Hilltop Parking at the Ellensburg Rodeo: Since 1960 (66 years ago!) the Kittitas County Field and Stream Club has been in charge of the camping and parking on “Freeloader Hill” (Reed Park) during the annual Labor Day week of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Our volunteers are there everyday helping the RV’ers get settled in, and oversee the parking of those coming to the overlook to watch the rodeo. The fees we collect go directly to the club to help with our many projects like the Durr Road Cleanup, habitat restoration work, scholarships, Hunter Education classes and more!

Victor Garcia, who was appointed to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission in April 2025, died over the weekend. Before he passed, the hunter, fisherman and retired educator penned a letter to Gov. Bob Ferguson, offering a roadmap for choosing a successor who could help forge stronger ties between commissioners and with the diverse interests with whom they interact. Here is an unedited copy of the letter provided by his son.

The photo above is the Kittitas County Field and Streams Club Board of 2026 draft of the letter we are sending in support of Victor Garcia’s letter to Gov. Ferguson

More to come

In mid-August, volunteers from the state Ruffed Grouse Society and Kittitas County Field and Stream Club banded together for a WDFW work party and removed about a mile of abandoned barbed wire fence near Ainsley Canyon on the LT Murray Wildlife Area.

It started with a fire in the summer of August 2020, with the efforts of our club with KEEN, WDFW helping with reseeding the burned area. Conservation Northwest donated seeds.

Fiorito Ponds clean-up efforts.

By donating $5,000 and finding $10,000 in matching funds from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF) and other sources, the club saved the Nanum State Forest from private development. 

I-90 Wildlife Corridor 

The club provided important input into the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area management plan.