Highlights from the field

Milestones

Fish fee imposed: British Columbia began charging non-residents in addition to their license fee an extra $20-per-day surcharge to fish popular trout streams including the Bull, Elk, St. Mary, Skookumchuk, White and Wigwam and portions of the Kootenay.

Whitewater park funding: Support for a whitewater park in the Spokane River reached Olympia, where $400,000 was granted to draw plans for what would be the crown jewel for the proposed Spokane River Gorge Park.

Trophy moose galore: Moose populations continued to expand in northeastern Washington. At least three bulls taken in 2004 seasons were measured in 2005 with scores exceeding the previous state record.

Cookin’ chinook: The first chinook salmon season since 1978 was authorized in the Upper Salmon River of Idaho.

Infection spreads: A hunter-killed moose in northern Colorado became the first of its species to test positive for chronic wasting disease. The disease has been found in deer or elk in 10 states and two provinces.

New Year pheasants: The Eastern Washington pheasant season that started in October is the first ever to extend beyond Dec. 31. It’s scheduled to end Jan. 16.

New tracks: An 8-kilometer cross country ski trail system debuted at 49 Degrees North.

Reliable rider: Mark Buescher of Spokane pedaled the Tour of the Swan River Valley for the 30th consecutive spring, giving him the record for the most participation in the annual two-day 200-some mile bike tour out of Missoula.

Responsible riders: Idaho’s first Responsible Rider all-terrain vehicle instructor certification course was held in Wallace as a model for instruction destined to be introduced across the state.

Anniversaries

20th, USDA Conservation Reserve Program

25th, Eruption of Mount St. Helens

40th, Spokane Mushroom Club

50th, North American aerial waterfowl surveys

60th, Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Kamloops and Kokanee Fishing Derby

75th, Cub Scouts

90th, Spokane Mountaineers

90th, Camp Reed

100th, National Audubon Society

100th, U.S. Forest Service

Transition

Removed: Bonner Dam, allowing Montana’s Blackfoot River to flow freely for the first time in more than a century; also Cedar Creek Dam at Ione and the 150-foot-long Goldsborough Creek dam on the Olympic Peninsula. Nationwide, at least 55 other dams in 11 states were expected to be removed in 2005.

Died: Louise Marshall, 90, of Lynwood, Wash., publisher of Signpost magazine, founder of the Washington Trails Association, co-founder of American Hiking Society, author in 1966 of the first comprehensive Northwest hiking guidebook, “100 Hikes in Western Washington.”

Displaced: The 14-year-old female peregrine falcon that had nested under the Sunset Highway Bridge over Hangman Creek for at least seven years showed up for an eighth year of courtship, but apparently she was driven away by a younger captive female that had escaped from an area falconer. No nesting occurred.

Dispatched: A sweets-addicted 500-pound California black bear that had terrorized about 100 Sierra Nevada vacation homes over 18 months, causing about $1 million in damages.

Defunct: The U.S. Forest Service information center in Spokane after 35 years.

For the record

“Bill Painter of Richland, who became the oldest person to reach Mount Rainier’s 14,411-foot summit in 2004, did it again in August 2005, at the age of 82. “The most important thing is not getting to the summit, but getting down,” the retired Hanford plutonium worker said. The record young age for Rainier is 4, set by a boy who took seven days to reach the top with his family in 1999.

“Sadao Hoshiko of Japan, 74, became the oldest person to climb 20,320-foot Mount McKinley.

“Buzz Burrell, 53, and Peter Bakwin, 43, of Boulder, Colo., set a speed record on the Cascade Trifecta by climbing Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and Mount Hood in 28 hours and one minute. The endurance athletes used standard routes and relied on support crews.

“The North Cascades Highway reopened for the season March 10, the earliest spring opening since the road was completed through North Cascades National Park in 1972. That’s 12 days earlier than the old record, set in 2001, not counting the winter of 1976-77, when there was so little snow the highway never was closed. The latest reopening on record was June 14, 1974.

“A Spokane hunter paid a record $180,000 in the annual auction for one of Idaho’s coveted tags to hunt bighorn sheep.

“A record of more than 1,340 climbers attempted to climb 20,320-foot Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak, and a record 775 climbers reached the summit. The previous record on the Alaska mountain was 1,305 attempts in 2001.

Out & About

Hiking the nation: Andrew Skurka, 24, Massachusetts, became the first hiker to connect a network of North America’s long-distance trails across the continent in what’s called the Sea to Sea Route, covering 7,770 miles in 11 months.

Club disaster: Three climbers from The Mountaineers of Seattle were killed in North Cascades National Park when a refrigerator-sized boulder crashed down as they tried to retreat from Sharkfin Tower with a previously injured climber. Club officials said the incident was the “worst disaster” for The Mountaineers, which has chapters across Washington. It also was believed to be the first multiple-death climbing accident in more than 10 years at the park.

Canceled: Langlauf cross country ski race for lack of snow on Mount Spokane in February.