Workers needed to fix local trails
Volunteers are needed by the Washington Trails Association this month for maintenance on the Goat Mountain and Cape Horn trails.
The work party at Goat Mountain north of Mount St. Helens will be Saturday and Sunday. There will be camping and a potluck at Ryan Lake on Saturday.
Crews will work on Cape Horn trail in western Skamania County on Aug. 9, 16 and 23.
No experience is needed. The association provides tools and instruction. To register, go online to www.wta.org/volunteer/trail-work-parties, call Haley Miller at 412-303-9478 or email her at haley@wta.org.
Ski area to end traditional chairlift tickets
HOOD RIVER — Mount Hood Meadows will eliminate traditional chairlift tickets for the 2012-13 season.
Radio Frequency Identification gates are being installed at all chairlifts this summer, allowing skiers to board without showing their tickets.
Skiers will carry a unique RFID card or pass in their jacket or on an arm band. This will end the requirement to present a pass or lift ticket for hand scanning.
The new system also gives accurate vertical feet tracking.
Mount Adams has debris avalanche
TROUT LAKE — A two-mile-long debris avalanche recently swept down Avalanche Glacier on the southwest side of Mount Adams.
According to Darryl Lloyd of the Friends of Mount Adams, the avalanche fell from about 11,500 feet elevation and ended at around 7,000 feet.
Lloyd said the avalanche was not as large of the one in late July 1988 in that location.
Cowlitz Valley gets new district ranger
RANDLE — Gar Abbas is the new ranger for the Cowlitz Valley District at the northern end of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Abbas began work Monday in Randle. A native of central Oregon, he has been district ranger of the Jarbridge and Ruby Mountains districts of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest since January 2009.
Umpqua bass rules may change
SALEM — Oregon is considering increasing the daily bag limit from 10 smallmouth bass to 15 in the Umpqua River in 2013.
State biologists will include the proposal in fishing regulations presented to the Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday.
The state also will hear a proposal to open Diamond Lake to year-round fishing. The commission will adopt the final 2013 regulations on Sept. 7 in Hermiston.
