Outdoors

We’d been picnicking – my family and I – at Granite Point on Loon Lake, one of those dog-day August afternoons in Eastern Washington when the sun seems to find a spot directly overhead and refuses to leave, tossing down ultraviolet until you can pick out the office workers by the rosy-pink blush on their shoulders and the great gobs of Coppertone slathered on their noses.

Wildlife officials confirmed the deaths of two bears last week due to human conflicts.

SEATTLE – The day begins as early as 6:30 a.m. for the contractors in orange vests and hard hats working along lower Issaquah Creek in Lake Sammamish State Park, one of Washington’s most popular state parks. Using excavators, they carefully place sturdy Douglas fir logs into the stream. These buoyant, wooden structures, half of which were salvaged from fallen trees at the Everett watershed during the November bomb cyclone, will slow the flow of water and give millions of juvenile salmon shelter as they prepare for migration.

Fly fishing

The most determinate measures of a successful summer are reaching the end in a state of physical exhaustion and social fatigue, and with enough sun damage to warrant an extra trip to the dermatologist. To this end, we must never say no to anything, be it picnic, playdate or parade.

A juvenile chinook salmon was caught in the Kettle River in British Columbia earlier this month, marking the first time since reintroduction efforts began that the species was found in the stream.

Anglers will get a chance to take home chinook salmon from a portion of the the Upper Columbia River this summer.

Three mule deer bucks take in the Monday morning sun south of Cheney in this photo by Buck Domitrovich.

Most folks don’t know it, but a canoe trip to Upper Priest Lake would do them a world of good. Out there, far from cell phone service, internet connectivity and electronic “friends,” Mother Nature sets the tempo. There’s time to pick huckleberries, go exploring and savor spectacular sunsets back in camp.

When 5 p.m. arrives at the Priest River Experimental Forest, it’s time to check the weather.

Two Washington state agencies are looking to improve corridors for wildlife while cutting down on traffic risks for motorists and animals.

Fly fishing

The first sign that I’m likely to fail miserably at something is if people tell me, “Oh anyone can learn how to do that!”

A Coeur d’Alene man was convicted of illegally killing a trophy bull elk last fall by shooting it with a rifle during archery season.

A robin delivers a mouthful of caterpillars at Saltese Wetlands in this photo by Mark Stoeser.

With many national parks facing huge backlogs of deferred maintenance – Yellowstone National Park alone is estimated to have more than $1 billion – the federal government is proposing a new fee on foreign visitors to address some of the shortfall.

Federal officials are taking bids for a timber sale on the edge of Mullan, Idaho.

The trail to Lower Stevens Lake is surrounded by a thick wall of tall pine and fir trees. The ground is covered in verdant green and ripe huckleberries. In fact, the whole ground there seems ripe and fertile.