We have made the difficult decision to cancel the Get Lost! Trail Race for this year. As soon as we are able, we will schedule next year’s event and it will be better than ever!
In the meantime, we hope that you get outside, stay safe and recreate responsibly! We’ll see you next year in the beautiful Okanogan Highlands!
Choose from 4 different race options: 3 miles, 7 miles, 14 milers and a free 0.5 mile kids race, there is something for everyone! Come early and camp at the Lost Lake Group Camp on Saturday night before the race!
OHA kicked off the summer’s of 2020’s Highland Wonders with a Weekend Birding Challenge! The official event took place on May 30-31 but if you want to participate, choose any consecutive two days that works for you! We will send you a bluebird box kit when you share your results.
There are two challenge options. Choose the one that fits you best, or do both! The challenge runs from Saturday, May 30 to Sunday, May 31. Send your results to jen@okanoganhighlands.org by Monday, June 1.
Challenge 1: Keep a list of the bird species that you see in your yard or wherever you may be. Take pictures if you can! Send your approximate sighting location, species list and pictures by Monday, June 1 to jen@okanoganhighlands.org. An anonymous donor is giving OHA $5 for the first 40 species identified! Let us know if you’d like to add to the pot!
Attached below is our “Birding Care Package” with lots of fun resources for watching, listening to and caring for our local birds. Also attached is a tried-and-true bluebird box blueprint, from local bird box expert Dale Swedberg. In the near future we will be assembling bird box kits to distribute to interested community members, and we will also provide a “how to” video for assembly and care of the boxes. Let us know if we can put you on the list to receive a kit!
Okanogan Highlands Alliance and Washington State Attorney General File Clean Water Act Lawsuits Against Mining Companies for Pollution from Mining Activities
Contact: Sarah Kliegman, Co-Executive director, 509-560-4429, sarah@okanoganhighlands.org
May 7, 2020 Spokane, WA – Okanogan Highlands Alliance (OHA) and the Washington State Attorney General’s Office have both filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court against Crown Resources Corporation and Kinross Gold U.S.A., Inc. for water pollution violations at the Buckhorn Mine located near Chesaw, WA in north-central Washington State. The suits are related to the consistent and ongoing discharges of pollutants at the site above the levels allowed by the company’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
“Our community will not stand for the pollution of our waters,” states OHA’s co-Executive Director, Sarah Kliegman, PhD. “The mine has not taken sufficient actions to either investigate the fate of pollutants at the site or to clean up the pollution. This lawsuit is intended to impel the company to clean up their mess.”
Buckhorn Mountain, with Field’s Pond and Nootka rose in the foreground
OHA filed a citizen suit under the Clean Water Act because of the consistent and ongoing violations at the Buckhorn Mine. OHA is represented by Paul Kampmeier of Kampmeier & Knutsen, PLLC. Kampmeier said, “Mine operators must be accountable for the pollution they create. They cannot be allowed to pollute state waters with impunity or to leave a legacy of water pollution after mining activities have ceased.”
OHA and the State’s filing allege that Crown/Kinross violated the Clean Water Act by failing to contain pollutants to the immediate mine area known as the capture zone and that the mine has been discharging more pollutants than permitted for the past five years. The lawsuits also contend that Crown/Kinross failed to submit reports required when certain pollutants have exceeded trigger levels as well as various plans and notifications required by the permit.
The Buckhorn Mine operated in the Okanogan Highlands of north-central Washington State from 2008-2017. There have been ongoing discharges of pollutants from the mine site since mining began. While the Washington State Department of Ecology has issued violations and penalties over the years, Crown/Kinross have not taken the actions necessary to contain their pollution within the capture zone.
The most recent NPDES permit that regulates the Buckhorn Mine was issued in 2014; it has been administratively extended, and is still in force. The permit requires that the water near the mine be returned to near-baseline conditions. These requirements have been upheld by the Washington State Pollution Control Hearings Board, Ferry County Superior Court, and the Washington State Court of Appeals.
OHA is a public interest organization in the Okanogan Highlands of north-central Washington State. OHA has been involved at the Buckhorn Mine through the environmental review and permitting processes. OHA has analyzed the monitoring data since the mine was built in 2008, continually advocating for environmental protection.
We hope you will join us for the last indoor event of the season! We will screen The Beaver Believers, by Sarah Koenigsberg. This feature documentary has been widely recognized for the story it weaves of the engineering feats of North America’s largest rodent and the people who are devoted to them. It is a hopeful story of resilience in the face of climate change, and it even features some familiar Okanogan County faces! We will also be featuring an update on OHA’s Triple Creek Restoration project. There we are working to imitate the work of the beaver.
Everywhere you look in the Okanogan Highlands you can see evidence of the movement of glaciers. The trick is knowing what to look for! On March 6, CWU geography professor Karl Lillquist used local landscapes and landforms to demonstrate how glaciers and other factors shaped our region during the last glaciation in our area, 12,000-18,000 years ago.
Okanogan Highlands Alliance (OHA) and Okanogan Land Trust (OLT) are excited to be co-hosting three-part series of educational events focused on geology. OHA hosted the first event on Friday, March 6th, when Dr. Karl Lillquist returned to Tonasket for the Highland Wonders presentation. OLT will host the second event at some point in the future, but it has been postponed to protect public health. When we are able to resume public events, Bruce Bjornstad will present as part of the OkaKnowledgy lecture series in Okanogan. The third event, also led by Dr. Lillquist, will take participants on a field trip in the Highlands, hopefully this summer! All three events will highlight the fascinating geological processes shaping our hills and valleys. The indoor events are free and open to all; the field trip will require pre-registration with priority given to OHA and OLT members. Anyone can become a member!
Karl Lillquist shares about the Geology of the Okanogan Highlands during an OHA Highland Wonders tour.
Friday, March 6, Community Cultural Center of Tonasket: Dr. Lillquist led the audience in “explor[ing] the origins and evolution of landscapes and landforms in the Okanogan Highlands.” He described how the Okanogan Highlands landscape has been sculpted over time by glaciers and other forces. Specifically, he explained how “The Okanogan Highlands, [which is] characterized by rolling uplands, punctuated by a diverse array of valleys…has been shaped by various tectonic, weathering, landslide, stream, glacier, and wind-related processes.“
Dr. Lillquist is a professor in the Geography Department at Central Washington University, and has vast experience exploring and teaching about the geology of our state. His area of expertise is geomorphology, a field focusing on landforms and how they originated. Throughout our three-part series, we hope that you will join us in looking at the Highlands landscape through geologic time — you might never look at our highland hills and valleys the same way again!
Highland Wonders events feature the natural history of the Okanogan Highlands and surrounding areas. OHA offers educational programming on the first Friday of the month from November through April. The presentations, which start at 6:30 pm, are free to the public (donations are welcome), and clock hours are available for educators. The events take place at the Tonasket Community Cultural Center, and dinner is available before the presentations. (meat and vegetarian options available, $10 a plate).
For more info, or to become a member of OHA, visit our support webpage, or contact jen@okanoganhighlands.org (509-429-4399). For more info about OLT, visit: okanoganlandtrust.org.
An Edu-tainment event about People and Beavers Rebuilding Watershed Resilience …Naturally!
METHOW BEAVER PROJECT & OKANOGAN HIGHLANDS ALLIANCE are pleased to invite you to join special guests Julie Vanderwal, Ken Bevis, Sandy Vaughn & Sarah Koenigsberg for an evening of music, engagement, joy & learning about people & beavers teaming up for watershed restoration!
On February 7, 2020, Jim Hepler, of the Beers Laboratory at WSU’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center, joined us to share his extensive knowledge (and humor) of native stink bugs and their life history. He gave an enlightening overview of the diversity of stink bugs found in eastern Washington, and expounded on the challenges and rewards, and all that is known and unknown about these creatures. Jim’s palpable interest was contagious, sparking the curiosity of our local community.
Fun facts: -Stink bugs can drill through nut husks to feast on the nutrient-rich innards -Pesticides are futile in fighting stink bugs since they are constantly on the move into and out of orchards -Stink bugs have very specific relationships with other insects who will lay their eggs inside stink bug eggs or drill through adults’ exoskeletons to feast -Stink bugs are very capable of killing themselves with their own noxious fumes!
Rough stink bug (Brochymena species)
Photo by Jen Weddle
Highland Wonders presentations feature the natural history of the Okanogan Highlands and surrounding areas. OHA provides these presentations on the first Friday of the month from November through April. These presentations, which start at 6:30 pm, are free to the public (donations are welcome), and clock hours are available for educators. The events take place at the Tonasket Community Cultural Center, and dinner is available before the presentations.
Consperse stink bug (Euschistus conspersus) on a bitterbrush plant (Purshia tridentata, a favored host). Photo by Jim Hepler.
On January 3, 2020, Dana Visalli kicked off the new year with “Big History: the evolutionary story of the Earth and the life on it, in one hour.” It was once thought that the Earth was static and unchanging, but we now know the opposite is true. Both the Earth and the life on it are dynamic and ever-changing. This is the scientific story of evolution; it borders on the spiritual, and is meaningful to our own lives.
In his hour (plus a few extra minutes), Dana wove together concepts from various scientific fields to make sense of humans’ relationship to other species, to each other, and to our world. Threaded throughout was the hopeful, thought-provoking message that we can do better, and that our intellect is capable of bringing us through the challenges facing the world today.
We are excited to share our 10th year of educational programs with an exciting lineup of topics and speakers! We hope to see you this winter – the first Friday of November, January, February, March and April. New this season: continuing education clock hours are available to educators!
Dinner benefitting the CCC starts at 5:15 pm – $9 for adults; Presentation starts at 6:30 pm – free to all
On Friday, November 1, John Crandall shared “Why Floodplains Matter and what we are doing locally to restore them,” with a crowd of 70 at the Community Cultural Center of Tonasket. For decades, floodplains and wetlands were viewed as “wasted” space and they have been diked, filled, drained, mined, and otherwise altered to make room for increased human activity. These activities disconnect floodplains from adjacent streams, degrading habitat and leaving wildlife, fish, and water to deteriorate. Why do these floodplains matter — what services do they provide, not only for fish and wildlife, but for humans too? What can we do to bring them back into a healthy condition? John Crandall returned to the Highland Wonders series to help answer these questions and to share about a variety of projects happening in Okanogan County that are aimed at restoring floodplain processes and making our aquatic ecosystems healthier — from the quality and quantity of our water to the abundance of our fish and wildlife.
John shared videos and photos depicting the ways that floodplains interact with their waterways, and how spring flooding depends on the shape and structure of the surrounding landscape. Floodplains are crucial to the lifecycle of many fish, who time the hatching of their young to coincide with spring floods because of the protection, food, and downstream push that floodplains and high water provide to young fish. In many areas, human activity (such as road building) has disrupted or changed the structure of the floodplains, reducing their size and cutting fish off from their traditional rearing grounds and/or travel corridors. Projects throughout Okanogan County are working to restore floodplain functionality, to reconnect streams and rivers with their floodplains and provide ways for fish to access flooded areas.
We are excited to share our 10th year of educational programs with an exciting lineup of topics and speakers! We hope to see you this winter – the first Friday of November, January, February, March and April. New this season: continuing education clock hours are available to educators!
