Eileen Dam a reminder of early mining days

Ninety years ago construction began on a monumental project that never came to fruition--the Eileen Dam. A rock failure caused the entire project to be left standing as a monument to the area’s early mining days.

The Eileen Dam was an early attempt to harness the Moyie River for energy but it never had the chance to generate power

The Eileen Dam was constructed to provide electricity to mines in the Deer Creek area owned by Cynide Gold Mining Company. Mining activity started in the Deer Creek area around 1896 and included mines such as Hoosier Boy, Buckhorn, Boston, Keystone, Lucky Three, Scout, Last Chance and Wee Fraction. 

In the initial assays, Scout Mountain showed good prospect for iridium and platinum while the Keystone tunnels samples indicated good amounts of iridium, platinum, silver, lead and gold ore. 

Mining camps were established and a setback occurred in 1904 when a forest fire swept through the Buckhorn Camp and destroyed all the buildings, tools and supplies. The mining must have been too good to abandon and the Cynide Gold Mining Company rebuilt. 

In 1923, the company completed plans to construct a dam and power plant below a box canyon on the Moyie River near the mouth of Skin Creek. Over ten miles of transmission line were planned to carry electricity from the power plant to the Scout and Buckhorn mines.

The abandoned power plant just below Eileen Dam

The nearby crossing on the Union Pacific railroad line, named Eileen, provided the name for the dam, which was also called the Buckhorn Dam at times. A construction camp with a depot for postal and passenger service at the crossing also carried the name Eileen.

In 1923 and 1924, workers constructed the 50 foot high (one source says 58 feet) dam that is 150 feet long for $100,000. Within the concrete, railroad rails create a mesh on two-foot centers both horizontally and vertically. Engineers designed Eileen Dam as an arch dam because arch dams are not suppose to fail-- and it didn’t fail.

An engineering design error placed the eastern abutment against shale rock. In the spring of 1925, the dam held back a spring’s worth of snow melt ready to produce power. However, in May the high water’s pressure was too great and the Moyie River broke through the weak spot--the shale rock at the eastern abutment. The spillway canal on the east end was also destroyed. 

For thousands of years, the Moyie River had slowly carved away at the shale to create the canyon at the mouth of Skin Creek. However, when a stronger concrete structure blocked the flow of the Moyie River, the shale formation’s weakness was highlighted in a few moments.

Old newspaper clipping report witnesses saying “that water pressure from the Moyie flaked shale rock off like shingles from a roof in the windstorm”. When the rock gave way, a ten foot rise in water levels was felt four miles downstream at the Bonners Ferry power plant. 

River rafters run the rapids through the gap on the east end of the dam (right side)

The blowout of the rock was a major disappointment for the Cynide Gold Mining Company. The company couldn’t sell enough stock to finance repairs of the dam, so they sold off the salvageable equipment.

Just as the forest fire didn’t set back the Cynide Gold Mining Company, neither did the Eileen Dam project. In 1930, the company installed a mill, tram and power plant on one of its properties. 

The early attempt to harness the Moyie River’s energy is now a monument that bears the history of earlier mining days and provides a challenge to rafters racing the rapids through the washout. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on Nov. 27, 2013. 

Carpets of moss similar to miniature forests

From five feet above cushions of moss look alike but down on my hands and knees I can see the intricacies of the inch tall moss. Carpets of moss are like miniature forests that provide habitat for other plants, insects, worms, frogs, fungus and other small mammals, but moss is vastly different from the trees in a forest.

Moss holds in moisture and helps other organisms grow, like tree seedlings

Moss is a plant, however, the structure of moss varies from what we typically think of for a plant. A tree has xylem and phloem tubes that carry water and nutrients between the roots and leaves. These tubes characterize trees as vascular plants. Mosses don’t have xylem, phloem or any other tubes which makes them non-vascular plants (bryophytes). 

The outer structure of moss is also different. Trees have roots, leaves, stems, flowers, fruit or seeds. Mosses have rhizoids, spores and leaf-like structures. Moss is only a few inches tall at most because it lacks the lignin-fortified tissue required to support tall plants.

Like roots, the rhizoids (small, branched filaments) anchor the moss to the substrate it is growing on, whether the north side of trees, rocks, soil or concrete. However, rhizoids don’t absorb water and nutrients like roots, they only anchor the moss.

Instead, the leaf-like structures absorb moisture. The “leaves” are only one cell thick and absorb rain water as it flows over the plant and as water droplets from dew or waterfalls land on the plant. Numerous plants create a carpet of moss which produces a spongy quality that enables all the plants to absorb and retain water.

Carpets of moss act like giant sponges and soak up rain which reduces runoff and helps prevent flooding

Without a root system to spread out to obtain water, moss is limited to where there is sufficient moisture. Over 12,000 species of moss grow from Arctic regions to the tropics and from around hot springs to the bottom of lakes.

Moss needs sunlight to create food but it is often found on the north side of trees to avoid the intense sunlight that can dry it out. If a moss dries out it won’t die. Moss needs moisture to live but not survive. Some mosses can be dried out for up to 20 years and spring back to life once moisture is present. 

When exposed to direct sunlight without moisture, moss dries out but doesn't die

Moisture is needed for moss to reproduce. Reproduction is vastly different from trees with flowers, seeds and fruit. Mosses reproduce using spores like ferns and mushrooms. Spores are similar to seeds but they are single-celled and more primitive than a seed. 

During certain times of the year, upon close inspection you can see the carpet of moss sprouting tiny stalks with little capsules on the end. These capsules often hold more than 50,000 spores each. When the spores are fully developed, the capsule opens and the spores are dispersed. 

Stalks support small capsules that hold spores for the next generation

Like a seed, a spore has to land in the ideal location to germinate. However, some spores are viable for up to 40 years waiting for the right conditions. 

Moss isn’t solely dependent on spores to spread. Moss can spread by sending out new shoots in the spring from last year’s plants or by fragmentation. If a piece of moss is broken off and moved by wind or water, a new plant can start from that piece if enough moisture is present. 

In ideal conditions like on the rocks next to a waterfall or in the damp reaches of old-growth cedar groves, vast carpets of moss can form over time into intricate miniature forests that we just have to get down on our hands and knees to see.

Moss thrives in moist conditions

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on Nov. 21, 2013.

Animals prepare for winter by caching nature’s bounty

As gardeners were harvesting the bounty of their summer’s garden before the first frost, animals were harvesting nature’s bounty. Stockpiling food for winter is important when an animal’s food source will be hidden by snow. Just as gardeners follow specific instructions for preserving, animals have their own techniques to prevent spoilage. 

Squirrels stash mushrooms in trees or on stumps to dry for a mid-winter meal

With a bumper crop of mushrooms this fall, squirrels have been harvesting and stashing them for winter. You may have noticed random mushrooms tucked in the crotch of a branch, on top of a stump or in a hollow cavity of a tree. Being off the ground helps the mushrooms dry quickly and become tough and brittle. These dried mushrooms resist decay, unlike mushrooms still on the forest floor, and are a meal for squirrels during the winter.

Squirrels are also known for their caches of cones, called middens. While squirrels could leave the cones on the trees to harvest as wanted, they don’t because the cones become less palatable as they dry. 

To prevent cones from drying out, squirrels store them in the cool, damp depths of their middens which are covered by heaps of cone scales. During the winter, the squirrels bring a damp cone from inside the midden to a perch above the midden for a fresh meal. 

In a midden, cones are buried beneath a pile of cone scales that the squirrel removes to eat the seeds

Keeping seeds from spoiling is important for animals to survive the winter. Clark’s nutcrackers supposedly check every seed before they cache it. They cache seeds in hundreds of different locations so one bad seed doesn’t spoil the whole food supply. 

Beavers use water to keep their food source available during the winter. Beavers cut and store cottonwood and aspen saplings in their pond so they can access them when the pond is frozen. Some beavers bury the branches in the bottom sediment while others construct floating caches. Beavers begin a floating cache with less palatable species because those will be frozen in the ice. The desired cottonwood and aspen are then placed beneath to feed on.

For many animals, their food source is best left intact to be found when needed. Numerous berries stay on plants through winter and offer a food source to the first animal that finds them. Variable distribution makes the berries and seeds unlikely candidates for caching because of the energy needed to cache them and the distance between food sources.

Bright red mountain-ash berries remain on the tree through winter and are an important food source for songbirds, upland game birds, small mammals and even grizzly and black bears in the fall. Pine grosbeaks and Bohemian waxwings are two birds that frequently flock to mountain-ash and quickly consume all the berries on the tree. 

A pine grosbeak feeds on mountain-ash berries

Snowberries, kinnikinick berries and rose hips also remain on the plant into winter and provide food for many birds. Flocks of pine siskins and common redpolls can be seen flying from tree to tree feasting on the small seeds of birch and alder. 

Animals out of sight feasting on their harvest include pikas, mice and voles. 

During the sunny days of summer, pikas harvest grass like farmers, dry it beneath rock overhangs and then place it in their burrows to eat during winter (since they do not hibernate).

Deer mice and meadow voles dig extensive tunnels under the snow to access caches of seeds, sedges and other food they stored away when conditions were prime. But living under the snow doesn’t protect them from other creatures looking for meals. Weasels, coyotes, owls and raptors can hear mice and voles scurrying beneath the snow and pounce for their mid-winter meals.

By the signs left on the snow, a coyote probably heard a rodent beneath the snow and excavated the rodent's nest for a meal

Whether food is on the move or stashed in a cache, animals have various means of capitalizing on nature’s bounty to survive the winter. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on Nov. 14, 2013.

Canada geese can be migratory or residents

As the temperatures cool and the leaves fall, the familiar “a honk, a honk, a honk” can be heard overhead as Canada geese fly in their signature “V” formations. Many birds migrate in the fall but the loud call of Canada geese makes them highly noticeable.

Flying in a "V" formation enables Canada geese to conserve energy, maintain visual contact with other geese and avoid collisions

Before they migrate, Canada geese gather in staging areas. Each migrating flock consists of several family groups and individuals. The goslings born last spring stay with their parents until they return to the breeding grounds next spring.

When ready to depart to their wintering grounds, older geese lead the way. By having one leader, the flock can easily change direction or speed without confusion.

Flying in a “V” formation allows each bird, except the leader, to take advantage of the slipstream created by the bird ahead of it, similar to bicycle racers. This saves the birds energy and enables them to extend the range they are able to migrate. The leader can easily drop back into the line to take advantage of the lift. 

In the fall and especially in the spring, the flocks migrate slowly by stopping along the way to refuel. This ensures they reach their destination in good shape which is extremely important in the spring when less food is available at the breeding grounds. 

Canada geese are highly adaptable to what food is available and will eat grass, leaves, flowers, roots, seeds, berries, and crops such as barley, wheat, beans, rice, alfalfa and corn. They also eat aquatic plants and the occasional insect, snail or tadpole.

Canada geese flock to fields to forage on waste grain and tender plants

Many geese don’t migrate as far south as they once did because some farming practices make waste grain more available in the fall and winter.

Not all geese migrate the same distance. Canada geese breeding and nesting in northern Canada may migrate to the southern United States while those nesting in southern Canada may only migrate to the northern United States. 

Each subspecies of Canada goose inhabits a specific range and migrates to certain areas. The number of subspecies varies depending on the source, but Ducks Unlimited recognizes seven subspecies of Canada geese: Atlantic, Hudson Bay/Interior, Giant, Moffitt’s/Great Basin, Lesser, Dusky and Vancouver. 

The Great Basin subspecies breeds in the inter-mountain regions of Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado, and also in Montana, Saskatchewan and northern Ontario. They then winter in places such as Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Montana. 

As social birds, Canada geese flock together all year except when nesting

Not all geese migrate either. Some Canada geese are considered resident geese because they stay year-round in places with open water and available food. A goose is taught to migrate by its parents and if the parents don’t migrate then the young don’t migrate. 

The geese that spend the summer here may winter here or fly south. Wintering geese may be resident geese or migrants from farther north.

Canada geese don’t search for mates every year, they mate for life unless one dies. The strong family and pair bonds permit the family to return to the natal home area to nest. Many pairs even reuse the same nest for several years. 

After nesting is completed, the family stays together. Before the young fledge, the adults undergo a molt to grow new feathers to replace worn, frayed and lost feathers. Therefore during mid-July, the entire family is grounded. 

Goslings stay with their parents until the next spring 

Despite their noisiness and ability to make 13 different calls, the Canada goose still has several predators. When molting, sitting on the nest and as eggs, the geese are most vulnerable to coyotes, raccoons, skunks, bobcats, foxes, gulls, eagles, ravens, magpies and crows.

Humans are another predator during hunting season. Some 2.6 million geese are harvested annually by hunters but the harvest doesn’t impact the population. The Canada goose population is more stable than it has been in previous decades, ensuring we will hear their familiar call overhead as they seek out food.

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on Nov. 7, 2013

Nocturnal animals specially adapted to life in the dark

Walking in the dark heightens our senses and imagination. The rustle of leaves at the edge of the clearing sounds like a bear or moose but really a mouse is scampering across the dry leaves. 

Accustomed to daylight, we heavily depend on our vision to determine what is happening in our surroundings. Once darkness falls, our vision is limited to that of a headlamp or the outlines created by the light of the moon. 

Snow reflecting moonlight and tracks left in the snow help us see what animals are active at night

Animals active at night depend on more than their vision to know what is happening in their surroundings. Nocturnal animals have at least one highly-developed sense. Special adaptations include big ears, large eyes, sensitive whiskers and keen noses.

Bats use echolocation (sound waves) to determine where prey is located and to navigate in the darkness. Raccoons have extremely sensitive fingers that help them locate crayfish and other invertebrates beneath stones in shallow water at night. Great gray owls can hear a vole tunneling through snow up to 60 feet away with their offset ears. Snakes can sense minute changes in temperature. 

More animals than we think are active at night--we just aren’t outside to see or hear them. Nearly half of all living vertebrates are nocturnal, including coyotes, mink, beaver, deer, river otters and wolves. In late winter, owls can be heard calling at dusk and in the spring and fall, some waterfowl call to each other as they migrate through the moonlit sky. 

People need artificial light, like a campfire, to distinguish objects in the dark on a moonless night

Being active at night is no safer than being active during the day. While prey can hide under the cover of darkness, their predators have developed keen senses to seek them out.

A mouse may hunker down during the day to remain out of sight of a hawk, which can still see the ultraviolet glow of the mouse’s urine in its trails. But at night the hawk’s domain becomes the owl’s domain and the mouse is no safer than during the day.

Nocturnal hunters have the advantage of not competing with diurnal (day-time) predators over the same resources. Swallows perform aerobatic maneuvers to catch flying insects during the day while bats rely on echolocation to capture night-time flyers. 

Many nocturnal animals still rely on sight to function at night but their vision isn’t the same as diurnal animals. The eyes of nocturnal animals contain higher concentrations of rod cells in the retinas to allow the creation of images in low light. However, the image is not as clear as those created by a higher concentration of cone cells in the eyes of diurnal animals. 

Nocturnal animals, such as owls and flying squirrels, tend to have larger eyes to capture more light. An owl’s eyes are so large they cannot move in the socket and take up half of the owl’s skull. 

To aid in creating images at night, some animals have a layer of reflective cells (called the tapetum lucidum) behind their retina that reflects back photons of light not captured by the rod or cone cells the first time through the eye. The reflective tapetum lucidum creates the eye shine we see when our headlights or headlamps shine in a nocturnal animal’s eyes. 

The body behind the eye shine can be difficult to identify unless a light illuminates it. In this case, car headlights eventually illuminated a black bear.

The glowing pair of eyes staring back from the darkness of night could be as benign as a flying squirrel or porcupine, dangerous as an armed skunk, or as spine-tingling as the determined eyes of a cougar hunting for its next meal. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on Oct. 31, 2013.

Can woolly bear caterpillars predict winter weather?

What will winter be like? Many look to the woolly (wooly) bear caterpillar for a prediction. The black and orangish-brown banded caterpillars may be the most widely recognized creature for predicting winter. 

According to folklore, if the woolly bear caterpillar has more black area than orangish-brown then the winter is going to be long, snowy and cold. If the caterpillar possesses more orangish-brown area then the winter is going to be mild. 

Woolly bear caterpillars curl up in a ball to protect their soft underparts. Striped skunks are the only animal patient enough to pluck each bristle off in order to eat the caterpillar.

Many factors determine the coloring of the woolly bear caterpillar and one of the most influential is how last winter ended. To better understand the woolly bear caterpillar’s coloring, we have to look at its life cycle.

Woolly bear caterpillars, like most insects, progress through four stages in their life: egg, larva, pupa and adult. In autumn when woolly bear caterpillars are seen the most frequently on roads and sidewalks, they are nearing the end of their larval stage as a caterpillar. 

The caterpillars seek out shelter in winter hibernacula under leaves, in rock crevices and under bark. When temperatures increase in the spring to a certain point, the woolly bear caterpillars emerge from their hibernacula and briefly eat before spinning a cocoon to pupate. 

The cocoon is fashioned from the bristles (called setae) of the woolly bear caterpillar--which aren’t woolly feeling at all-- and are held together by silk. After one to two weeks a dull, orange-yellow Isabella tiger moth emerges. The two-inch wingspan is speckled with small black spots.

Caterpillars are the only stage at which the insect has chewing mouthparts. So the main purpose of the moth is to mate and lay eggs (if female). Once the eggs hatch (five to twelve days), the larval (caterpillar) stage begins again. 

As the woolly bear caterpillar eats vegetation, such as dandelions, birch, clover and maples, its skin becomes tight. The caterpillar’s growth is limited by its exoskeleton which can’t increase in size. Therefore, the woolly bear caterpillar molts up to six times before maturity. 

Before each molt, a new, larger skin grows underneath the current exoskeleton. When ready, the woolly bear sheds the older, outer skin. With each new molt, an additional orangish-brown segment is added to the exoskeleton. Therefore, younger woolly bear caterpillars have a shorter orangish-brown band than older caterpillars. 

If the spring was mild and the caterpillars had a chance to emerge early, the new caterpillars of the year have more time to grow. With a long growing season, the woolly bear caterpillar would have a longer orangish-brown segment than if it was an late spring or early fall.

In reality, the orangish-brown segment on the woolly bear caterpillar indicates whether the last winter was long or short. 

Another factor influencing the segments on the woolly bear is rain. If the caterpillar endures wetter weather, more black setae are produced.

Whether last year’s winter corresponds to the upcoming winter is anybody’s guess. But informal research since the 1940’s has determined that the folklore of the woolly bear caterpillar’s coloring has been right 70 percent of the time.

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on Oct. 24, 2013.

Juniper species grow in tree and shrub form

Nestled on a rocky site north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska, a juniper bush seems out of place. Could it be the same species I’ve seen in North Idaho and the deserts of the Southwest? Despite the dramatic difference in latitude, the common juniper thrives across most of North America. The common juniper ranges from Alaska south to California and east to Newfoundland and the east coast.

The common juniper is one of over a dozen species of juniper native to North America and one of two found in North Idaho. The other juniper species found in North Idaho is the Rocky Mountain juniper. 

Common juniper typically don't grow more than a few feet high

As the name implies, the Rocky Mountain juniper ranges from British Columbia south to Arizona and New Mexico, east into western Nebraska and the Dakotas, and west into Nevada and east central Washington. 

The two juniper are easy to tell apart, one is a tree and the other a low-growing shrub. Rocky Mountain juniper grow upwards of 30-45 feet, often with a round shape to the tree. Common juniper rarely grow more than five feet high in a mat-like shrub. 

Rocky Mountain juniper (far left) grow in a tree form

Upon close inspection, differences can be found in the needles. Rocky Mountain juniper have tiny, scale-like needles on the mature plants and prickly, half-inch long, awl-like needles on juvenile plants.

The needle-like leaves of common juniper are arranged in whorls of three on twigs while those of Rocky Mountain juniper grow opposite in pairs on twigs.

One similarity between the junipers is the cones, which are often referred to as berries. As a conifer, junipers grow cones but they resemble a berry. The berry-like cones are fleshy with remnants of cone scales etched on their surface.

The blue fleshy covering aids in the dispersal of seeds with over 30 birds consuming the juniper berries. Birds are critical to the germination of seeds because juniper seeds don’t germinate unless the fleshy covering is dissolved, which happens when the berries pass through the digestive tract of birds or animals.

Juniper berries are an important food source for many birds because they persist on the plant through the winter, offering food in early spring. Bohemian waxwings can consume over 900 juniper berries in an hour. Other birds that consume juniper berries include juncos, yellow-rumped warblers, cedar waxwings, purple finches,  black-capped chickadees, evening grosbeaks, flickers, bluebirds, wild turkeys, swallows, eastern kingbirds and jays. 

Juniper berries persist on the plant after ripening, offering a food source in winter

Male and female cones grow on separate plants so some plants never produce berries. The female berry-like cones mature the second season and require another year after ripening to be prime for germination. 

Not only do junipers provide an excellent food source but they also provide shelter among their pointed needles. Chipping sparrows, robins, song sparrows and mockingbirds build nests in juniper. 

The wide-ranging distribution of juniper can be attributed to their ability to grow on dry, rocky sites. Rocky Mountain juniper only require ten inches of precipitation a year to survive. 

Juniper adapted to inhospitably dry environments because they couldn’t compete with other forest trees. While shade tolerant when young, juniper become shade intolerant as they mature. 

The ability to grow where other trees cannot has enabled juniper, especially the common juniper, to range far and wide across North America for a long time. The oldest Rocky Mountain juniper, near Logan, Utah, is estimated to be 3,000 years old. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on Oct. 17, 2013.

A train ride on the other side of the Selkirk Mountains

Chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo. The train began to roll out of the Ione, Washington station on a beautiful October day on a short trip to Metaline Falls. Through the rolling countryside and next to the Pend Oreille River, the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad train chugged. 

The North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club train prepares to leave the Ione, Washington station

Glimpses of the river could be seen through the trees beginning to show their brilliant shades of autumn. A brief stop on the Box Canyon trestle bridge showed the full width of the Pend Oreille River. On the upstream side, nature’s forces had carved the steep walls of Box Canyon. On the downstream side, Box Canyon dam captures the water’s power to create electricity.

Box Canyon dam was built between rocky islands in the Pend Oreille River and completed in 1956

Seen from the Box Canyon trestle bridge, the Pend Oreille River flows north into Canada to join the Columbia River (the Kootenai River in Idaho does the same)

The Box Canyon trestle bridge and the railroad were completed in 1910

As the train chugged onward, the forest closed in around the railroad until closer to Metaline Falls where the forest gave way to pastures and homesteads. Two tunnels shortened the route for workers building the railroad in 1910. 

The train consists of three classic railroad coaches, three open-air coaches, one caboose and an engine

At Metaline Falls, the engine reconnected to the rear end of the train and pulled it back to Ione. The 90-minute, 20-mile round trip was a novelty for the riders awed by the beauty of the Pend Oreille Valley but for the original riders and railroad engineers, the railroad was a necessity--a means of transportation of people and goods. Apple trees along the route are a reminder of the apple cores railroad workers and passengers discarded along the tracks.

During the winter, train cars are kept under the silos of the Inland Portland Cement Plant in Metaline Falls

The engine reconnects to the rear of the train in Metaline Falls to make the return trip to Ione

The Port of Pend Oreille was created to operate the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad in 1979 after the railroad was deemed no longer economically feasible by private businesses

For more information on the train ride hosted by the North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club through October, visit www.lionstrainrides.com.

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on October 10, 2013.