Pacific Northwest Cultural Heritage Programs At Mount St. Helens Visitor Center.   The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission Folk and Traditional Arts in the Parks Program invites the public to two evening Pacific Northwest cultural heritage programs at Mount St. Helens Visitor Center in Seaquest State Park on Silver Lake.
 

Altair Campground will re-open August 1 and remain open through September 16.  The campground was closed for the month of July to ensure visitor safety while contractors used a series of controlled blasts to lower the Glines Canyon Dam.
 
“We realize Altair Campground is a special place for many of our visitors and we recognize the inconvenience the closure has meant for them,” said Olympic National Park Acting Superintendent Todd Suess.  “Although visitor safety necessitated closing the campground for the month of July, we are pleased to be able to keep the campground open for an extended season through mid-September.”
 

Survey teams from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) have been searching the Capitol Forest in Thurston County in recent weeks for signs of Mazama pocket gophers, a protected species with an uncertain future.
 
Over the next five months, that investigation will expand to include areas of seven other counties as about 30 WDFW biologists and volunteers work to find out more about the range and distribution of the small, burrowing rodent in Western Washington.