Outdoors

I have long said that my church is the one with mountains as disciples and trees as parishioners. After a childhood of cultish exposure to faith, in which righteousness and scripture were used as tools of justification for the unjustifiable, it has always been nature that I found most miraculous, most promising of power and purpose greater than one’s own misunderstood life.

Fly Fishing

A red-winged blackbird calls at sunrise on March 1 at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge in this photo by David Bessen.

The panel that oversees Washington’s fish and game agency is meeting this week in Walla Walla.

One of the Forest Service roads in North Idaho that was hammered by flooding in December is drivable again.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is continuing to add recreational facilities to popular sites at the Asotin Wildlife Area.

National forests across the country launched a hiring blitz last month for seasonal workers, a move that follows a freeze on hiring similar positions that lasted more than a year.

Sitting in a float tube on Dry Falls Lake didn’t exactly make my toes go numb, but it was close.

This circuitous tale, that connects a massive bison bull across 140 years of American history begins in 1886, when getting a message across Montana was a life-threatening task.

Fly Fishing

My morning routine of checking the weather and the headlines has become a ritual of anxiety these days. My phone says the temperatures are 15 degrees above average. The headlines say people are dying and that more will.

A porcupine is seen at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge in this March 2 photo by Mark Hendrickson.

A table by the front door at the Radio Bar on Sunday afternoon was covered in an eclectic mess.

There’s more than one bacterial culprit for a disease that’s been eating away at elk hooves in the Pacific Northwest.

Wildlife officials killed three wolves last weekend in North Idaho, a move they say significantly knocked back a wolfpack they believe has contributed to a decline in elk populations.

A federal judge in Oregon has ordered changes to dam operations on the Columbia and Snake rivers to help salmon runs.

Fly-fishing

A great blue heron hangs out at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge on Feb. 12 in this photo by Jerry Rolwes.

Every time I say, “I would never,” I ought to just end the sentence right there. It is always and without fail a predecessor to me doing exactly the thing I hope to never ever do.