Latest from The Spokesman-Review

• Idaho family sues USFS for $1M after tree hit son

  April 10, 2013 in Idaho, Outdoors BOISE — An Idaho family has sued the U.S. Forest Service demanding more than $1 million after a large dead tree at a remote campsite fell and injured their young … 48

• Environmentalists win megaload challenge

  February 10, 2013 in City, Idaho on Page B2 BOISE – A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Forest Service had the authority two years ago to intervene in Idaho’s decision to permit a series of massive shipments …

• Forest Service sees no harm in mining near St. Helens

  December 9, 2012 in City on Page B3 LONGVIEW, Wash. – A mining company can prospect for gold, copper and other minerals near Mount St. Helens, the U.S. Forest Service said. Drilling planned 12 miles north of the …

• Firefighter’s death raises safety issues

  August 22, 2012 in City on Page A1 BOISE – The death of an Idaho firefighter has spurred safety questions among top state officials about battling wildfires. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden noted concerns about communications and coordination by … 2

• Scotchman Peaks group rises to occasion for lookout

  August 12, 2012 in Outdoors on Page C11 The Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness, based in Sandpoint, is teaming with the Forest Service to restore the Star Peak Lookout in the Kootenai National Forest near Heron, Mont. The …

• Forest Service gets more aggressive on small fires

  August 8, 2012 in Nation/World MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. Forest Service is suspending a policy of letting small fires burn in isolated areas as several big fires in the western U.S. strain its resources. 2

• Idaho forest sites face cuts

  May 20, 2012 in Idaho on Page B3 LEWISTON – The U.S. Forest Service is starting an inventory and ranking of recreational facilities in two Idaho national forests, with the possibility of closing sites due to lack of … 3

• Elk foundation reverses on land swap in North Idaho

  December 18, 2011 in Idaho, Outdoors on Page B3 LEWISTON – The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is withdrawing its support of a proposed land swap deal in North Idaho between the U.S. Forest Service and a timber company. The … 1

• Congress endorses forest festivities

  October 22, 2011 in City on Page A1 WASHINGTON – Mountain bike trails and zip lines could open at more Northwest ski resorts if President Barack Obama signs a bill Congress passed this week. The Ski Area Recreational … 6

• Forest worker coordinates volunteers, and they swear by her

  September 4, 2011 in Idaho on Page B1 Pat Hart relishes the selfless enthusiasm that volunteer trail crews bring to the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. She seldom hears volunteers grumbling, even when they’re filthy, cold and wet. “You …

• Lack of sawmills an issue for forests

  March 25, 2011 in Idaho on Page A10 Bark beetles have ravaged hundreds of thousands of acres of Colorado’s forests, yet that state has only one large sawmill left to bid on federal timber sales. That’s a problem … 2

• Forest planning rule uses collaboration to cut lawsuits

  February 11, 2011 in Idaho on Page A8 New planning rules proposed for national forests will help keep ecosystems healthy and biologically diverse while reducing legal gridlock through better collaboration with the public, U.S. Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack …

• Forest road safety at issue

  January 21, 2011 in Idaho on Page A6 BOISE – Two years ago, Idaho legislators decided to let anyone younger than 16 operate an off-highway vehicle, ATV or motorbike on national forest roads without a driver’s license. Now, …

• Forest Service’s nursery marks 50th anniversary

  December 12, 2010 in Idaho Voices on Page I1 The U.S. Forest Service’s Coeur d’Alene Nursery is celebrating its golden anniversary this year and during the half-century it’s been in business, the men and women who work there have …

• Priest Lake timber plans withdrawn

  December 7, 2010 in City, Idaho on Page A7 The Idaho Panhandle National Forest has rescinded plans for harvesting timber on thousands of acres near Priest Lake pending additional environmental review. In a news release Monday, the Montana-based Alliance …

• Biologists go to bat for mysterious helpers

  November 28, 2010 in Outdoors on Page C14 Bats are out of sight and out of mind for the winter. Hoary bats have made their break to winter in Mexico or thereabouts.

• Do Your Part: Time to stop taking trees for granted

  November 22, 2010 in Features on Page C1 Are you a tree hugger? Would you admit it if you were? The term “tree hugger” is frequently used in a less-than-favorable way to describe someone who is passionate about … 1

• Lookout Pass Ski Area plans big expansion

  September 24, 2010 in City on Page A1 Lookout Pass Ski Area has submitted a $20 million expansion plan to the U.S. Forest Service that would more than quadruple its terrain over 20 years, adding eight new chairlifts, … 6

• Widely used fire retardant gets federal scrutiny

  September 12, 2010 in Nation/World on Page A5 BOULDER, Colo. – Lost in the images of aircraft dropping giant red plumes of retardant on a Colorado wildfire last week is the fact that the practice may not be …

• Controlled burns planned in North Idaho

  September 8, 2010 in City, Idaho on Page A7 Federal officials plan to set fires on up to 1,700 acres in North Idaho this fall as part of prescribed burning. The U.S. Forest Service has targeted 300 to 500 … 1

• For Rainbow Family, forest gathering is foretaste of 2011 festival

  September 5, 2010 in City on Page A1 COLVILLE NATIONAL FOREST – A U.S. Forest Service ranger sat cross-legged on the dusty ground, holding a wildflower as a symbol of his right to speak to the circle of … 25

• Examining the legacy of the 1910 fires

    August 22, 2010 on Page A1 One hundred years after the nation’s largest wildfires blazed across the Northern Rockies, blackening hillsides as far as the eye could see, the question lingers: Could the Big Burn happen …

• Remnants of St. Joe cedars tell fire’s tale

  August 22, 2010 in Idaho on Page A1 The Valley of the Ghosts contains the hulking snags of cedars burned by the 1910 Fire.

• Heyburn left thorny legacy on natural resources

  August 22, 2010 in Idaho on Page A6 History doesn’t shed a kindly light on U.S. Sen. Weldon Heyburn, a Wallace mining attorney and strident foe of the newly formed Forest Service.

• Q-and-A: Author Stephen Pyne

  August 22, 2010 in Idaho on Page A6 Stephen Pyne, a history professor at Arizona State University, has written extensively about the 1910 Fire. His books include “Fire in America” and “Year of the Fires,” which describe how …

• Fire crews drew heavily from immigrants, laborers

  August 18, 2010 in Idaho on Page A1 George Earle was looking for work. The 30-year-old English immigrant had recently arrived in Spokane by foot from Alberta, following the railroad tracks into a new country. An ex-solider and … 1

• Pulaski’s heroism resurfaced with discovery of tunnel

  August 17, 2010 in News on Page A1 Follow a two-mile trail up Placer Creek, and you come to the Pulaski Tunnel – a legendary part of the 1910 Fire story. It was here that Big Ed Pulaski … 1

• Fire lookout restoration stays true to history

    August 3, 2010 in City on Page A5 High above the purple lupine and fire scars of the past stands a crudely made square cabin, weathered beyond its glory days. To reach it, travelers head into the mountains …

• Historic fire lookout restored in Colville National Forest

    August 2, 2010 in City High above the purple lupine and fire scars of the past stands a crudely made square cabin, weathered beyond its glory days. 1

• Judge orders tougher look at fire retardant drops

  July 28, 2010 in Region A federal judge today ordered the U.S. Forest Service to take a tougher look at the possibility that routinely dropping toxic fire retardant on wildfires from airplanes will kill endangered … 4

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