By Larry Brandt
Willapa Hills Audubon is looking for two to four volunteers with some very special birding skills for a May/June project. We have an opportunity to stop the harvest of some legacy [near old growth] trees. Lidar surveying indicates many to be as tall as 200-ft. The grove, consisting of douglas fir, hemlock, cedar and red alder, is located in the Grays river watershed north of Naselle WA. This is Washington Department of Natural Resources managed forest. No private property would be included in the survey.
Determining the presence of marbled murrelet would cancel logging operations and preserve this habitat for murrelets, spotted owls and deep forest wildlife. We learned of this cutting too late in the year to employ radar identification, hence, our need for feet on the ground.
Volunteers must have some experience identifying marbled murrelets during their dusk and dawn flights between the forest canopy and the ocean. Positive identification may include call recognition as well as visual sighting. We propose to cove at least three day of observations (dusk and dawn) but any would be of benefit and more would be superb.
An exceptional viewing location overlooks the entire site and then as far west as the Pacific ocean. Access to the viewing location is via nine miles of unlocked DNR logging road off of highway #4 at Salmon creek east of Naselle. Mile-by-mile directions are available including several formats of mapping. Elevations range from 640-ft. to 1760-ft. The viewing team may allow inexperienced birders wishing to learn.
Interested birders please contact