HUNTING -- With spring turkey hunting seasons in full swing around the Inland Northwest, it's worth pausing a moment to hear out Larry Case, a Virginia conservation officer for three decades as well as an addicted turkey hunter, has see it all over the years,…
NATIONAL PARKS -- A storm dumping 9 inches of snow on Oregon's western mountains Tuesday brought the total snowfall at Crater Lake National Park to 615 inches, with more expected before the end of the season. The normal amount of snowfall through April 26 is…
NATIONAL PARKS -- Early visitors to Yellowstone National Park should bring their snowshoes. Park Spokesman Al Nash said crews are encountering the deepest snow they've seen in 13 years on the park's roads, with the snow on Sylvan Pass 22 feet deep, with some drifts…
WILDLIFE ENFORCEMENT -- The Colville Tribe's ongoing snit with Washington Fish and Wildlife police has become more formal and more troubling in the past month. The Tribe has been telling the state Fish and Wildlife Department officers for at least a year that they couldn't…
WILDLIFE -- Wolves rile elk hunters into a tizzy, but where's the outrage over the increasing harassment of elk on their winter range by shed antler hunters? Wildlife agencies across the West are experiencing more and more people competing for the valuable prizes that fall…
BIRDWATCHING -- Texas apparently is the place to be for diversity of bird species. On Friday, a team of birders set a national record for identifying the highest number of bird species in a 24-hour period during a midnight to midnight birding blowout across eastern…
OUTDOORS/CLIMBING -- The University of Georgia has not yet decided whether it will award the Delta Prize for Global Understanding to best-selling author Greg Mortenson after he was accused of financial mismanagement and literary fraud, according to the Associated Press. Betty Jean Craige, director of…
BIG-GAME HUNTING -- The 41 hunters who successfully -- and legally -- killed polar bears in early 2008, just before the U.S. declared the species endangered, are in court fighting to get their trophies imported from Canada. The Idaho Statesman provides a good update in…
SKIING -- Visitors to OnTheSnow.com rated Lookout Pass ski area on the Idaho-Montana border as their "Favorite Family-Friendly Resort" in the Pacific Northwest. The data period for voting was January 2011 when a Nielsen audit showed 3.4 million unique browsers logged in to the world's…
STATE PARKS -- Volunteers are needed May 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., for trail work a Riverside State Park organized by the Riverside State Park Foundation. Note: The date has been changed since a previous post. Tools, gloves, and snacks will be provided…
OUTFITTING -- Legendary Western Montana wilderness outfitter Smoke Elser is teaching a two-day outfitting and packing course at Glacier Outdoor Center in West Glacier on May 14-15. The two-day hands-on course is open to novice packers as well as experienced packers who want to learn…
FISHING -- Northwest Sportsman Magazine editor Andy Walgamott has an interesting tidbit about the illustration on the cover of the new fishing rule pamphlet (see item below this post). "With this year’s cover going unsold (previous issues’ have had ads for Pavati Marine and Alumaweld),…
FISHING -- Washington's 2011-2012 Sportfishing Regulations pamphlet is showing up at license dealers around the state. It's also posted online. The lowland fishing season opens Saturday at lakes such as West Medical and Fishtrap. But in a quirk of scheduling, the new rules take effect…
BIG-GAME HUNTING -- Washington's 2011 big-game hunting regulations have been out for nearly two weeks, giving hunters time to scope out the options. May 18 is the deadline to apply for special permits to hunt deer, elk, mountain goat, moose, bighorn sheep, turkey and cougar.…
RARE SPECIES -- Five days after discovering the first documented wolverine tracks in the Wallowa Mountains of Northeast Oregon, researcher Audrey Magoun has downloaded photos of two wolverines from a bait station camera. “They are clearly photos of two different individuals,” Magoun said. The photos…
FLY FISHING -- Once a Northwest fly fishing industry icon, Kaufmann’s Streamborn fly shops in Tigard, Ore., and Seattle, have unceremoniously closed, according to reports in The Oregonian and Northwest Sportsman Magazine. Lance Kaufmann started the business 42 years ago with his brother, Randall. Neither…
OUTDOOR NUTRITION -- Ah, it's lunch time here in the office. On the trail, it's always snack time. The new on-the-trail nutrition bars shown above look and taste somewhat like compressed blocks of birdseed, says The Gear Junkie in a whiff of understatement. Ingredients such…
MUSHROOMING -- The weather has been strange, but tasty morel mushrooms aren't deterred from popping up in the area forests. Here's a report from local forager Bill Edelblute: I picked 27 morels Saturday within 5 miles of Liberty Lake.
PUBLIC LANDS -- The Clearwater National Forests' attempt to block up public lands in the upper Lochsa drainage has a lot of supporters, including elk hunters. The hitch: finding land to trade to the timber company that owns the private land in the checkerboard ownership.…
FISHING -- The 20th annual Kiwanis Kid’s Fishing Day will be held at Moscow’s Hordemann Pond, 8 a.m. to noon, on Saturday to help families with kids discover the joys of fishing, Volunteers will be on hand to help young anglers, and Idaho Fish and…
SHELLFISHING -- After four years at Western Washington University, my daughter, Hillary, finally got out with a group of West Siders and learned how to dig clams. These are outdoor life skills you can't learn at home in Spokane. Next, she needs to find her…
TRAILS -- The Salmo-Priest Wilderness is on the Washington Trails Association's list of 10 signature projects for trail construction and maintenance in 2011. That means the little wilderness gem in northeastern Washington and a slice of North Idaho will be a destination for volunteers devoting…
FISHING -- Here's the Idaho Fish and Game Department chart showing spring steelhead movments over Lower Granite Dam. The show's about over for the run that started last year. Pretty soon steelheaders' eyes will shift to Bonneville Dam to look for the first signs if…
FISHING -- Fishing seasons for spring chinook salmon opened on much of the Snake River recently, but few fish are yet to show up crossing the Snake River dams. Here's the just-released official Idaho Fish and Game Department answer to the question: Where are the…
BIG GAME HUNTING -- The deadline for 2011 moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat hunt controlled hunt applications is Saturday. Apply at Fish and Game offices or license vendors, or apply online using a credit card. Telephone applications may be made at (800) 554-8685.
Rich Landers writes and photographs stories and columns for a wide range of outdoors coverage, including Outdoors feature sections on Sunday and Thursday.
