Fall 2011

Coyote Tale • The Buzz of Hummers•Honoring the Past - Looking to the Future • Pend Oreille River Water Trail Concept Plan • Pend Oreille Salmonid Recovery Team website goes online

download a printable version of this issue (.pdf file)

(and Events) Check back soon for our Fall Classes

Eco-Literacy sites, Pend Oreille Trails, and more

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Diggings Archive

A list of articles by our regular contributors, guest contributors, and articles arranged by general subject matter

Articles by our Regular Contributors

Carol Mack works at the WSU/Pend Oreille County Extension office in Newport. Along with developing and administering the Sense of Place program, she coordinates the local WSU Master Gardener program and other agriculture and natural resource educational offerings.  She gardens and chases butterflies in her spare time, and is a contributing editor to Mother Earth News Magazine.

Appreciating Brown....Beneath the Surface....Beneath the Surface of a Stream....The Blue Bugs of Autumn
The Cumulative Power of Small Acreage Management....Butterflies and Bushes....Harvesting Rain....Imagine a World Without any Plants....Living with Wildfire....A Landscape of Brush....A Natural History of the Mosquito....Nature's Balance Sheet.... Near the Water.... Nunateks.... On the Beaten Path.... An Outbreak of Orange.... Pend Oreille Rain Garden Plants....Rain Gardens and Shoreline Stabilization....A River's Job...Snow in the Mountains.... The Smell of Home....Stink-friends.... Teas of the Pend Oreille Wild....That's Why We Call Them Springtails....Thinking like a Watershed....Tundra Swans....The Way of Water.... Weeds and Change.... A Wealth of Wildlife....What's in a Name?....Where is Away?....Which Way is North?

Jack Nisbet was raised in North Carolina and moved to eastern Washington in 1971. For the past decade he has lived with his wife and two children in Spokane. His books explore the intersection of human and natural history and include "Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson across Western North America"; "Purple Flat Top"; "Singing Grass, Burning Sage"; and "Visible Bones: Journeys across Time in the Columbia River Country".
Nisbet’s current project is an illustrated book that follows the initial contact between Inland Northwest tribal cultures and the British fur trade. "The Mapmakers Eye: David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau" will appear in the fall of 2005.

Crossing a Small Divide.... The Crossing....David Thompson among the Kalispels, 1800-1812.... David Thompson's Sense of Place.... Digging with Mole Salamanders .... Fish Doctor....Indian Meadows, Indian Hemp....Looking for Wild Carrots....Remembering Alice....River Mainstays....Staunching a Wound, Starting a Fire....A Very Thicketty Road

John Stuart, a board member of Selkirk Conservation Alliance, lives in the woods west of Newport. He organizes Pend Oreille County's annual Christmas Bird Count (started in 2003) and has completed the Cusick Breeding Bird Survey for over 15 years.  As a wildlife and forestry consultant, he assists landowners in developing habitat-oriented forest stewardship plans. He received statewide recognition as the 2004 Wildlife Habitat Steward of the Year, awarded by the Washington Association of Conservation Districts and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.      

The Big Circle of Birds.... Birdcount 2005....Bobolinks....Chronicles of Sub-Nivea....Cog and Wheel, Tooth and Claw....Managing for Big Birds on a Small Acreage....No Such Thing as Waste....Owls Of Pend Oreille County.... Pend Oreille Park....Pocket Gophers - the True Tunnel Visionaries

Ray Entz: Wildlife Manager, Kalispel Natural Resources Department

Frogs in Pend Oreille County,....Missing Cottonwoods

John Gross: Water Resources Manager, Kalispel Natural Resources Department

The Hyporheic Zone

Joe Maroney: Fisheries Manager, Kalispel Natural Resources Department

Pend Oreille Bass....Native Cutthroat and Non-native Fish

Deanne Osterman: Director, Kalispel Natural Resources Department

Traditional Kalispel Foods

Kevin Lyons: Archeologist, Kalispel Natural Resources Department

Small and Pretty: a Brief History of Beads

Sharon Sorby:

Pend Oreille Weeds....Wildlife and Weeds....Weeds and Disturbance....Worse than Milfoil?....The Hawkweeds....Spotted Knapweed....Managing Weeds....Bioagents....The Evil Twin

Articles by Guest Contributors

Kathy Ahlenslager: What's Rare in the Water?

Jon Almack: Ghosts of the Selkirks

Paul Bannick: Keystone Carpenter

Ned & Gigi Batchelder: The Buzz of Hummers

Gary Bock and Douglas Stienbarger: Rain Garden Basics

Chris Bonsignore: Wetlands of the Calispel-Cusick Valley, Wetland Restoration in the Calispel-Cusick Valley, Phase 2

Jim Bottorff: Brush and Wildfire Hazards

Mary Cates: North from Metaline

Francis Cullooyah: A Conversation about Fish

Wilma Cullooyah: Cattails: the Supermarket of the Swamp, Wild Teas of Pend Oreille

Meg Decker: Edgers, Floaters and Sinkers,Singers in the Hayfield

Karen Dickson: Cattails: the Supermarket of the Swamp

Michael Duncan: Admiring Admirals

Sandie Durand: Casting a Shadow on Reed Canarygrass,Eroding Turbidites and Riverine Puzzles, Improving with Age, The Versatility of Native Grasses

Tonie Fitzgerald: Living & Gardening in the Pacific Northwest

Peter Griessman: Forest Roads

Cahrles Kress: Pend Oreille County Solid Waste

Sheldon Magnuson: The Verbrugge Legacy

Faith McClenny: Honoring the Past - Looking to the FutureThe Old Kalispel Trail & Rocky Gorge

Jim McGinty: The Joy of Composting

Christi Norman: Birding Trails

Drew Parker: This Land of Mushrooms, Truffles - the Seldom Seen, The Higher Fungi

Evelyn Reed & Bill Piper: Pend Oreille County Historical Society

Jan Rice: Milfoil Weevils

Vince Scartozzi: Underground at the Pend Oreille Mine

William E. Schlosser: Wildfire Protection Starts around the House

Mark Simpson: Forecasting Water Supply

by Dr. Allan H. Smith: Fish Weir

Liz Stuart: Missing Cottonwoods

Traditional: Coyote Tale, Why Mosquito Wears a Spoon in his Hair,Coyote Tale, again

Eric Trimble: Brush and Wildfire Hazards

Ruth Watkins: Up River

Kathleen Werr: Stormwater and our Habitat, The Pend Oreille Rain Garden Challenge

Michelle Wingert: Slip-Slidin' Away, Timing of Spring Runoff

Steve Zender & Dana Base: Twig-Eaters

Articles by Subject

mountains, geological features, and interesting places in the Pend Oreille Valley

Forest Roads
North from Metaline
Nunateks
On the Beaten Path
PO County Solid Waste
Pend Oreille Historical Society
Pend Oreille Park
Where is Away?
Which Way is North?

Rivers, streams, and the importance of water

Appreciating Brown
Bank Stabilization
Beneath the Surface of a Stream
Bioagents
Conservation and the Water Cycle
Forecasting Water Supply
Harvesting Rain
Milfoil Weevils
Near the Water
Protecting our Streamflows
Rain Garden Basics
Rain Garden Plants
Rain Gardens and Shoreline Stabilization
River Mainstays
A River's Job
Slip-Slidin' Away
Snow in the Mountains
Stormwater and our Habitat
Thinking like a Watershed
Timing of Spring Runoff
Up River
Water Quality and Fisheries Database
Water Trails
Waterfront Landscaping
Pend Oreille River Water Trail Concept Plan
The Way of Water
Wetlands of the Calispel-Cusick Valley
Wetland Restoration in the Calispel-Cusick Valley, Phase 2

Fish, animals, insects and other living creatures

About Songbirds
Admiring Admirals
Beneath the Surface of a Stream
The Big Circle of Birds
Birdcount Results 2005
Birding Trails
Birds Sing Praises
The Blue Bugs of Autumn
Bobolinks
Bull Trout
Pend Oreille Bass
Butterflies and Bushes
The Buzz of Hummers
Chronicles of Sub-nivea
Cog and Wheel, Tooth and Claw
A Conversation about fish
Digging with Mole Salamanders
Fish Doctor
Fish Weir
Forests, Wildlife, and Brush
Frogs in Pend Oreille County
Ghosts of the Selkirks
Milfoil Weevils
Native Cutthroat and Non-native Fish
Natural History of the Mosquito
An Outbreak of Orange
Owls of Pend Oreille County
Singers in the Hayfield
The Smell of Home
Stink-friends
That's Why They Call Them Springtails...
Twig-Eaters
Tundra Swans
A Wealth of Wildlife

Trees, plants and other growing things

Bioagents
The Evil Twin, Managing Milfoil
Brush and Wildfire Hazards
Casting a Shadow on Reed Canarygrass
Cattails: the Supermarket of the Swamp
Edgers, Floaters and Sinkers
Ghost White Pines
Hawkweeds
The Higher Fungi
Imagine a World Without any Plants
The Joy of Composting
A Landscape of Brush
Living & Gardening in the Pacific Northwest
Living with Wildfire
Managing Weeds
Missing Cottonwoods
Nature's Balance Sheet
Pend Oreille Weeds
Spotted Knapweed
Wild Teas of Pend Oreille
This Land of Mushrooms
The Versatility of Native Grasses
Weeds and Change
What's Rare in the Water?
Wildlife and Weeds

Pend Oreille County history, the Kalispel Tribe

Coyote Tale
Coyote Tale
The Crossing
Crossing a Small Divide
David Thompson among the Kalispels, 1800-1812
David Thompson's Sense of Place
Digging for History
Honoring the Past - Looking to the Future
Indian Meadows, Indian Hemp
Looking for Wild Carrots
The Old Kalispel Trail & Rocky Gorge
Significant Dates Affecting Pend Oreille County
Small and Pretty
Traditional Kalispel Foods
Remembering Alice
The Verbrugge Legacy
A Very Thicketty Road