I just got an e-mail from Mount Rainier National Park saying the contractor has received the notice to proceed with work on the Nisqually Road to Paradise and Stevens Canyon Road.

Work will take place on the Nisqually Road at milepost 12.3 on Glacier Hill and Stevens Canyon Road at milepost 14.1, east of Backbone Ridge Viewpoint. Both were damaged in January.

The work is expected to be completed July 31.

During the work, Stevens Canyon Road will be open to the public from the Stevens Canyon Wye to Box Canyon from the west and to the Grove of the Patriarchs from the east.

During the Nisqually work, visitors should anticipate delays up to 20 minutes maximum as traffic will have to pass through one lane at that spot.

This just in from the National Park Service. Free Park Entry June 20-21, July 18-19 and Aug. 15-16:

The National Park Service has announced three fee-free weekends this summer to encourage Americans seeking affordable vacations to visit these national treasures. At Mount Rainier and other national parks, all park entrance fees, including commercial tour entrance fees, will be waived on the following dates: June 20-21, July 18-19, and August 15-16, 2009. These fee free weekends are in addition to the usual fee free days: National Public Lands Day, which falls on September 26 this year, and Veterans Day, November 11.

=> Read more!

The search has begun to find a new director for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Officials said they expect the new director to begin work in October.

The state Department of Personnel, which is managing the recruitment process, has posted the job announcement and application directions on its Web site. Click here to go to the site.

The job announcement also is posted on the department’s Web site.

The new director will be chosen by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission.

The search to replace Jeff Koenings, who resigned on Dec. 11, was delayed until after the Legislature adjourned. Koenings stepped down after 10 years with the department under pressure from the commission. Phil Anderson, the department’s deputy director for resource policy, has been serving as the interim director.

No closing date has been set for the recruitment period, although an initial review of applications is scheduled to begin June 24, according to a department news release.

The director search process and job description were developed by the Fish and Wildlife Commission during public discussions in May and at the commission’s June 5-6 meeting.

The director oversees a 1,500-person staff and a biennial department budget of more than $350 million. The position pays up to $151,705 annually, the release said.

Some folks might consider this the real opener for the Cedar River, one of the west side's best trout streams. At least it might seem like it from a crowd standpoint.

Streamflows, at 552 cubic feet per second, are about half of what they were when fishing opened last Saturday.

While the high flows made wading difficult, there were still reports of folks catching fish. With the levels having dropped, and held steady for the last few days, I would think the fishing would be pretty good this weekend.

I'm sure hundreds of other folks are thinking the same thing. So it might be that finding a place to fish will be difficult this weekend, but only because of the crowds not the very high water.