County Briefs

Pacific marten recorded in Olympic National Forest

A Pacific marten was recorded by motion-triggered wildlife cameras, marking the first time it has been recorded by a camera survey in Olympic National Forest.

According to a news release, Woodland Park Zoo joined with Olympic National Forest to install six motion-triggered cameras and scent dispenser stations in the forest to try and detect martens, a rare native carnivore thought to be living there in sparse numbers.

In July, the survey team returned to the station with multiple photos of a single Pacific marten, which visited the station in January.

Only two dozen sightings have been confirmed on the Olympic Peninsula in the last half century, with half of these attributed to surveys with remote cameras and scent dispensers.

Pacific martens are small housecat sized, semi-arboreal members of the weasel family. On the Olympic Peninsula, martens once occupied a broad elevational range from coastline to timberline. Due to over-trapping and habitat loss in the 1900s, they appear to be gone at lower elevations and to occur at very low densities at higher elevations.

From 1968 to 2016, only nine reliable marten records were recorded on the Olympic Peninsula, despite extensive camera surveys beginning in the 1990s.

Threats to the conservation of martens include failure to breed, habitat-related concerns and climate change-driven loss of deep snowpack at high elevations.

MCFD 12 audit release scheduled for September

The state Auditor's Office is close to completion of its audit of Mason County Fire District 12, with publication of the audit planned for September.

According to Kathleen Cooper of the state Auditor's Office, the office "found significant issues during our audit of Mason County Fire District 12," Cooper stated in an email to the Journal.

"As part of the audit process, SAO gave the district's leadership a draft of our findings so it can prepare a written response," Cooper said in an email. "That response will be included in our final audit reports, which we plan to publish in September."

MCFD 12 had a special meeting Aug. 25, which was almost two hours of the commissioners meeting in executive session. According to the special meeting agenda, the executive session was "pursuant to RCW 42.30.110 to meet with legal counsel to discuss legal risks of a proposed action or current practice that the district identified when public discussion of the legal risks is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency." The meeting adjorned without the commissioners addressing the topic or talking about what was discussed in the executive session.

The next regular meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sept. 20.

Voting accessibility meeting Sept. 8

The Mason County Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee meets at 2 p.m. Sept. 8 at the commissioner's chambers.

According to a news release, the committee provides advice to the Mason County Election Department to ensure equal access to voting services. The committee is staff from the Mason County Auditor's Office and representatives of the county's disabled and underserved community members. The committee invites anyone interested in working together to better serve disabled and underserved people to attend.

For more information, contact the Mason County Elections Department at [email protected] or 36-427-9670 ext. 470.

Mason Health picks August employee of the month

Environmental Services Technician Tylor Brown has been named the Mason Health August employee of the month.

According to a news release, Brown graduated from Shelton High School in 2010. He has family at Mason Health, including his mom, who works as a scheduler for Diagnostic Imaging and his grandmother, who worked as a repiratory therapist for more than 30 years.

Brown started with Mason Health in 2018.

"The hospital is the best job I have ever had," Brown said in a news release. "The management structure is better, and I like the union representation. It doesn't feel like you're talking to a wall if you have to get something dealt with. I was having a really bad time and when I saw the opening here, I applied right away."

Friday fire damages Shelton residence

Central Mason Fire and EMS responded to an early morning house fire on Oak Street on Aug. 26 with reports of entrapment.

According to a CMFE news release, all five occupants were able to escape without injury, but the fire damaged the older single-family residence. The fire was reported at 6:16 a.m. and the first unit arrived four minutes later. Crews were able to contain the heaviest part of the fire to the kitchen, and damage to the home is estimated at $150,00. The fire is under investigation.

Fire districts 4 and 11 assisted CMFE with the incident. Contact Jeff Snyder at [email protected] with any questions.