Becky Kramer

Federal and state agencies will step up patrols in the Selkirk Mountains this winter to keep snowmobiles out of protected woodland caribou habitat. While most snowmobilers obey the rules, a few renegade riders continue to tear down signs and venture into off-limits areas, said Joan Jewett, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Portland.

Idaho’s congressional delegation is lambasting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to clean up historic mining waste in the Coeur d’Alene River’s headwaters.

Lake Pend Oreille’s water level will fluctuate by only a foot this winter, while federal agencies analyze a controversial plan to raise and lower the lake as much as five feet to boost downstream electrical generation. “What we’re doing this winter is pretty much what we normally do,” said Patricia Graesser, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman in Seattle.

A massive study of industrial pollution in the upper Columbia River is wrapping up its second year of sampling. Researchers have tested 2,300 fish above Grand Coulee Dam for lead, mercury, arsenic, PCBs and other contaminants. While initial results don’t raise alarm bells for sport fish, higher readings were found in suckers, a long-lived species that prowls the river bottom.

A massive study of industrial pollution in the upper Columbia River is wrapping up its second year of sampling.

Washington regulators granted part of Avista’s request for higher rates Friday, but also said the electric and natural gas utility must conduct annual expense audits to make sure that ratepayers aren’t illegally saddled with costs that should be borne by shareholders. The new rates, effective Dec. 1, could be adjusted downward if irregularities are found, according to an order signed by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.

Starting Dec. 1, Avista’s residential customers will see a monthly increase of about $7.80 in their combined electric and natural gas bills.

Native people want a say in the future of the Columbia River Treaty, an accord between U.S. and Canada that governs power generation and flood control along the 1,200-mile river. The treaty is up for possible renegotiation in 2024. Though it’s often hailed as an example of international cooperation, the 1964 treaty doesn’t mention salmon – a critical oversight for 15 tribes living along the river and its tributaries.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials say they’re offering a one-time permit to allow a backcountry ski business to operate in the St. Joe Mountains this winter. Peak Adventures uses tracked vehicles to take clients to snowy ridgetops – the same type of high-elevation terrain where wolverines build winter dens under downed logs.

Rich Gerhard filled his freezer with 280 pounds of elk meat this fall. The kill took place within an hour’s drive of his home. One morning last month, Gerhard got up before daybreak to head to a favorite hunting spot in the mountains east of Coeur d’Alene. By 8 a.m., he’d shot a 5-point bull elk.

Lumber production at Western sawmills rose 9.2 percent during the first nine months of 2010, compared to the same period last year. Although the increased production is a hopeful sign, “we’re not out of the doldrums yet,” said Butch Bernhardt, a spokesman for the Western Wood Products Association, which tracks mill activity in 12 Western states.

BNSF Railway Co. is suing Kootenai County over new regulations proposed for the railroad’s Hauser diesel refueling depot. The railroad – which refuels an average of 30 trains at the depot daily – says that operations at the site are governed by federal transportation law, and that counties lack the ability to impose their own rules.

Starting Monday, Avista’s Washington customers will pay about $4.50 extra on their monthly gas and electric bills. The price hike is a result of higher wholesale natural gas costs and a reduction in a federal credit for electricity rates.

A wolf pack with a dozen members has been spotted in northern Pend Oreille County, a state wildlife biologist confirmed. The pack, one of three confirmed in Washington state, consists of two adults, four yearlings and six pups. Though the pack is large now, it’s unlikely that it will keep all of its members through the winter, said Jay Shepherd, assistant district biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in Colville.

Starting Nov. 1, Avista’s Washington customers will pay about $4.50 extra on their combined monthly gas and electric bills. The price hike is a result of higher wholesale natural gas costs and a reduction in a federal credit for electricity rates.

An impasse over wolf management in the Northern Rockies is alienating hunters and ranchers, groups whose support is crucial to the canny predators’ long-term success in the region, experts say. Many are fuming at wolves’ recent return to the Endangered Species List in Idaho and Montana. The action canceled public wolf hunts in both states this fall, even though wolf counts in Idaho and Montana far exceed the minimum federal recovery goals of at least 30 breeding pairs and more than 300 wolves.

Wind turbines could be the next cash crop for Whitman County’s wheat farmers. A Boston company wants to build a $170 million wind farm on a ridge near Oakesdale, a town of 400 people about 30 miles southwest of Spokane. First Wind Energy LLC is seeking permits for up to 50 turbines on 5,000 acres leased from local growers.