Field Reports: Skagit eagle show

As the annual bald eagle congregation wanes at Lake Coeur d’Alene, the Skagit River in Western Washington has become the region’s hot spot for eagle watching.

During this week last year, 350 eagles were counted near Rockport in the 8,000-acre Skagit River Bald Eagle Natural Area overseen by the Nature Conservancy. At one point, a record 580 bald eagles were counted, considerably more than the record of 156 counted at Lake Coeur d’Alene in December 2004.

The Skagit River Interpretive Center at Howard Miller Steelhead Park in Rockport is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays that fall on Monday. The eagle congregation started in November and ends in February.

Rich Landers

SKIING

Liability revisited

Skiing is full of risks, and skiers assume the potential for injury when they try to navigate a course down a steep mountainside.

But not all the risks are necessarily inherent ones, the Utah Supreme Court ruled last month while reinstating a lawsuit filed by a man who slammed into a poorly marked retaining wall of stacked railroad ties.

The high court overturned a lower court ruling that said Snowbird Corp. was protected from a lawsuit because of two waivers skier William Rothstein signed to get a season pass at the popular resort near Salt Lake City.

Rothstein suffered severe internal injuries when he skied into the wall at Snowbird in February 2003. Rothstein sued, claiming negligence, but a state District Court ruled in favor of Snowbird, citing the releases Rothstein signed.

The Supreme Court’s 3-2 decision restores Rothstein’s lawsuit and clarifies state law.

Resorts are covered by the state’s Inherent Risks of Skiing Act, saying skiers assume some risks.

The law is designed to keep insurance rates affordable for the resorts, not shield them from liability all together, the high court said.

Associated Press

FISHERIES

Wyoming joins mercury list

Wyoming became the last state in the lower 48 to warn about possibly unhealthy levels of mercury in fish, advising anglers last month to be cautious.

“In general, Wyoming fish are low in mercury,” Timothy Ryan, environmental public health section chief with the state Department of Health, said. “But we are recommending that women of childbearing age, pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under the age of 15 should eat more small Wyoming-caught fish and fewer large fish, and should avoid eating channel catfish, bass, sauger and walleye from certain waters.”

State Game and Fish spokesman Erik Keszler said only Alaska has yet to issue a mercury advisory.

Associated Press