2011: Out & about

Badger Lake residents challenged and postponed an aquatic weed herbicide application proposed by other lake residents.

Felt got the boot in Maryland, the first state to ban felt-soled boots for fishing to help reduce the spread of invasive species that threaten stream habitats and fish. A similar ban took effect a few weeks later in Vermont. Alaska is scheduled to ban felt-sole wading boots this year.

Building a mine beneath Montana’s Cabinet Mountain Wilderness won’t imperil the region’s threatened grizzly bears, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, opening the door for the first development phase of the Rock Creek silver-copper mine to begin as early as 2013.

Olympic National Park was sued for $10 million by the family of a man gored to death by a mountain goat in 2010. Park officials reacted to the pressure by killing a goat that was showing up in campsites and launching an educational campaign to get hikers to urinate away from campsites and trails in an effort to avoid attracting goats.

Rewards were offered for poachers that caught the public’s attention, including $10,000 for the illegal killing a wolf from the Wenaha Pack in Oregon, and $2,000 for the shooting of a trumpeter Swan in the Colville River. Neither of these efforts produced tips to solve the cases.

Birds may be impacted by the growing use of smartphone applications, field access to the Internet and recordings to flush out bird species for better viewing, some experts said.

A coalition of 360 fishing, hunting and sporting organizations from nearly every state signed a letter urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to protect world-class salmon runs in Bristol Bay, Alaska, from potential watershed damage by the proposed Pebble Mine.

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam donated a ukulele to Ferry County Rail Trail Partners auction, netting the group $17,000 for developing the abandoned railway along the Kettle River north of Republic.