WILDLIFE WATCHING -- A record 273 bald eagles was counted today -- Dec. 29 -- at Lake Coeur d'Alene, making this the best year ever to take in the annual Eagle Watch Week activities. Bald eagles are gathering in record numbers at in the Wolf…
FISHING -- Some anglers share at least one trait with northern pike. They apparently wouldn't hesitate to eat their own kind. Advocates of letting nature take its course in the invasion of northern pike down the Pend Oreille River seem to have little concern for…
WINTER SPORTS -- A hoot of a day in deep pow can come to a suffocating end should you fall and become trapped upside down in a tree well. This real-life accident and rescue is worth viewing and discussing. It points out the obvious value…
ENDANGERED SPECIES -- The recovery program to restore the California condor in Arizona has reached its 15th anniversary this month with reason to celebrate. More than 70 condors are flying wild in the southwest skies. The Peregrine Fund breeds condors at its World Center for…
WILDLIFE -- Montana wildlife photographer Jaime Johnson braved clouds of mosquitoes to snap these photos last summer in Alaska as bears converged on rivers to feast on spawning salmon. The cub (top left) seems to be content to daydream while its mother does the work…
FISHING -- The Washington Department of Ecology is asking fish managers, researchers and consumers to comment by Dec. 30 on a plan to update outdated state fish consumption rates, such as the number of meals of bass one might eat per month before ingesting a…
WINTER SPORTS -- Free-heel skiers and snowshoers have plenty of events to sample in the next two weeks. Among them: Snowshoeing activites organized by Spokane Parks and Recreation include: Winter survival youth camp, Dec. 28-29, to learn snowshoeing and snow shelter building skills. Mount Spokane…
WILDLIFE WATCHING -- More reports are coming in from birdwatchers traveling to Palmer Lake in Okanogan County to enjoy the rare chance to see a Ross's gull. Check out this Christmas eve report: So I'm not much of a gull guy, but Washington's second documented…
OUTDOORS -- Thanks to four great high school writers for taking over my newspaper Outdoors page today, giving me a day off to go outdoors! Read about the contest and see their stories here.
WINTER SPORTS -- Nordic skiers and snowshoers should check out the lineup of events and activities for Winterfest, sponsored by Mountain Gear, Jan. 7-8 at 49 Degrees North. This is a screaming deal: Free demos, free mini lessons and free trail passes. Plus, tons of…
WILDLIFE WATCHING -- The rare occassion of a Ross's gull showing up in Washington has become one of the most notable winter attractions to the Loomis area in a long time. Birders from east and west of the Cascades are flocking to Okanogan county to…
WINTER SPORTS -- The Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center has offered suggestions for winter backcountry travelers in its weekly advisory posted today. Overall, conditions are fairly safe -- for now! "Be cautious near ridgelines and where wind deposited snow is deeper and possibly firmer overlying a…
STATE PARKS -- Concerned about the massive layoff of park rangers, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers has asked the state Parks and Recreation Commission to delay sending out notices until after the Legislature meets in January, according to a report by the Wenatchee World.…
WILDLIFE WATCHING -- The number of bald eagles gathering at Lake Coeur d'Alene appears to have peaked or may be declining slightly after last week's record count of 259 birds in Wolf Lodge Bay. In today's survey, a total of 237 bald eagles -- 204…
ENVIRONMENT -- Rep. Michael Simpson, R-Idaho, has made the Los Angeles Times list of Congress's 10 most powerful and outspoken opponents of clean air, clean water, conservation and climate action. Simpson has stepped to the front lines of his party's war on Mother Nature by…
RESERVOIRS -- Avista Utilities will start to draw down the water level at Lake Spokane (Long Lake Reservoir) on Friday (Dec. 23).Operators expect to lower the reservoir up to a foot a day for two or three weeks until it reaches its winter elevation of…
WILDLIFE -- The Obama administration today declared more than 4,000 wolves in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have recovered from widespread extermination and will be removed from the endangered species list. After devoting four decades and tens of millions of dollars to saving the gray wolf,…
HUNTING – A veterinarian accused of poaching an elk in North Idaho has filed a federal lawsuit against state wildlife officials. The Bonner County Daily Bee reports Roland Hall is accusing the Idaho Department of Fish and Game of civil rights violations, negligence, intentional infliction…
PREDATORS -- Idaho is using trappers and helicopter gunners to try to get wolf numbers down. In Montana, with wolf-harvest goals looking as though they could go unmet, a hunting group is offering a legal version of a bounty as an incentive to get hunters…
WILDLIFE -- A conservation group is putting a Spotlight on wildlife migrations. Wildlife Conservation Society report tracks migration routes in the West In its new report, "Spectacular Migrations in the Western U.S.," (pdf) the Wildlife Conservation Society discusses the importance of maintaining ecologically intact corridors…
WILDLIFE RESEARCH -- A recent study published in the Journal of Wildlife Management confirmed that wolverines regularly patrol a vast mountain territory. Eight years of radio-tracking 30 individual wolverines in the Rocky Mountains has provided an abundance of new data about the world's largest member…
Rich Landers writes and photographs stories and columns for a wide range of outdoors coverage, including Outdoors feature sections on Sunday and Thursday.