Alan Liere’s fishing-hunting report for August 15

Washington officials killed three members of a wolf pack that are repeatedly preying on cattle in Ferry County.

It was about half past midnight when Russ Fee woke up to the sound of frantic shouts coming from a campsite next to his in Canada’s Banff National Park. From within his tent, he listened, quickly discerning that the voices belonged to a man and a woman. They were screaming for help.

The public is invited to attend a series of committee meetings comprised of members of the Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife commissions to discuss the next steps in the review of salmon management on the Columbia River.

The U.S. Forest Service’s Law Enforcement and Investigation Team is looking for information related to the cause of a two-acre fire that was detected on Tuesday near the Priest Lake Ranger District Office.

The two remaining members of the Togo wolf pack will be killed by Washington wildlife officials.

Because I didn’t take a Klonopin, the California poppies are much brighter, like embers that could ignite the roadside. Still, it seems the ones I’m staring at are not exceptional. The cars and trucks on the two-lane highway continue to pass by them, rolling slowly through the town’s one block, drivers and passengers with eyes forward or downward, their windows up despite the warmth, a changing climate controlled from a plastic dash panel.

The kayak slips through slate-gray water, so still this morning that the only movement comes from the pull of the paddle, the only sounds from an occasional bird trill or cricket chirp. I am at the western edge of a lake whose shape resembles a sea serpent on topographical maps. To my left, several scraggly trees shelter a dusty picnic area; to the right, columnar basalt cliffs rise in two tiers above the water. The prow of the kayak points toward the length of the two-mile lake, nudging through shallow water surrounding a small island. Beyond, the view opens up to the half-mile-wide, twenty-foot-deep body of the sea serpent. Walls of variegated brown basalt enclose the water and reflect a reverse image on its surface.

A portion of an article in last Sunday’s outdoors section didn’t sit well with one Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife commissioner.

If ever I want to push the big red buttons of my betrothed, I suggest that some various task, activity, or project will be easy. And that it will take approximately 18% of the actual time frame, money and effort most experts would estimate.

The Lake City Trail Alliance’s annual membership party and sponsorship drive will be hosted at the Ponderosa Springs Golf Course at Capone’s Pub on the Green on Aug. 29 from 6 to 10 p.m.

The Washington Invasive Species Council is asking residents to check trees and swimming pools in their yards for harmful bugs as part of the national Tree Check Month in August.

The annual Dishman Hills Conservancy picnic will be Aug. 22 at Camp Caro (698 S. Sargent Rd.) starting at 5:30 p.m.

It was a storm that almost dashed their dreams.

Students in Illinois will soon have the chance to take hunter education courses. In school.

A wildfire north of Cataldo Idaho has closed the popular Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes bike path.

Idaho Fish and Game officials are polling anglers to get their opinions on potential rules designed to balance salmon fishing with catch-release steelhead fishing, in preparation of a possible fall chinook fishing season on the Clearwater River this fall.

When helicopter crews in Western Washington were unavailable Sunday, a team from the Spokane area jumped into action to rescue three hikers from a peak in the Central Cascades.