James Hagengruber

It's not only big city transplants who have discovered the charms of Coeur d'Alene living. A growing number of deer, turkeys, moose, geese and even elk are being spotted in residential neighborhoods. They nibble on tulips, snooze on velvety carpets of bluegrass and have become major annoyances to the region's equally booming people population.

The drought seems to be over, but Inland Northwest forests continue to endure lingering insect and disease epidemics prompted by the dry years, according to recent surveys conducted by the U.S. Forest Service and state forest management agencies. In Montana and North Idaho, forests are experiencing the biggest mountain pine beetle infestation in 20 years, with nearly 1.1 million acres under attack in 2005, compared with 675,000 acres the year before, according to the latest aerial survey.

A Bush administration proposal to sell 300,000 acres of national forest appears to have hit a dead end. Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, whose Senate subcommittee would have to approve the idea, announced Tuesday that he opposes the sale, which includes 26,000 acres in Idaho and 7,500 acres of public land in Washington.

Starting a parade from scratch is something of an act of faith. But organizers of Coeur d'Alene's first St. Patrick's Day Parade are counting on the luck of the you-know-who. "It's been a little nerve-racking, yes," admitted Ilene Moss, owner of the downtown shop All Things Irish and parade organizer. "We realize it's the first year, but people are very excited."

He was found in October, floating lifeless in a shallow Puget Sound cove near the Hood Canal Bridge. On his right leg was a metal band stamped with the numbers 93803474. Known as "Ferry Lake male," the loon and his mate were among the most prolific breeders of only a dozen remaining pairs in the state.

The picture is increasingly bleak for the Inland Northwest's last remaining stands of whitebark pine. The tree, a critical food source for everything from birds to grizzly bears, has quietly and dramatically disappeared from the high country thanks to an exotic fungus, hungry beetles and years of wildfire suppression. Now, budget cuts may slow restoration efforts.

SANDPOINT – Traveling mostly on their own dimes, kopecks and kroner, the best "free heel" ski racers in the world are converging at Schweitzer Mountain this weekend for the World Cup Telemark Finals. Thursday, the racers practiced their graceful, zigzagging turns down the race course, which had been covered the night before by nearly a foot of fresh powder. They focused on committing to memory the complex course terrain – at breakneck speeds they must navigate jumps, gates, treed sections and even a flat stretch – but many admitted to thinking four years ahead to the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Jake Jakobosky wanted a job that reflected his love of nature, but he ended up spending most of his career in the ugliest and most abused landscapes of the Northwest. There were meth labs, a series of poisonous mines, a toxic landfill and even a stretch of burning highway.

OAKESDALE, Wash. – Bruce Nave has a vision of fields of gold carpeting the Inland Northwest. Each fall, flowers in these fields would yield billions upon billions of seeds – each about the size of a BB and each holding a small drop of energy. Nave's business would crush the seeds and turn the oil into diesel fuel. He would make money, the farmers would make money, and the Middle East would have a little less control over the fate of the nation's energy supply.

MOSCOW, Idaho – With some seed, sun and soil, the Inland Northwest is looking to help grow the nation away from its messy addiction to petroleum. Wheat farmers are being wooed into growing thousands of acres of a yellow flowering plant with seeds capable of powering cars and heating homes. Plans also are well under way for at least two refineries in the region, which could be churning out millions of gallons of home-grown fuel by the end of the year.

Priest Lake is about as pristine as it gets. That's why the recent government warning against eating too much fish from the lake raised the eyebrows of Coeur d'Alene fishing guide Jeff Smith. "I was really surprised. It's the cleanest, best water we have," said Smith, an avid angler and owner of Fins and Feather Tackle Shop and Guide Service.

PLUMMER, Idaho – Ann Antelope was born in a log cabin along the south end of Lake Coeur d'Alene, the same place generations of her ancestors had fished for trout, dug water potatoes and hunted deer. But this daughter of a chief arrived in a time of huge change – a new religion and language were being forced on her tribe, dancing had been banned, settlers kept arriving and men were only two years away from joining birds in flight.

Conservative pundits, including Bill O'Reilly, predicted "Brokeback Mountain" would flop in cowboy country. Not so, according to the film's distributor. Although this isn't exactly the wild West, "Brokeback Mountain" opened in first place at many area theaters, including sellout or near-sellout crowds in Spokane and small-town Idaho theaters in Sandpoint and Moscow.