PARKS -- Hikers and bikers enjoyed plenty of elbow room at the Vista House and 5,886-foot top of Mount Spokane today, May 31. The experience will be a little busier starting on Monday, June 1, when Mount Spokane State Park rangers are scheduled to open…
WILDLIFE -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says 109 adult double-crested cormorants have been killed and more than 1,700 eggs killed so far as part of a program to reduce the size of North America’s biggest cormorant nesting colony so the birds eat fewer...
FISHING -- Warning: It's illegal to take northern pike with bow and arrow in Washington and Idaho. In a post yesterday about northern pike suppression planned for Lake Roosevelt, I reported that a few bowhunters were targeting northern pike where the predators are showing up...
FISHING -- Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fish managers will release "early winter" hatchery steelhead into inland lakes again this year, now that federal fisheries officials have decided to conduct a full-scale environmental impact analysis of all Puget Sound hatchery steelhead programs. No word…
FISHING -- While anglers have reported catching the occasional northern pike in Lake Roosevelt for about six years, the trickle of pike from Montana, through the Pend Oreille River to the Columbia has become more than a stream. Even bowhunters are reporting pike kills from...
WILDLIFE -- Federal grizzly bear researchers are working near the Salmo-Priest Wilderness to trap and fit GPS collars on grizzly bears. The researchers also are trying to get DNA samples from other bears to help determine the number of grizzlies in the Idaho-Washington Selkirk Mountains....
UPLAND BIRDS -- Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter has signed an executive order requiring state executive agencies to adopt Idaho’s Sage-Grouse Management Plan. The plan demonstrates the state’s commitment to a viable sage grouse population while also maintaining predictable levels of use on public lands,...
FISHING -- James Keeling and his wife Mary Anderson-Keeling of Reardan didn't go for the sure thing for their recreation getaway over the Memorial Day weekend. They took a chance on fishing a new spot for spring chinook. You gotta like like their attitude. Said…
PUBLIC LANDS -- A former University of Idaho student and Kootenai National Forest planner has been named regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service Northern Region based in Missoula. Leanne Marten has been selected to manage National Forest System lands across 25 million acres spread…
BICYCLING -- Memorial Day weekend 2015 offered the rare opportunity to for cyclists to pedal all the way up Glacier National Park's Going to the Sun Road in the fourth weekend of May. This year's low snowpack allowed crews to clear the snow off the...
TRAILS -- The Idaho Trails Association is looking for volunteers to help do maintenance work on Saturday, May 30, on the English Point Trail #80 on the west side of Hayden Lake. The group plans to clean out water bars, cut back brush, clean mud...
LANDSCAPES – A free program entitled "Magnificent Journey: A Geologic River Trip with Lewis and Clark through the Missouri River Breaks of Montana" will be presented by geologist Otto Schumacher at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 27, at Jack & Dan’s Tavern, 1226 N. Hamilton St.,...
POACHING --Five Western Washington state men have been stripped of hunting privileges in Montana for five years and ordered to pay $41,000 in fines and restitution for their role in illegally shooting trophy elk on the Rocky Mountain Front and failing to check them at…
NATURE -- Jack Nisbet, Spokane author, historian and naturalist, will lead a wildflower walk on the South Hill Bluff Trails on Tuesday evening. Some background: Among Nisbet's books are "David Douglas: a Naturalist at Work" and "The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of…
WATERSPORTS -- The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife public access site at Newman Lake will be closed June 2-4 to allow treatment of the lake with herbicide to control Eurasian milfoil and other aquatic invasive weeds. The Newman Lake Flood Control Zone District, under…
CYCLING -- They started at noon today -- 9 hours ago -- and they're not even half way finished. A total of 675 riders in 109 teams plus a contingent of crazy solo riders are in the groove for the 24 Hours Round the Clock...
PREDATORS -- A teenager has been accused of shooting a dog he mistook for a wolf as the dog's owners were walking it down a rural road in North Idaho last weekend. This is a case that should be prosecuted. No excuses. The wolf season...
ENDANGERED SPECIES -- Not since the market hunting days have waterfowl gunners set their sights so high. Government hunters reportedly are scouting an island at the mouth of the Columbia River as they prepare to shoot thousands of hungry seabirds to reduce the numbers of…
PADDLING – The annual Flatwater Canoeing Clinic conducted by the Spokane Canoe & Kayak Club is set for May 31 at Medical Lake. The clinic for solo and tandem canoeists covers strokes, equipment, safety and rescue, hypothermia, transporting canoes, launching and canoe trim and paddler...
TRAILS -- After a early opening "sneak peek" last weekend, the Route of the Hiawatha rail-trail, will open daily for the summer season starting Saturday, May 23. Considered a crown jewel of American rail-to-trail mountain bike or hike routes, the 15-mile trail includes nine train...
FISHING -- Although fish managers and anglers are a puckered about this year's low snowpack and how that will play out for our trout fisheries through the summer, conditions are generally GREAT for the Memorial Day holiday weekend. In the 37 years I've written about…
PUBLIC LANDS -- Target shooting on the Wenas Wildlife Area will be restricted to the hours between sunrise and 10 a.m. from May 22-Sept. 30 because of fire danger, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced today. The department has restricted target shooting on…
ENDANGERED SPECIES -- A gray wolf was photographed in February by a trail cam between Leavenworth and Stevens Pass, state and federal biologists have confirmed. The confirmation is another piece of mounting evidence that the wolves are advancing their recovery toward the West Side of...
PARKS -- Today is the last day for the $15 per vehicle access fee to visit Mount Rainier National Park. The park will start increasing camping fees on Friday, May 22. Annual passes, which are good for one year, will rise, first to $40 Friday,…
Rich Landers writes and photographs stories and columns for a wide range of outdoors coverage, including Outdoors feature sections on Sunday and Thursday.