HIGHLIGHTS

Anniversaries

100, Leupold & Stevens, Inc. of Beaverton, Ore., the only prominent American-owned and -operated optics company.

80, Ducks Unlimited.

80, Mount Spokane State Park.

75, Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

70, Stevens Pass Ski Area.

50, American Whitewater.

40, Spokane Fly Fishers.

30, Moose hunting in Washington.

25, Pheasants Forever.

25, Spokane Chapter of Safari Club International.

Milestones

Gail Kimbell, 54, becomes first woman director of the U.S. Forest Service. On the road to becoming the 16th chief, Kimbell was the Colville National Forest’s Kettle Falls District ranger from 1985-1988.

John Roskelley, 58, considered America’s premier high-altitude mountaineer in the 1970s and ‘80s, becomes the first non-traditional athlete inducted into the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame

A wolf killed a calf in Stevens County, the first documented wolf livestock kill in Washington State since the predators were extirpated from the state through bounty-hunting, poisoning and trapping in the 1930s.

A grizzly bear confirmed in the Bitterroot Mountains area for the first time since 1946 also is the area’s first dead grizzly in that period, dispatched over a bait pile near Kelly Creek by a black bear hunter’s bullet.

Bald eagles are removed from the Threatened and Endangered Species list by the Interior Department.

Pro bass anglers flock to the Tri-Cities for the first big-money professional bass tournament on the Columbia River. The Wal-Mart FLW Series event based out of Columbia Point Marina paid $1 million in prizes to a field of about 400 contestants.

Quail Forever opens its first chapter in the West: The Columbia Basin Chapter based in Richland.

Nine Mile Resort on Lake Spokane is operated by Riverside State Park, ending decades of private management.

Wild turkeys have expanded so prolifically from reintroductions in the past 30 years, Idaho passes an emergency rule giving hunters the option to kill up to five turkeys in a single day during the fall season in some Panhandle units.

Mountain grouse hunters see a new species on the list of birds open to hunting in Washington this year. In 2006, the former blue grouse was split into two species by the American Ornithologists’ Union: the “dusky” grouse found east of the Cascades and the “sooty grouse” of the Pacific Coast. Washington is the only state in the United States where the ranges of these two very similar species meet.

National Forest maps increase in cost to $9 for paper and $10 for waterproof plastic. In 1979, the maps cost 50 cents.

As few as 16 commissioned wildlife enforcement officers are working Washington’s 10 easternmost counties going into the fall hunting seasons, down from 23 two decades ago, the Fish and Wildlife Department reports.

A wireless hot spot is installed at popular Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge in a pilot program to provide Internet access at rest stops and parks across Oregon.

Colville chapter of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation celebrates raising a total of more than $1 million in annual fundraisers at its annual banquet.

Howard Gardner of Richland volunteers as a Washington hunter education instructor for the 50th year.

Potlatch Corp. begins charging fees for recreational access to more than 600,000 acres of company-owned property on the St. Joe and Clearwater regions. The company also announces it may begin leasing some of those lands for exclusive recreational use in 2008.

Hunter education courses no longer are offered by snail mail in Washington. Starting Aug. 1, home-study students must go online.

Lead bullets are banned from center-fire hunting ammunition in some California hunting districts to prevent more lead-poisoning deaths in endangered California condors that feed on crippled game.

Transition

Resigned: Lloran Johnson, Inland Northwest Wildlife Council executive director.

Hired: Becky Gray, a Montanan and the first woman hired as executive director of the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council.

Resigned: Fred Shiosaki of Spokane from Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Appointed: George Orr of Spokane to Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Retired: John McColgin, Washington Fish and Wildlife Department enforcement officer in the Spokane area for 32 years.

Died: Otto Vaclavek, 53, of Spokane and his 12-year-old son, Max, from a fall while climbing Dragontail Peak in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in September.

Died: Rocky Spencer, Washington wildlife biologist, in a helicopter accident while relocating bighorn sheep near Yakima.

Relocated: The 10-foot tall mounted polar bear that had been displayed at the Davenport Hotel, the airport and Gonzaga University since it was killed in 1971 by Lewey Lorenzen of Spokane, found a new home at the Cabela’s store that opened in November in Post Falls.

For the record

Foraker first: Masatoshi Kuriaki of Japan makes the first solo winter ascent Mount Foraker on March 10. The 17,400-foot peak, the sixth highest in North America, is near Mount McKinley. The following 20 climbers who attempted Foraker are unsuccessful.

Seven Summits sprint: Austrian climber Christian Stangl sets a record 58 hours, 45 minutes for cumulative climbing time to scale the tallest peak on each of the seven continents. Most climbers log about 500 hours of climbing time to reach the Seven Summits goal.

Out & About

Three bicyclists from California, on a trek from Alaska to South America, are banned from national parks for five years, fined and ordered to spend two days in jail for illegally riding across the Grand Canyon. The mountain bikers said their journey was designed to promote environmentalism.

Brown bear hunting seasons proposed for bears leaving the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, where bears are conditioned to be unafraid of humans, are rescinded by the Alaska Board of Game following a national public uproar.

A Canada goose bagged in the Columbia Basin by Ivan Lines of Spokane was nearly 17 years old, according to the banding report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Even the gravy was tough on this one!” Lines reported.

Pygmy rabbits raised in captivity are reintroduced in northcentral Washington in March. A month later, 16 of the 20 rabbits had been killed by predators. By September, only one of the diminutive endangered rabbits that had been released was still alive.

Graying on slopes is detected in a U.S. ski industry survey that finds the average age of snow riders at alpine ski resorts is 36.6 years, up from 33.2 in 1997-98.

Hairy descents: Firefighters become adept at giving emergency haircuts this summer as locks tangled in rappelling devices become a leading cause for rescue calls at Boise-area rock climbing areas.

“A helmet could have made a huge difference in a lot of these calls,” said Steve Rasulo, a Boise Fire Department battalion chief.