We have recently been honored by a generous legacy gift from William "Bill" Lahr. Bill was born in California in 1919. He served in the armed forces, worked at Boeing, and was the lead art handler at the Seattle Art Museum from 1960 to 1984. Bill graduated from Queen Anne High School in 1937 and continued on to take classes at the University of Washington.

Bill and his wife of 54 years, Dorothy, who passed away in 2000, were avid mountaineers and shared a mutual interest in trains and railways, volunteering for the West Coast Railway Association. Bill was a long time member of Seattle Mountain Rescue and the Mountaineers Club. Dorothy used to tell people that she "tied into Bill's rope and never let loose." The couple were long-time volunteers for the Mountaineers Players and the Kitsap Forest Theater. Dorothy making costumes and Bill working on sets and other "behind the scenes" projects.

Bill passed away on January 12, 2008. Our condolences and deep appreciation go out to the Lahr family and his many friends in the Mountaineers.

We are thrilled to accept a generous donation from James M Lea of $250,000 for the purpose of purchasing additional buffer property in our beautiful Rhododendron Preserve in Central Kitsap County. Mr. Lea joined the Mountaineers in 1950 and is an avid outdoorsman. Jim and his wife Jane are long-time supporters of the Mountaineers Players, having attended plays at the Kitsap Forest Theater for many, many years. Mr. Lea is a retired business man, having been the founder of Cascade Designs, makers of the Therm-A-Rest camping matresses.

The Foundation is actively working with owners of property adjecent to the preserve with the goal of acquiring property with this generous gift.

Dave Ausband of the University of Montana received a grant from the Mountaineers Foundation to count populations of wolves in the wild in a very unique way. The resulting 'HowlBox' is an electronic device that emits a wolf call and listens for a return call from a real animal. The boxes allow passive monitoring in a cost effective way with results being automatically gathered and retrieved at a later time. Adult calls can be distinguished from pups by analysis of the recordings. The initial deployment of the HowlBoxes in Idaho was so successful, that a few of the boxed are being loaned to the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife for monitoring populations in our state.

You can hear about the program on KUOW's website.

Dave's work was also featured on an segment on CBC Radio.

This program was funded through our Commmunity Grants program, supported by our General Fund.

The Washington State Board of Geographic Names has re-named Spring Mountain near Darrington, "Ira Spring Mountain"

You couldn't imagine Mountaineers Books without the '100 hikes' series of titles. For many years, Ira Spring made these titles possible with his detailed maps and hike descriptions. Ira was also a tireless advocate of trails and recreational access in the Northwest for over 50 years. Ira was a founder and past president of the Washington Trails Association in 1995, an Honorary Member of the Mountaineers Club, and a recipient of the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation award in 1992. The National Forest Service named the Ira Spring Trail, near North Bend, in his honor in 2007. Ira passed away at his Edmonds home in 2003 at the age of 84.