treaties. Besides his reports on the tribes and tribal leaders, Gibbs made numerous observations about the Washington landscape. Regarding large game in eastern Washington Gibbs reported, "Of the larger game there is but little in their own country. The buffalo, it would seem, in former times penetrated at least occasionally thus far to the westward, though now they never come through the northern passes. We were informed by an old Iroquois hunter, at Fort Colville, who has been some forty-eight years in the company's service, that the last bull was killed some twenty-five years ago in the Grand Coulee."

This matches David Douglas (of Douglas fir fame) reporting eating buffalo tongue as a treat given to him by Wanapum people near present day Hanford in the 1820s.

These two reports strike me as reasonably reliable and extend the period of time bison were in Washington State to the 1820s. It is generally thought that previous bison populations came not through the northern passes, but via eastern Oregon and the Snake River plain of Idaho. The arrival of horses and guns combined with relatively marginal habitat and forage as well as poor connectedness to other populations brought about the demise of the bison in Washington State well before American settlement and well before the notorious wasteful slaughter of the herds on the high plains in the later part of the 1800s.

Zintel Canyon Dam

Kennewick, Washington was for a long period of its history subject to floods from Zintel Canyon. The Zintel Canyon watershed south of a narrow cleft in the first ridge of the Horse Heaven Hills covers an area of approximately 18 square miles of the higher portions of the Horse Heaven Hills including portions of the south slope of Jump-Off-Joe kennewicks-mountain. I went through the map exercise of roughly outlining the upper watershed boundary. 

Zintel Canyon, upper watershed outlined in blue (USGS)

Water flow in the upper watershed is very rare, but has taken place often enough that building through central Kennewick was restricted due to the potential for flash floods coming out of the hills and down through the canyon into town. The flood were not huge, but Rainier Street was built like a large paved canal to capture the flood waters and convey the water through a residential neighborhood. 

Flood waters that flow down Zintel Canyon are from two types of events. The more likely is from rare intense summer thunderstorms that might happen to stall over the upper Horse Heavens. The other source of water flow is from rapid snow melt. Rapid snow melt is common in this low area of eastern Washington that is also subject to sudden warm winds after long cold periods. What is less common is having enough snow in the dry climate to generate enough water. But despite the uncommon occurrence of these types of weather, water has flowed down through Rainier Street 7 times.

The Army Corp of Engineers got funding for the Zintel Canyon Dam after many years of study and built the dam for $7.3 million. The dam was completed in 1992. As far as I know the dam has yet to stop any flooding. 

Zintel Canyon Dam from the west

Downstream view towards Kennewick

Urban Herbivores

One significant change that has been taking place in the Washington landscape and not always a welcome one for those that care about landscaping is the increase in the deer population. I came across the two shown below while doing some work in Port Townsend.

 

 

I took the pictures without a telephoto. These guys were very close and seemed a bit put out by my presence. Port Townsend has a good mixture of small brushy open space mixed with urbaness. The urbaness may have kept deer away in the past, but now it is an attraction and likely provides protection from cougars. I usually see deer when I visit PT. Last summer I followed a deer trail under a thick growth of English ivy and came face to face with a buck that for several seconds appeared to not want to yield to my presence - enough time that I realized I could be in a bit of trouble.

 

I suspect there has been a slow behavioral and genetic selection process taking place. Bolder deer willing to inhabit areas in close proximity to people are rewarded. And PT is not the only place. Even in the very urban sections of Bellingham deer have moved in. Last summer two deer occupied our ally sleeping in the tall grass in a section of unfenced yard. It took a concerted hazing effort to get them to move on.  

Evergreen Huckleberry Season

One of the pleasures of late fall field work in the low lands of western Washington are the tasty treat of evergreen huckleberries (Vaccinium ovatum). November to December is when these berries are at their peak for flavor depending on the weather. They tend to get grainy after a hard freeze, but otherwise hold their flavor better than other berries perhaps because they reach ripeness after the weather becomes very cool.

The plants are evergreen and are described as liking moist partial sun areas with acidic soils. My own observations are consistent with the above, but I would note they do best in places that have a period of drought and are located in soils that dry out at least for a month or so. Hence, the plant grows thickly in northeast portion of the Olympic Peninsula and often is associated with native rhododendron. I have encountered impenetrable thickets of evergreen huckleberry on the Toandos and Bolton Peninsula. The berries above were picked on a forest edge near the south end of the Toandos.

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.

Thanksgivings Past 2010 Arctic Blast

Western Washington does not have long cold winters, but we are far enough north that every now in then we can get a blast of cold. Bellingham is susceptible to cold blasts of continental Arctic air as the route of that air is enhanced through the Fraser River canyon just to the north.

 

This year is a mild temperature Thanksgiving week. Two years ago the temperatures were in the teens with 50 mph winds. 

 

 

This year temperatures have been in the 40s and 50s. Mild temperatures but heavy rain and lots of wind. The series of storms have been putting up Sandy type stats with projected total rainfall on the west slopes of the Cascades and Olympics of 20 inches and coastal areas getting 100 mph winds. 

 

If your traveling:

 

 

Glacier Peak and the Sauk - Stillaguamsih Divide

In the early fall I had a nice pass by of Glacier Peak. Glacier Peak is one of Washington's strato volcanoes. I have referred to it as the sneakiest as it does a fair job of hiding amongst the high peaks of the North Cascades Range. It is the 4th highest peak in the state at over 10,000 feet, but it has enough high peaks around it and it is far enough back into the main range and deep into wilderness that it gets overlooked. Unless you know what to look for it blends in with the other snow capped peaks when viewed from Seattle or Everett. Very different than the other big stratos in the state that are all much better known simply because they stand out well above everything else on the horizon.

 

Glacier Peak on October 9, 2012

 

In one regard the peak is well named as it is covered with glaciers. The peak always fascinated me ever since I saw Ira Spring's photographs of the peak in hiking guides.

 

I have never been up the mountain itself. I have done geology work of various sorts on the ridges and in the valleys all around the mountain. On each of the adventures I encountered evidence of huge and not very old (post last glacial period) eruptive events: piles of pumice fragments miles from the mountain itself. One of the first geology hazard projects I did at Stratum Group was assessing a steep terrace slope above the Sauk River flood plain a bit north of Darrington. Prior to arriving at the site I assumed the terrace would be underlain by glacial and alluvial sediments. Instead, I found the entire slope consisted of pumice fragments; the entire valley had been filled with pumice material and the river had incised down through the volcanic fill. This was an in your face evidence of a huge post ice age eruption.  

 

Glacier Peak's potential to cause problems in northwest Washington State is well illustrated in the image below and is summarized here:http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2000/fs058-00/

 

 

 

All that expensive flood management work on the Skagit River will be sorely tested in the event of a big mud flow from Glacier Peak. The pumice covered terrace I observed above the Sauk River near Darrington was associated with an eruptive event that erupted an estimated 5 times the amount of tephra Mount Saint Helens erupted in 1980.

One of the big post ice age eruptions from Glacier peak altered the route of the Sauk River. The Sauk formerly flowed west from Darrington down what is now the North Fork Stillaguamish River. The divide between the two rivers northwest of Darrington is a broad flat plain approximately one mile across.

 

LiDAR of the divide between the Sauk on the east and North Fork Stilliguamish on the upper northwest.

 It is interesting to contemplate what would happen if another large eruption would fill in the Sauk Valley and send the Sauk back down the Stilliguamish. The Sauk is a rather wild river subject to huge channel migrations during flood events along much of its lower course.