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Get Lost Trail Race 2025

July 12-13, 2025

Over one hundred participants, supported by friends, family, and race course volunteers, challenged themselves on the 3-mile, 7-mile, 11-mile, and 1k kids race courses. There were new course records established, personal records set, first-time racers, as well as very experienced trail runners, and participants ranging in age from age 2 to 82! For full race results and further information about the 2025 Get Lost Trail Race, please visit UltraSignup Get Lost Race Page.

This year’s Get Lost Trail Race was a fabulous, family fun event,” said Tia Wold, OHA board member and Get Lost Race Director. Sarah Kliegman, OHA co-director adds, “OHA’s Get Lost Race has become a summer tradition for lots of people, businesses, and organizations who come together to participate in the festivities as racers, volunteers, and sponsors. Our hearts are full when we see the excitement for this event and for the beautiful Okanogan Highlands grow over the years!” 

The Get Lost Trail Race event began on Saturday with volunteer trail stewardship in preparation for the race. All afternoon, racers and their friends and families enjoyed time together in the cool lake, exploring the surroundings, and camping out at the Lost Lake Group Camp. The festivities continued on Sunday after the races when participants and volunteers were invited to enjoy homemade lunch and refreshments, with ingredients grown by local gardeners and donated by Tonasket Natural Foods Co-op, Safeway, and Walmart. Prizes for participants and volunteers were sponsored by Lee Frank Mercantile, Iron Grill Restaurant, Goat’s Beard Mountain Supplies, North 40 Outfitters, REI, All Perked Up, Roosters Espresso, and Leaping Sheep Farms; Big 5 Sporting Goods supplied snacks for runners. Spring Creek Ranch, Wenatchee Valley Medical Group, and an anonymous donor sponsored race expenses. Green Okanogan provided infrastructure to manage recycling at the event.

Our generous sponsors and volunteers made this event possible,” added Tia. “Their community spirit helps in providing food and prizes and ensuring that the Get Lost Trail Race is healthy, safe, and fun.” 

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Get Lost Trail Race 2025! Registration is Open!

The date is set, the campground reserved, and registration is open! We can’t wait to see you at the 7th Annual Get Lost Trail Race!

You can find all the details about the weekend, including the schedule of events and a map of the race routes, and complete online registration at: https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=124378  or scan the QR code in the poster below. When you sign up online you guarantee that you will receive a post-race lunch, and you SERIOUSLY don’t want to miss out on the lunch.

Interested in volunteering? Send a quick message to getlost@okanoganhighlands.org. We’d love to have your help!

Settlement Reached in OHA’s Clean Water Act Suit Against Mining Companies

Okanogan Highlands Alliance (OHA) has reached a settlement with Crown Resources and Kinross Gold USA to resolve the Clean Water Act citizen suit brought by OHA in 2020 over alleged ongoing Clean Water Act discharge permit violations at and near the Buckhorn Mine. 

With the agreement, the mining companies will take actions to improve water quality and promote permit compliance, including investigations of the sources, fate, and transport of pollutants at and near the mine site. 

After nearly five years of litigation and settlement talks, OHA made a practical decision to enter into a settlement agreement that gets the companies working toward actions that will increase protection of the environment.

The settlement includes a process by which Crown will work with OHA to incorporate information from these investigations, as well as other sources, into a corrective action plan for the mine site. This means that Crown will meet regularly with OHA, share data and information with OHA, and work together to develop a corrective action plan for the Buckhorn Mine. 

The agreement gives OHA a seat at the table and allows us to continue our decades-long commitment to independent oversight and analysis. With access to the information and data from investigations, OHA will be able to conduct analyses, help develop a remediation process, follow any changes to water quality moving forward, and sound the alarm when action should be taken.  

OHA, represented by Kampmeier & Knutsen, PLLC,  filed its Clean Water Act citizen suit against Crown Resources, and a parent company, Kinross Gold USA in April 2020 because of alleged ongoing violations of Crown’s Clean Water Act discharge permit for the Buckhorn Mine. Washington State’s Attorney General filed a similar suit against the mining companies in May 2020. The suits were consolidated in June 2020, but Washington State is not a party to the settlement between OHA and the mining companies and their lawsuit is ongoing.

Highland Wonders Field Trip: Mushroom Mosey, Fall Edition!

Back for a new season!

After leading a fascinating introduction to mushroom ecology, characteristics and foraging practices this spring, Elliot Phillips and Amber Kauffman are excited to come back for a second fungi-focused forest frolic, featuring the fungi of the Fall!

Curious about the location? So are we! All we know at this time is that we will be in the Okanogan Highlands. The details will be revealed by the mushrooms themselves the week of the event.

If you are interested in learning more, please send us a quick email at info@okanoganhighlands.org and we will keep you updated (via email) with all the details as the date nears.

Action Alert! USFS Buckhorn Project EA Comments Due August 29, 2025

The time is now to have your voice heard regarding the management of forests in the Okanogan Highlands. From now until August 29, 2025, the Colville National Forest is inviting public comments on the Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Buckhorn Project. Read on to learn more and find out how you can help! 

The Draft EA for the Buckhorn Project recently released by Colville National Forest, describes the forest and recreation management proposed for over 66,000 acres on and around Buckhorn Mountain and Mount Bonaparte in the Okanogan Highlands.

Because the management actions are being classified under a legal framework called an Emergency Action Determination, this is your best (and only) chance to have your voice heard and input incorporated! 

OHA’s initial concerns include: 

  • The draft EA includes amendments to the forest plan that would allow logging and thinning of old growth, and in deer winter range. Amendments would allow thinning or logging: in over 15,000 acres of old growth forest and 26,000 acres of deer winter range. These changes to the forest plan may have negative ecological impacts such as damaging soils, spreading weeds, impacting waterways, damaging wildlife habitat, and having questionable effectiveness in reducing fire risk.
  • The management prescriptions in the Bonaparte and Jackson Roadless Areas would allow removal of trees up to 10 inches diameter, creating conditions that stimulate rapid, thick regrowth of small trees (i.e.increased fuels and fire danger in the future in some of the more remote parts of our local public lands).  
  • The thinning prescriptions, in general, would remove trees less than or equal to 11 inches diameter – leaving, on average, 50 trees per acre, leading to a drier forest floor and/or opportunity for thick re-growth in thinned areas).
  • The EA does not address the impacts of the extreme extent of the proposed management activities – meaning logging, thinning, machine piling, and burning – on nearly 49,000 acres (~75% of the project area) in the Okanogan Highlands.

OHA is concerned that the prescriptions described in the EA are too extreme, and will lead to increased wildfire danger in the future. OHA does not support entry into old growth ecosystems; we advocate for thinning prescriptions that will leave a healthy, vibrant, and whole forest ecosystem behind.

 The information linked here includes the letter announcing the opportunity to comment from Joshua White, Forest Supervisor, the Draft EA, and associated reports, and information about how to submit your comment letter. Send comments electronically to: comments-pacificnorthwestcolville-tonasket@usda.gov, request receipt of your comments, and put “Buckhorn 30-day Comment Period in the subject line of your email.

We encourage you to seize this opportunity to share your voice with the Forest Service! Make sure to send your comments in by August 29, 2025. As you write your letter, if you have questions or ideas that you would like to share, send us an email at: info at okanoganhighlands dot org

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Where are we in the process? COMMENTING on the DRAFT Environmental Assessment 

August 2024: Scoping. Some of you may have submitted comments during the scoping period last year.

August 2025: Commenting on the Draft Environmental Assessment. This is the second (and last) opportunity to have your voice heard. 

Important! Scoping letters and Comments on the Draft EA serve different purposes. While scoping focuses on defining the “what” of the environmental review, comment letters address the “how well” the draft document has analyzed those issues.

The PURPOSE of the Comment Letter on the draft EA is to provide detailed feedback on the draft document’s analysis, findings, and proposed actions and no action alternative.

The CONTENT of the Comment Letter on the draft EA should be specific and focus on:

  • identifying flaws in the analysis
  • areas where more accurate or in-depth information is needed 
  • potential impacts that were overlooked or inadequately addressed
  • whether proposed mitigation measures are sufficient. 
  • You can also express your preferred alternative and provide rationale for your choice.

The GOAL of the Comment Letter on the draft EA is to help refine the environmental analysis and inform the agency’s final decision on the proposed action. 

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Suggestions for your letter:

  1. Personalize your letter! Your personal connection to the Okanogan Highlands, to Mount Bonaparte, to Buckhorn Mountains and to the surrounding area is an incredibly important part of your comment letter. Explain how the proposed management activities will impact YOU if this proposal moves forward. Consider adding information about the proposed activities will affect your home, your land, your family, your livelihood, or your business. Consider using this information to begin letter and to frame your other comments.
  2. Identify issues that are “significant”. If there are “significant issues”, the Forest Service must prepare a more detailed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) rather than an Environmental Assessment (EA). In order to decide whether an issue is “significant” agencies must consider:

    • Context: This means that the significance of an action must be analyzed in several contexts such as society as a whole (human, national), the affected region, the affected interests, and the locality. Significance varies with the setting of the proposed action. For instance, in the case of a site-specific action, significance would usually depend upon the effects in the locale rather than in the world as a whole. Both short- and long-term effects are relevant.
    • Intensity: This refers to the severity of impact. …The following should be considered in evaluating intensity:
      • Impacts that may be both beneficial and adverse. A significant effect may exist even if the Federal agency believes that on balance the effect will be beneficial.
      • The degree to which the proposed action affects public health or safety.
      • Unique characteristics of the geographic area such as proximity to historic or cultural resources, park lands, prime farmlands, wetlands, wild and scenic rivers, or ecologically critical areas.
      • The degree to which the effects on the quality of the human environment are likely to be highly controversial.
      • The degree to which the possible effects on the human environment are highly uncertain or involve unique or unknown risks.
      • The degree to which the action may establish a precedent for future actions with significant effects or represents a decision in principle about a future consideration.
      • Whether the action is related to other actions with individually insignificant but cumulatively significant impacts. Significance exists if it is reasonable to anticipate a cumulatively significant impact on the environment. Significance cannot be avoided by terming an action temporary or by breaking it down into small component parts.
      • The degree to which the action may adversely affect districts, sites, highways, structures, or objects listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places or may cause loss or destruction of significant scientific, cultural, or historical resources.
      • The degree to which the action may adversely affect an endangered or threatened species or its habitat that has been determined to be critical under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
      • Whether the action threatens a violation of Federal, State, or local law or requirements imposed for the protection of the environment.
  3. Write “substantive” specific comments. By law, the Forest Service must respond to all “substantive” comments submitted during the public comment period. If you provide the agency with specific, focused, substantive comments, the agency will be required to provide a detailed response. Avoid stating an opinion (i.e. “I oppose…”, “I do not believe that…”, “I fear…”)
  4. Include references. Organize your comments by section and include page numbers, and specific topics that you are addressing. If you use external resources/references to support your letter, include complete references to them in your letter. Do your best to identify any information that is missing or incomplete in the analyses.

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Links to More Information:

Okanogan Land and Resource Management Plan (1989)

Okanogan County Community Wildfire Protection Plan

Executive Order 14072 “Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies” (2022)

USDA FS Draft EIS “National Old-Growth Amendment” (June 2024)

As you write your letter, if you have questions or ideas that you would like to share or run by us, send us an email at: info at okanoganhighlands dot org