Hunting closure in effect

This is not a hunting opportunity. Repeat: This is not a hunting opportunity:

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is  assisting USDA Wildlife Services with feral swine eradication efforts by closing a small portion (1343 acres; approx. 2 square miles) of the Desert Wildlife Unit starting tomorrow, Feb. 23 and running for about a month.

A closure is needed to reduce human disturbance to observe reliable pig activity patterns and to provide public safety while the last remaining individuals are removed.  USDA-WS aircraft for this work just became available without advance warning, so that’s why this notice is so late.

Basically the closure is north of Winchester Wasteway, east of Dodson Road and south of private land to the north. Look for a map in the Hunting and Fishing report on Friday.