Open Gorge: The Skamania Dispatch & Klickitattler

A black locust in my yard became a Washington noxious weed this January. The healthiest native ground on our place is underneath it. Here's what years of pulling ivy taught me about a word I had been using without thinking, and why I'm starting a series about owls and salmon with a tree.

In This Episode

• The ivy, the collapsed burrows, and the day the robins came back
• Braiding Sweetgrass, chapter nine
• Desired and noxious in the same sentence
• What a noxious weed legally is, in three lines
• Why our county's own list matters
• Nitrogen, and a tree that stops giving when you stop needing
• Miner's lettuce, and what I still can't prove
• Germany's Tree Queen, and the case for a hearing
• The name that's wrong and can't be fixed
• Tolerance, and who is really controlling whom
• Slowing down on one word
• What this has to do with owls and salmon

Resources & Links

• Read the full written edition at skamaniadispatch.com
• Washington's black locust listing: https://www.nwcb.wa.gov/weeds/black-locust
• What a noxious weed legally is, RCW 17.10.010: https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=17.10.010
• Skamania County Noxious Weeds List 2026: https://www.skamaniacounty.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/17742/639106382161400000
• USFS Silvics of North America on black locust: https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/black-locust
• top agrar on Germany's Tree of the Year: https://www.topagrar.com/jagd-und-wald/news/robinie-als-baum-des-jahres-polarisiert-12038026.html
• The Czech site-specific framework: https://neobiota.pensoft.net/article/11909/
• The Town That Was: Remembering the Underwood Fire 80 Years Later: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/the-town-that-was-remembering-the-underwood-fire-80-years-later/

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Washington's energy siting council, EFSEC, got its first look at 772 comments on the power line that would run along the bed of the Columbia. A Scenic Area fight, a notice that never ran in the Skamania County paper, and a hearing decision set for October. Plus a plain look at what the science says about cable heat, magnetic fields and fish.

In This Episode

• The 772 comments, sorted
• Does the Scenic Area reach the riverbed?
• The Title 22 agreement
• The notice that didn't run
• Another hearing, or not
• Cable heat: the river versus the riverbed
• Magnetic fields and fish
• How old this technology is
• Carriger Solar's cleanup plan slips
• Ostrea's ribbon cutting
• Badger Mountain withdrawn

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• EFSEC's summary of the land use comments: https://efsec.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-09/20260916_CRT_CouncilLUCommentSummary.pdf
• EFSEC's EIS scoping report: https://efsec.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-09/20260915_SEPA%20EIS%20Scoping%20Report%20EFSEC.pdf
• Cascade Renewable Transmission project page and documents: https://efsec.wa.gov/facilities/cascade-renewable-transmission
• Our February special report on the line: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/special-report-cascade-renewable-transmission-an-underwater-power-line-with-a-long-road-ahead/
• EFSEC meetings and join links: https://efsec.wa.gov/hearings-and-meetings

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Klickitat County commissioners backed drafting interim zoning instead of a data-center moratorium, and the permanent draft ordinance asks for less on buffers, power and water on its second try. We also cover the ADU decision, a Husum short plat appeal, 911 and senior services in budget season, and the Bear Creek Bridge closure.

In This Episode

• Interim zoning, or "moratorium light"
• Draft 1 vs. Draft 2 of the data-center ordinance
• Petitions and a commissioner who still backs a pause
• ADUs: bigger, owner on site, one short-term rental
• A firmer count of short-term rentals and a $200 fee
• The Tomahawk Road short plat appeal
• Budget workshops: 911, public health, seniors, roads
• Supplemental budget hearing October 27
• Bear Creek Bridge closed October 19 to November 6
• The Hood River bridge and the county's land
• Where the budget and data centers meet

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Klickitattler round-up at skamaniadispatch.com
• Klickitat County data center information and drafts
• Bear Creek Bridge closure and detour
• Our September round-up

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Goldendale's City Council heard its first comprehensive parks plan in 26 years, then tabled it until the mayor is back. Plus the mayor's ask for data center impact fees, the end of the Kiwanis Club, and a police chief who wants one court for every case. And before all that, the Timmerman curse.

In This Episode

• Cabinet of curiosities: the Timmerman curse
• The parks plan, its $2.8 million wish list, and the splash pad
• Data centers, impact fees, and what the county can actually do
• School pickup and the towing grace period
• One court, one prosecutor
• The Kiwanis Club folds, and the downtown flags
• Free CPR classes and Maryhill at 100

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• The Timmerman story, from HistoryLink: https://www.historylink.org/File/7808
• The 1888 fire, from HistoryLink: https://www.historylink.org/File/7802
• Our Klickitat County commissioners round-up on data centers: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/between-budget-gaps-data-centers-klickitat-bocc-8-19-9-15/
• RCO's planning requirements for park grants: https://rco.wa.gov/recreation-and-conservation-office-grants/grant-requirements/planning-requirements/
• Goldendale agendas, packets, minutes and meeting video (the full parks plan is in the September 21 packet): https://www.ci.goldendale.wa.us/your-government/city-council/agendas-minutes

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

First, a Halloween-month tale of the night Skamania County's records left town. Then: North Bonneville formally ended its water emergency in September. The same month, the City Council paid a second contractor bill it said came with no breakdown, and voted down an independent review of how the city lost its operators. This episode covers the North Bonneville City Council and the North Bonneville Planning Commission for September 2026.

In This Episode

• Cabinet of curiosities: the Whiskey Flat heist
• Resolution 597 and the end of the emergency
• Ecology's 32-hour change and the new monthly cost
• The $13,918.75 invoice
• The independent review that failed
• A public hearing request, email rules and the Mayor Pro Tem
• Minutes that don't match the tape
• A master fee schedule
• Library hours and rent
• Fire department gear and turkey bingo
• The planning handoff to Skamania County
• Goats and sheep on East Cascade

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• The Whiskey Flat heist, from HistoryLink: Skamania County Thumbnail History
• Last month's coverage of the emergency: A City w/o an Operator & Council w/o a Contract
• North Bonneville council agendas, recordings and minutes: northbonneville.net
• Planning Commission agendas: northbonneville.net/planning/meetings
• The state law on complaints and public hearings: RCW 42.30.110
• North Bonneville library hours: FVRL

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

For the second year running, Bingen's City Council heard that state science calls for wider buffers along Dry Creek and Jewett Creek, and said no again. Plus a council resignation, a mural dispute that turned into a collaboration, and a 1963 sewer line that turned out to belong to White Salmon.

In This Episode

• Cabinet of curiosities: the depot sign
• The Critical Areas Ordinance workshop and the creek buffers
• Who can appeal, and how
• The mural, revisited
• A council seat opens, and two applicants
• The Skyline Hospital sewer line
• The flood ledger, nearly closed
• The crosswalk, sixty trains a day, and a culvert from 2002

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• The depot story, from HistoryLink: https://www.historylink.org/File/23513
• Our January round-up on the 2026 buffer decision: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/a-student-speaks-councils-decide-klickitat-city-govts-round-up-jan-26/
• Our August Bingen round-up: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/a-door-through-the-mural-bingen-august-26-round-up/
• Bingen agendas, minutes and Zoom links: https://www.bingenwashington.org/AgendaCenter
• RCW 36.70A.280, who can petition the Growth Management Hearings Board: https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=36.70A.280

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Stevenson's City Council turned down the Attwell Road rezone its Planning Commission had recommended. Nobody spoke in favor, and the owners never came. Plus a plan to share planners with Skamania County and North Bonneville, a water system with about 40 hookups left, and a pump that didn't start.

In This Episode

• Cabinet of curiosities: the man with the lantern
• The Attwell Road rezone, from recommendation to denial
• A staff correction on the environmental review
• Sharing planners with the county and North Bonneville
• City administrator interviews
• The EDC contract and its three-number typo
• The pump station overflow
• A water hookup outside city limits, and 40 left inside
• Backwoods Brewing moves to a state permit
• Cascade transmission, from the siting council

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• The man with the lantern, from the Columbia Gorge Museum: https://www.columbiagorge.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Wills_Peter_Samuel_Corwine.pdf
• Our August Stevenson round-up: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/who-actually-plans-stevenson-august-26-round-up/
• Stevenson agendas, packets and video: https://www.ci.stevenson.wa.us/meetings
• The Sept. 17 council video: https://vimeo.com/1227930016
• EFSEC's Cascade Renewable Transmission page: https://efsec.wa.gov/facilities/cascade-renewable-transmission

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

White Salmon's City Council voted down the dollar store moratorium with one vote in favor, then reset its budget around a one million dollar storm grant. The Planning Commission read its code to allow two duplexes on one lot after a hearing examiner ruling, and the Tree Board started writing its own ordinance. Plus: Jewett needs nine volunteers to close for Halloween, and how to get certified as a flagger.

In This Episode

• How the moratorium failed, and the city's two accounts of where it came from
• The budget amendment and the comprehensive plan cut
• The storm repair's three-step funding plan
• The house on Wauna Avenue
• The Westwinds sewer line question
• Two duplexes on one lot, and the hearing examiner ruling behind it
• The Tree Board and the white oak woodland puzzle
• Halloween closure volunteers and flagger certification

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Our August White Salmon round-up: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/the-dollar-store-white-salmon-august-26-round-up/
• White Salmon agendas and minutes: https://www.whitesalmonwa.gov/186/Agendas-Minutes
• Washington's flagger card rule, WAC 296-155-305: https://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=296-155-305
• Flagger classes near the Gorge (Chemeketa trainer list): https://www.chemeketa.edu/programs-classes/training-certificates/customized-training/flagger-training/

Tree Board recording come from Columbia Gorge Documenters, powered by Uplift Local, used under CC BY 4.0. We cross-checked with notes by Documenter Caroline Elliott: https://upliftlocal.news/columbia-gorge/columbia-gorge-documenters/

Disclosure: the Dispatch's publisher wrote to the Planning Commission and to Council on the small-box store proposal and to the Tree Board on the tree fee, in her personal capacity, not on the Dispatch's behalf.

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

In 1949 someone drilled for oil just west of Beacon Rock, and the state's record never says the hole was sealed. Open Gorge is using public records and 1950s aerial photos to find it, and next heading to Klickitat and Dufur. Here's how you can help.

In This Episode

• A 1949 oil test well near Beacon Rock
• Why old wells matter for water and air
• Tracks in 1950s aerial photos
• 17 old test holes in the six Gorge counties
• Next up: Klickitat and Dufur
• How to share memories and records

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• The Gorge Well Record project page: https://opengorge.org/gorge-oil-well-record
• Become a member: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/#/portal/signup
• Why plugging matters: Curtis Shuck on orphan wells

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

National Public Lands Day is September 26. Four days later, the law behind Secure Rural Schools, a critical lifeline for our Public Lands Counties, has been written to run out. A letter from the editor of the Skamania Dispatch on what that deadline means for public lands counties like Skamania, and one phone call anyone who loves public land can make.

In This Episode

• National Public Lands Day and the September 30 Secure Rural Schools deadline
• What the 2023 lapse cost Skamania County: nineteen cents on the dollar
• The Levy Scissors: state tax caps and untaxable federal land
• The call to action: ask Congress to renew SRS, then fix it for good
• A habit for public-land lovers: look up the county
• A permanent fix: a permanent trust for public land counties

Resources & Links

• Read the full written letter, with every source linked, at skamaniadispatch.com
• Find your U.S. Representative by ZIP code
• Find your U.S. Senators by state
• The Levy Scissors series
• Headwaters Economics: Economic Profile System (look up any county's public land)
• Headwaters Economics: Endowing Federal Public Land Counties

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.