WHAT: Dishman Hills Natural Area Cleanup, sponsored by REI.

WHEN: April 22, 1 p.m.-4 p.m.

WHERE: Dishman Hills Natural Area, Camp Caro, 625 S. Sargent Road, Spokane Valley

WHO: Community groups and volunteers needed.

About 340 helpers made a big difference last year in the appearance of this gem of habitat for trail hikers and wildlife in Spokane Valley.

Groups are organized for trail restoration and clean-up, noxious weed removal, tree planting and other projects.

REI and the Dishman Hills Natural Area Association organize the event and provide music and free food.

Preregister here for info and to make sure you get a T-shirt!

Dig deeper into the volunteer trail work with a full weekend project sponsored by the Washington Trails Association.

From grizzly bears to fly fishing, several interesting outdoors related programs are scheduled tonight in Spokane, plus one biggie for anglers in Sandpoint.

It's too bad people have to choose just one to attend.  Here's a sampling of the lineup:

• Fly fishing film helps anglers “Connect” with steelhead.
• 'Grizzly Manifesto” author to speak at Gonzaga.
• Bhutan trekking slide show funds opposition to Mt. Spokane ski area expansion.
• Lake Pend Oreille “state of the lake” fisheries presentation tonight.

WILDLIFE — Canadian conservation author Jeff Gailus will read from his book “The Grizzly Manifesto” at Gonzaga University this week, sponsored by the university's Environmental Studies Speaker Series.

The program will start at 7 p.m., Wednesday, (Feb. 22) in the Jepson Center’s Wolff Auditorium. Gailus plans to read from his book and discuss the future of grizzly bears in the United States and Canada.

Gailus has developed extensive knowledge of grizzlies, following them from Yellowstone National Park through the Canadian Rockies to the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area (pronounced musk-quah-ke-chee-kah) in northern British Columbia.

The free event, open to the public, is titled, “A Grizzly Tale of Two Countries: Grizzly Bear Management and Recovery across the Medicine Line.”

FISHING — Harold Van Riper, a former Gonzaga University basketball star who moved to the Olympic Peninsula to found a popular salmon fishing resort, passed away recently. He was 80.

The former owner of Van Riper's Resort at Sekiu in the western Strait of Juan de Fuca was born on Dec. 11, 1930, in Wilmar, Minn.

“Harold was one of the best mooching anglers around, and you'd always see him fishing off Mussolini Rock usually with a big king bending over his rod,” said Tony Floor, director of fishing affairs for the Northwest Marine Trade Associaiton, in a story by Mark Yuasa of the Seattle Times.

Van Riper attended Gonzaga University where he was a standout center for the basketball team between 1949 and 1953. His daughter, Monica, later became a standout hoopster at Eastern Washington University.

Services are set for 1 p.m., Dec. 18 at the Sequim Prairie Grange, 290 Macleay Road in Sequim. Memorial contributions can be made to the Neah Bay or Clallam Bay School athletic programs.
  

CONSERVATION — The 8th annual Spokane River Cleanup last weekend was a big success. 

There's no official report yet from the Friends of the Falls regarding the amount of garbage the hundreds of volunteers collected to spiff up the river through Spokane Valley down  to the gorge.  But some trash talk is ciculating.

For example, pictured above are the second-place award winners in the “Most Spokane Piece of Trash” cateogory with their impressive “River-Bogged Phonebooth.” 

The proud garbage collectors —  representing GreenCupboards.com — had to haul the heavy hunk of vandalism litter up a steep bank.

GreenCupboards.com began 3 years ago as a “science experiment” in a Gonzaga University entrepreneurship class. With the vision of Josh Neblett, a Gonzaga University graduate of the class of 2008, and the guidance of his ad-junct professor, Tom Simpson, the company has grow to over 40 employees. A large focus has been placed on fostering young, local talent with an average age of 24. Themission of the company from the beginning has been to provide environmentally friendly products, at competitive prices, while giving back to the community. We hope you find these pictures helpful in telling the great story of the Spokane RiverCleanup 2011 and would be honored if you passed our story on to anyone and everyone. 

CONSERVATION — Workers from kids to senior citizens gave up the first beautiful Saturday of a soggy spring to pull weeds, build trail, obliterate unauthorized routes, groom a native plant garden and pick up trash during the community work project at the Dishman Hills Natural Area today.

More than 330 people volunteered to help.

The event was sponsored by REI and several outdoor groups, who served a pizza lunch to the throng after the work. 

Then I noticed quite a few people slipping off into the hills to enjoy the work nature had done.  The trails were quiet, that is until you came near a pond. Then the racket of chorus frogs — some call them tree frogs — would almost shake the trees.

Grass widows and buttercups were blooming. The buds of serviceberries are ready to pop open in brilliant white blooms — just give them a couple warm weeks.  And arrowleaf balsamroots are showing their heads and ready to shoot up from the ground.

WINTER SPORTS — The Winter Wildlands Backcountry Film Festival, canceled in February by a storm that closed the school, is rescheduled for Friday at Gonzaga University.

Several winning festival films will be shown at the Jepson Center, Wolfe Auditorium. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., show at 7.