Local photographer’s chick featured in bird calendar
April will be a special month for at least one family in Klickitat County. Faith Simmons, an 11-year-old from rural Goldendale, will have her photography on display in the Birds of Washington calendar, and her month is April.
The calendar is published by the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s avian health program. Poultry raisers were invited to submit photos of their birds last August. Twenty-four pictures were selected based on diversity of species, background of the photo and neatness of the bird. Simmons learned of the contest through the Klickitat County 4-H program newsletter and selected a well-groomed Ameraucana chick for her entry. The chick is the background photo for the daily portion of the calendar.
The calendars provide information about avian diseases, such as avian influenza as part of the department effort to keep serious diseases from Washington’s commercial flocks. The calendar can be obtained at no charge from the Department of Agriculture
70 years of the Maryhill Museum
The Maryhill Museum turns 70 this year, and to celebrate it’s holding special events on its formal opening day, Saturday, March 20. The museum officially opened for business on Monday.
This special season opens with a retrospective of the 70 years since the founding of Maryhill Museum of Art. The opening exhibition, 70: Seven Decades of Collecting at Maryhill Museum of Art, features some of the most prized objects in the museum collection, including Eastern Orthodox icons, American and European paintings, American Indian beadwork, ancient Greek and 20th century ceramics, and a steel chest containing two pieces from the ship the Mayflower. The exhibit will run from opening day on March 15 though May 31.
This Saturday, the afternoon is filled with a variety of events to celebrate this season's opening, including a tour of the opening exhibit, led by museum curator, Steve Grafe; a Family Fun Day activity that will lead children through the creation of an art assemblage project; dedication of the new Windy Flats Walkway and Viewpoint; and, to cap off the event, a reception at 5:00 p.m.
The exhibit and day's events are sponsored by the Maryhill Museum of Art Board of Trustees in honor of the museum’s 70th anniversary.
Saturday’s special events include:
• Self-Portraits: Artists of the Nixy’awii Community High School
Meet the artists at 2 p.m.
This exhibit, in the EyeSEE Activity Room, presents self-portraits by nine Nixya’awii Community High School art students of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Pendleton, Oregon. The portraits were created at Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts in Crow's Shadow Press with the assistance of art instructor Brian Purnell and Frank Janzen, Master Printer. Through May 31.
• Family Fun: Create an Art Assemblage, 1 to 4 p.m.
Help create the Great 70-Object Art Assemblage. The public is invited to choose an object or two and incorporate it into one big art assemblage. Artist Marsha Frost Holliston will be on hand to see the project through. The finished piece will be exhibited in the EyeSEE Activity Room throughout the run of 70: Seven Decades of Collecting at Maryhill Museum.
On Family Fun days children under 17 are admitted to the museum free all day with one paid adult admission.
• Dedication of the Windy Flats Walkway and Viewpoint, 4 p.m.
This addition to the museum’s gardens takes in spectacular views of the Columbia Gorge and features native plants of the area. The art fence at the viewpoint was designed and created by Columbia River Gorge artist Tom Herrera and was made possible by a gift of historic wrought iron originally owned by Sam Hill.
• Reception, 5 to 6 p.m.
Celebrate the start of Maryhill’s 70th Anniversary Season with food and wine, and the sounds of Tim Mayer and Mike Stillman, jazz piano and saxophone duo.
Sea lion predation topic of Interpretive Center presentation
Sea lions with salmon sushi on their minds have found easy pickings in the tailrace below Bonneville Dam. But just how many fish do they eat? To reduce the damage to fish runs, some of the huge mammals have been killed and others moved. Are things really getting any better?
To find out, board members of the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum in Stevenson have invited the chief biologist in charge of monitoring the situation to speak to the public. Robert Stansell of Stabler is the featured speaker at the museum’s “Sunday on the Gorge” education series on March 21. Stansell will talk about the steps being taken to mitigate salmon predation by sea lions as he and his crew kick off the third year of monitoring a five-year removal project conducted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“In general, I don’t like predation control programs,” said Stansell, a 1980 graduate of Oregon State University in wildlife science. “But in this case, I think it’s a necessary evil. We’ve tried non-lethal approaches, hazing for example, and they just don’t work very well.”
Stansell said his presentation at the museum will include slides, information on current tactics, and plans for the future. He will answer questions and explain the role the US Army Corps of Engineers is taking to meet the state’s goals and objectives.
The presentation begins at 2 p.m. in the DeGroote Theatre. The program is included as part of the museum admission.
For more information, call the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center Museum at (509) 427-8211 or 800-991-2338. Also check the web site at www.columbiagorge.org.
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