The Eagle Outdoors

If y'all haven't noticed, it's a busy, bustling, vibrant time of year. Julie's strawberries are going plum wild. Truthfully, we've never seen the plants quite as full as they are this year; the cherries, Lapine and Royal Ann, too. However, the robins, jays, and crows appear to be getting their fair share from those particular trees. Still, I'm okay with sharing, and I find it comical to see a robin so full of "my" cherries as to make full flight darn near impossible.

We have a pair of yearling blacktails in the yard most mornings. The Mama Sparrow in the birdhouse out front on the picket fence is raising Brood #3, and –surprise – I somehow managed to draw an antlerless deer (doe) tag for the Ryderwood Game Management Unit (GMU) for muzzleloader season. The GMU itself is just across the street from our Little Red House. Now to just find a doe that we haven't watched for the past three or four years. Yeah, I'm to that point.

WDFW license increase in effect July 1

Hunters and anglers will be paying a little bit more for their required paperwork come July 1, 2025, as the WDFW's across-the-board license fee increases go into effect. "As a result of state legislation passed this session, hunting and fishing license fees will increase July 1, 2025, reflecting the first license fee increase since 2011," stated an email from the WDFW. "Signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson on May 17, the bill increases fees by 38 percent and includes a senior discount for hunting licenses and a senior and disabled veteran discount for license packages (Fish Washington and Get Outdoors)." A complete breakdown of the new license fees can be found at wdfw.wa.gov/licenses/fishing/types-fees.

True, I've both heard and read complaints about the increases - the first since 2011 - and the one before that, I believe, in 1998. No one likes to pay more for anything. I know I don't, but this is a case of "if you wanna play the game, you have to pay the price." While I won't bore you with another flurry of mathematical equations and M.D.-based justifications for these price hikes, let me just say this: Julie and I (sadly) just paid $28 for two supposed value meals at McDonald's. That's only $11 shy of an annual freshwater fishing license here at home. Enough said.

Columbia River Salmon / Steelhead Endorsement resurrected

It was here, it died, and it, like Frankenstein's Monster, has been reborn. "It," in case you're wondering, is the Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead Endorsement, or CRSSE for those of you with a penchant for acronyms. Again from the agency, which stated, "Starting Jan. 1, 2026, anglers fishing for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River and its Washington tributaries will need a Columbia River Salmon and Steelhead Endorsement (CRSSE). This new requirement, established by House Bill 2003 and signed into law on May 17, applies to resident and non-resident anglers age 15 and older. The endorsement will cost $8.75 for most anglers, with a discount for youth and seniors." If you're wondering, the original endorsement was in effect from 2010 to 2019.

Yes, it's a little bit more. Two gallons of regular gas, a fancy-dancy coffee at Dutch Brothers, half a McDonald's value meal. One thing that is interesting to note is that WDFW did not request either of these license increases, but rather the folks in Olympia. Just FYI.

Marine Area 1 opens June 25

For those who salmon fish the North Jetty and/or ship out of Ilwaco and run across the Columbia River bar to hunt late summer kings and silvers, this is from the fisheries program of the WDFW concerning salmon opportunities in Marine Area 1 (M1) for 2025.

M1 will be open seven days a week beginning June 25 to Sept. 30, 2025. The daily limit is two salmon, and only one may be a Chinook. Anglers must release wild coho. The Chinook minimum size is 22 inches, and the hatchery-marked coho minimum size is 16 inches. Other salmon species have no minimum size. Prior to June 25, possession of salmon on board a vessel is prohibited on days when the sub-area is closed to salmon retention. The Columbia River Control Zone is closed to salmon fishing, except from the North Jetty, when adjacent waters north of the Control Zone are open to salmon fishing or the Buoy 10 fishery is open to salmon fishing. The Marine Area 1 Chinook guideline is 16,600 (12,510 in 2024) and hatchery coho quota is 49,860 (39,000 in 2024).

Garter snakes are good!

Here's something you may or may not know. Garter snakes eat slugs. Yes, sir, the same slugs that are destroying your young sunflowers and ignoring the cat food containers filled with Rainier beer you've cleverly sunk into the garden.

If you're like us, anything that eats slugs is "A-Okay" in the grand scheme of things, and this includes your basic garter snake. Here in Southwest Washington we have a trio of garters: the common garter snake, the northwestern, and the terrestrial. All come in various lengths, colors, and patterns. They'll take up residency in an old hemlock stump out front, keeping their world and mine safe from slugs, mice, shrews, and whatever else it is that common garter snakes feast upon.

They're doing you a favor, these non-slimy slithering creatures are, by eating the things – slugs included – which we wish to eat ourselves. So, the next time you see one, don't smack it with anything. Just wander off, and he or she will do the same.