skiers, and the desire to help people.

“The big thing is camara-derie with our fellow patrollers; we’re a family,” said Greg Peck.

At 56, Peck, a teacher at Osborn Elementary School in Leavenworth, has been on the volunteer patrol for 31 years. As a young teacher, he liked getting a free pass for himself and a discount for his family. Now, he said, he likes the way the ski patrol holds workshops, which are aimed at keeping patrollers up on skills such as reading maps, GPS and understanding avalanche conditions.

Peck notes that the ski patrol has seriously ramped up its medical training for patrol-lers. “When I fi rst started, all you needed was a fi rst-aid card,” he said.

Now, new patrollers need 88 hours of classroom time in outdoor emergency care, along with practical experience.

Peck usually pairs up on patrol with George Makela, a retired biology teacher at Cashmere High School. The two have been patrolling together for almost 30 years.

“It’s like we’re a couple of brothers,” Peck said. “When we go to an accident, often times we don’t have to talk to each other; we just know what each other is thinking.”

At 71, Makela is one of the oldest patrollers. He said he also got into patrolling to help his family aff ord to ski,

and he said he sticks with it because he likes helping people and being with fellow ski patrollers.

“They’re going to be there for you no matter what happens,” he said.

On the young side of the patrol is Aidan Ottley, 15, a sophomore at Wenatchee High School.

“This can be just a blast because everybody is really fun,” he said.

Ottley is a patrol candidate so he has to do his patrol-ling with a full-fl edged patrol member. Another candidate is Jenna Gould, 15, and a freshman at Wenatchee High

School. “It’s something to do in my spare time and it lets me give back to the community,” she said.

Gould is the daughter of Bill Gould, 52, who has been on the patrol for 26 years. Bill, a civil engineer with the state Department of Transportation, said he likes being on patrol so he can help people.

Eric Graves, 44, has been on the patrol for 24 years. The fi sherman and carpenter said he likes that the patrol work “gets me up here every weekend.”

Susan McCray, 41, is a Spanish teacher at Eastmont High School and said she likes

being with the other patrollers and thinks the work is “good stress relief from the work week. ... this recharges my batteries a lot. I’m outside and I’m active.”

Noni Clark, 56, is a math teacher at Foothills Middle School and has patrolled for about 25 years.

“I absolutely love to ski and I like helping people,” she said. “What keeps me here, though, is the camaraderie and how nice people are. It’s a family. It’s an eclectic family but we all appreciate our diff erences.”

Dee Riggs: 664-7147deeriggs@wenatcheeworld.com

PatrolFrom Page A1

World photo/Kathryn Stevens

The Mission Ridge volunteer ski patrol and Lifeline Ambulance Co. EMTs work on two patients Saturday in the aid station at Mission Ridge Ski and Board Resort.

this time,” he said.Gray wolves are endangered

in Washington, and it is illegal to kill them.

The poaching is unrelated to a 2008 incident that began with a woman attempting to send a wolf pelt that was leaking blood to Canada. The package led state and federal authorities to serve search warrants on two Twisp homes, where they seized computers and photographs. No charges have been fi led, and the case is still open, said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice, in Spokane.

Cenci said there is a market for wolf pelts, but he doesn’t believe that money or trophy value led to the most recent poaching incident.

“In my experience, you have three classes of violators,” he said.

Some misread the rules, and their poaching incident is simply a mistake. Others are opportunists, who let the temptation of a wildlife sight-ing draw them to illegally take an animal, he said.

“Then you have your hardcore poacher. They lay awake at night, and they’re thinking about ways to get around the natural resource laws. Often, they have commit-ted other crimes. They have very little respect for natural resources, and they don’t, in any way, represent the hunting community,” he said.

Cenci said he believes it is the third class of poacher who shot and killed this wolf.

As for motive, he said the poacher may not want to see wolves become established in Washington.

He added, “I think there are a number of people out there that fi rmly believe that wolves don’t belong in Washing-ton state, but would never pull a trigger on them. They wouldn’t commit the act.”

Cenci encouraged anyone who sees a poaching incident of any kind in progress to call 911 and ask to be connected to a state Department of Fish and Wildlife offi cer. Those with information about poaching cases that are not in progress can call the agency’s poaching tipline at 877-933-9847.

K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com

WolfFrom Page A1

A key duty of volunteer ski patrollers is to help people who injure themselves while skiing or who get in over their heads and need help getting down from the mountain.

To that end, patrollers constantly ski the Mission Ridge runs, looking for people in trouble, said Brad Whiting, patrol director. Patrollers also check the runs before the Ridge opens to the public.

They are looking for such things as warning signs that have blown over, debris on the runs and unruly bumps that the groomer may have left behind. The patrollers also check the runs after the Ridge closes, making sure all skiers have gotten down safely.

Some patrollers are always stationed at the top of the chairs, where they can respond quickly to an emergency. And each weekend day, they rotate in and out

of ongoing emergency outdoor training sessions.

Whiting estimated that the volunteer patrollers treat 300 injured people a year.

He called the patrol “a critical component to Mission Ridge.”

“It provides the labor force for virtually no cost and helps provide excellent guest services,” he added.

— Dee Riggs, World staff

What the ski patrol does

The Associated Press

OLYMPIA — Washington state’s Latino population grew by more than 70 percent in the past decade, and only two of the state’s 39 counties saw their population drop as most of the state grew, according to numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Wednesday.

The fi gures put a number on what people here have already noticed: Washington is growing and it did so quite fast in the 10 years. Overall, Washington’s population

jumped by 14 percent, gaining the state a 10th seat in Congress.

Data from the Census Bureau will inform the fi ve-member citizen commission tasked with redrawing the state’s congressional and legislative district maps.

“We’re anxious to get started, but our fi rst task as a commission is to incor-porate the new population data into our redistricting database and our plan-drawing tools,” Laura Powell, chairwoman of the Redistrict Commission, said in a statement.

State’s populationboomed since ’00

A5The Wenatchee WorldOff Page One Thursday, February 24, 2011