James Hagengruber

"Bears are not suited to, nor do they seek, close relationships with humans." That's one of the talking points from a memo distributed this week to top grizzly bear biologists.

After nearly six years of legal wrangling, the battle between North Idaho grass farmers and 283 Inland Northwest residents with breathing problems came to an end Tuesday in a Coeur d'Alene courtroom. Neither side seemed particularly satisfied.

Reservations for U.S. Forest Service rental cabins and lookout towers will be handled by a national computerized database beginning Thursday. The Forest Service said the switch is expected to make the cabins and towers more accessible to people across the nation. Translation: There will be more competition for the region's neatest places to sleep.

Deer, elk, bears and moose travel, too. But they haven't exactly benefited from the modern highway system. The state of Idaho is hoping to make one of the Panhandle's busiest creature crossings near McArthur Lake safer for both humans and wildlife.

Biologists think they might know how to restore legendary fishing to Lake Pend Oreille. But not even the best scientific plan has a chance unless it's supported by the many anglers who fish Idaho's largest lake, said Ned Horner, regional fisheries manager for the state's Fish and Game Department. The state hopes to convince Lake Pend Oreille anglers and local residents that more lake trout need to be caught and killed. Horner said focusing on the exotic predatory fish is the only hope for salvaging the rest of the big lake's fishery.

A brick of silver weighing as much as a golden retriever was among the loot stolen recently from the Coeur d'Alene corporate headquarters of Hecla Mining Company. The bar and an untold number of silver medallions were stolen from a metal safety deposit box sometime between Dec. 28 and Jan. 9, according to a statement issued Wednesday by Coeur d'Alene police Sgt. Christie Wood.

Kootenai County Commission Chairman Gus Johnson filled his "state of the county" speech Tuesday with the freshest facts and figures available. But at the county's current growth rates, any numbers quickly become stale.

Opponents of an expanded shooting range at Farragut State Park hope a judge will decide next month whether the state can proceed with the plan. Until then, tough words will continue to fly.

Opponents of an expanded shooting range at Farragut State Park hope a judge will decide sometime next month whether the state can proceed with the plan. Until then, tough words will continue to fly.

BOISE – A decade after gray wolves were released from cages and reintroduced to the mountains of central Idaho, the state has assumed most management authority over the predator, under an agreement signed Thursday with the federal government. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will continue to look over the state's shoulder to ensure a minimum number of packs are allowed to roam free, but the agreement will give the state greater flexibility in day-to-day management, including handing kill permits to ranchers.

Idaho's open meeting law was violated when state officials held two days of meetings with grass seed company officials without notifying the public, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a public health group that's been pushing for an end to field burning in North Idaho. The group, Safe Air For Everyone, or SAFE, learned of the December meetings through documents obtained in a request of records and correspondence from the Idaho Department of Agriculture. Decisions on field burning management were made at the sessions, which were held at a hotel in Moscow, Idaho, and neither publicized nor opened to residents, according to a copy of the complaint filed in Idaho's 4th District Court in Boise.

In a move to protect the Lower 48's last remaining caribou, a federal judge has barred snowmobile trail grooming for the rest of the season on federal land in some of Idaho's most popular snowmobiling territory. The order issued late Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Robert H. Whaley, of Spokane, will halt grooming of snowmobile trails on U.S. Forest Service land near Priest Lake. Trails on state land, mostly on the east side of the lake, will continue to be groomed.