Becky Kramer

BNSF Railway is adding employees in Spokane and North Idaho as its shipments grow across the West and its workforce retires. The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad hired about 100 people in the Spokane-North Idaho market this year, and the company expects to hire about 50 more in 2015, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said.

Rob Wielgus noticed something interesting when he studied reports of wolf attacks on sheep and cattle in the Northern Rockies. Killing wolves to reduce livestock predation actually led to more dead sheep and cows the following year. The trend held true until more than 25 percent of a state’s wolf population was removed.

Photos from the Colville National Forest’s archives offer a glimpse of what it was like to work in the woods of Northeast Washington during the early 1900s. Being a Forest Service ranger was a lonely job, with travel by horseback or Model T, and duties including fire patrol, timber surveys and catching poachers. Working on a trail crew required living in a tent or line shack.

Electric and natural gas rates will increase for Avista Utilities’ Washington customers on Jan. 1.

Cleaning up historic mine waste is paying dividends for water quality in the Coeur d’Alene River Basin, according to a new report published by the U.S. Geological Survey. The report looked at two decades of water quality monitoring for the Coeur d’Alene River and its tributaries. Since the early 1990s, concentrations of lead, cadmium and zinc have dropped by 65 percent in the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River near Pinehurst, Idaho.

Cleaning up historic mining waste is paying dividends for water quality in the Coeur d’Alene River Basin, according to a new report published by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The death of a 36-year-old miner at the Sunshine Mine in June was caused by the management’s failure to establish safe work practices, a federal accident investigation concluded. Nick Rounds was killed when he and another miner were working on shaft repairs at the underground silver mine near Kellogg. Rounds had attached his fall-protection harness to the wall of the mine shaft, according to a Mine Safety and Health Administration report released Thursday. Rounds was on a platform on top of a hoist when an operator gave the OK to lift the hoist to the surface. But Rounds had not disconnected from the shaft wall and was pulled off the platform and crushed between the hoist and the shaft wall.

More than 9 million acres of forest in Washington and Oregon should be selectively logged and burned to make the remaining trees more resistant to wildfire, disease and drought, according to a new study by the U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy. The study looked at forests in Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon and Southwest Oregon across federal, state, tribal and private ownerships. About 40 percent of those forests are experiencing conditions outside of their historic range, it concluded.

The Washington Parks and Recreation Commission today approved expansion of downhill skiing at Mount Spokane.

Five years ago, officials from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the state of Idaho shook hands on a deal to address historic mining pollution at the bottom of Lake Coeur d’Alene. Local leaders were sensitive about the potential stigma of a Superfund cleanup on Coeur d’Alene’s resort town image. Tribal officials agreed that other measures to protect the lake’s water quality were an acceptable alternative.

Got a few worn-out tires in your garage? An old television set you aren’t using? A box of spent compact fluorescent light bulbs? A new website provides links to Spokane-area vendors that accept hazardous waste. With a few clicks of a mouse, local residents can find multiple locations that will take their old tires and electronics. Compact fluorescent bulbs, meanwhile, can be recycled for free at Home Depot, Lowe’s and other locations.

The owner of the Galena Mine in Idaho’s Silver Valley is proposing a merger with another small mining company. U.S. Silver and Gold Inc. announced late last week that it had reached an agreement with Scorpio Mining Corp. to combine operations, subject to approval by shareholders and the Toronto Stock Exchange. The new firm would take Scorpio’s name.

The owner of the Galena Mine in Idaho’s Silver Valley is proposing a merger with another small mining company.

Shortly after a wildfire blew up in north-central Washington in July, cancellations started pouring in to Sun Mountain Lodge. In short order, the resort near Winthrop had 800 cancellations – not only for the summer months, but for the fall, too.

A neighbor’s quick action helped state officials nab a Badger Lake property owner for illegal application of aquatic herbicides at the lake south of Cheney. The neighbor noticed a strong chemical smell coming from Bruce Schwan’s dock area on the morning of April 7 and saw an empty, 10-pound box of Aquacide in Schwan’s trash can, which had been set out for garbage pickup.

A three-day conference on the Spokane River and Lake Coeur d’Alene later this month tackles how the region can protect its cherished water bodies while planning for population growth and economic development. “What type of future do we want for our community, which is in love with its natural resources? And how do we get to that future without sacrificing growth in our communities?” said Andy Dunau, executive director for the Spokane River Forum.