VALLEY RECORD SNOQUALMIE
101RS YEA
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2015 DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM 75 CENTS
Wildlife wanted
Car kills suspected wolf on I-90
Elk Management Group makes a home for Valley elk herd By CAROL LADWIG
LOCAL
SPORTS
Editor
Mount Si teams head into the post-season Page 6-7
North Bend Community Church welcomes new pastor Page 15
Car collisions have killed at least 12 elk in the Valley and on nearby Interstate-90 already this year, but a recent census suggests the population of the resident herd is thriving. And calving time is almost here. “They have their calves in June,” says Harold Erland, bouncing his truck up a rough DNR road on the way to one of the Upper Snoqualmie Valey Elk Management Group’s (http://snoqualmievalleyelk. org) projects. “But on the Valley floor, they could have them all year.” Erland was among the volunteers with the elk group who last month com-
Allyce Andrew/Staff Photo
Walking along a “linear meadow” that the Upper Snoqualmie Valley Elk Management Group created, member Harold Erlandson points out signs that wildlife has been foraging there. pleted a census, of sorts, counting only the collared elk they spotted for 10 days in late March and early April. They collar elk from mid-July to mid-April, stopping well in advance of calving season, to minimize their effect on calving season. From the data sent by the radio collars and the
actual counts of volunteers, analyst Phil Cassady has calculated a population of more than 500, with a possible range of 449 to 591 at a 95 percent confidence interval. It’s the largest population calculated in the past five years; the estimate was just under 450 in 2014, 2012 and
Chamber changes
INDEX
Director Lizzy Billington leaves chamber for city contract
OPINION 4 6 PUZZLES 8 ON THE SCANNER 16-18 CLASSIFIEDS 19 CALENDAR
By CAROL LADWIG Editor
Vol. 101, No. 50
Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo
Lizzy Billington left her role at the Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce last week to do events planning and economic development for the city of Snoqualmie.
Lizzy Billington works on ways to enable local residents to stay close to home for all their needs, but to do that, she’s making a move of her own. The former chief executive officer of the Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce has, as of May 1, moved two blocks down River Street, to resume her work
2011. In 2013, the number was almost 500. The work of the elk group is contributing, at least in part, to the population growth. Such projects include fencing along Interstate 90 between exits 27 and 31, which is linked SEE ELK, 2
under a new contract with the city of Snoqualmie. “There’s a lot of projects that I’m currently working on that will transfer over,” said Billington Thursday, her last day as a chamber staffer. Those projects include a series of movies and music in the park, and a July 25 celebration of, and on, historic Snoqualmie’s Main Street. “We’re going to make a big deal, a big celebration, of the fact that downtown Snoqualmie looks amazing,” she said. Billington’s departure marks the end of a several-years-long collaborative agreement between the chamber and the city for economic development services and the start of increased efforts by the city to attract businesses and residents alike to not only come to Snoqualmie, but also to stay there. SEE CHAMBER, 8
The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating the April 27 death of what was likely an adult female grey wolf on Interstate-90 near North Bend. The animal was not collared, said Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Ann Froschauer, and investigators are following standard procedure, including checking the animal’s DNA, and “making sure that it’s a wolf and not a wolf hybrid,” said Froschauer. Officials retrieved the carcass between mileposts 41 and 42 on the freeway. It was not clear which part of the state the animal was from, which is important, if it is a wolf. “We have an interesting situation,” said Froschauer, since “a portion of the state, the eastern third or so, is in the federally de-listed area.” While Eastern Washington wolves, part of the Northern Rockies group, are not federally protected, Western Washington wolves are. Also, “wolves are able to cover long distances and expansion into western Washington is not unexpected,” said Froschauer. In Western Washington, Froschauer said, “most of the wolves that we have in that area are expanding there naturally.” The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife tracks the location of wolf packs in Washington and other information on its website: http:// wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/ gray_wolf. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife website on wolves is at http://www.fws.gov/ mountain-prairie/species/ mammals/wolf.
YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER, SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF SNOQUALMIE NORTH BEND FALL CITY PRESTON CARNATION
READY
TRAVEL?
1305589
FOR SUMMER
FREE PRE-TRIP SAFETY CHECK
WWW.LESSCHWAB.COM
See Store For Details
610 E. North Bend Way • North Bend • 425.831.6300