2023: The year outdoors

A lot can happen in a year. 

New Year’s Eve is an annual reminder of that fact, and a chance to look back. 

In the outdoors world, there were memorable excursions, of course, but there was also plenty more. Anniversaries, animal encounters, feats of human strength and endurance. There were controversial debates about wildlife management and new developments in fights against aquatic invasive species and animal diseases. There was even a train wreck that left a lot of beer in a river. 

As we wave goodbye to 2023 and welcome 2024, here’s a look back at some of the big outdoors stories we covered over the past year. 

January 

The year began with news of a longtime Salmon River shuttle service closing up shop. Caldwell Transportation Company, which had shuttled rafters on the famous and wild Idaho river for two decades, announced that it was closing, leaving outfitters to begin figuring out what they were going to do the following summer. 

It also began with a retired Spokane doctor sharing her story of a 3,000-mile bike adventure in South America. Barbara Smit spent 62 days biking through the continent, climbing mountain passes, camping in odd locations and fighting through rough weather. 

The trek was made more remarkable by what Smit had gone through in the previous seven years. The former eye doctor was diagnosed with a rare inner-ear condition in 2015 that caused spinning and vertigo. A surgery helped, but she told the Spokesman-Review last year that her balance was still shaky. 

At the end of the month, it was announced that a piece of land popular with cross country skiers in the Methow Valley was up for sale. The Haub family had agreed to sell the 1,500-acre Sunny M Ranch to the Methow Conservancy for $6.2 million, but the big question was whether the conservancy could raise that money by a June deadline. 

The organization accomplished that goal, and then some. It raised more than $8.7 million in the following months to purchase the property and start a maintenance fund.  

February

The cross country ski race dubbed “Bloomsday on snow” returned in February, bringing about 200 skiers to Mount Spokane for Launglauf 10K race. 

In Idaho, wildlife officials organized a deer cull to tamp down the prevalence of chronic wasting disease, an always-fatal condition first discovered in the state in 2021. The cull began in February, and more than 150 deer were killed during the cull’s first week, according to the Lewiston Tribune. When the cull ended in April, more than 400 deer had been removed. 

March

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission took the spotlight in March. 

First, Gov. Jay Inslee named two new members to the commission: Steve Parker of Yakima County and Woody Myers of Spokane.

Both are retired biologists, and they joined a nine-member panel that has wrestled with controversial issues in recent years. Parker replaced Kim Thorburn of Spokane. 

Confirmation fights dragged on in the Legislature, with Republicans raising concerns that some members weren’t friendly enough to hunters and anglers. Despite those concerns, all nine members were confirmed in April.

Also in March, a hunting group filed a lawsuit alleging that Commissioner Lorna Smith illegally held a position on the Jefferson County Planning Commission while simultaneously serving on the wildlife panel. A judge ultimately ruled in the hunting group’s favor, and Smith resigned from the county planning commission, but an appeal is ongoing, according to Northwest Sportsman Magazine. 

April

One Sunday morning in April, a train derailed along the Clark Fork River outside of Plains, Montana, spilling clay and beer into the river. The incident made for dramatic photos, the most memorable of which was captured by Ben Allan Smith of the Missoulian. It showed man in a drift boat parked close to shore, smiling against a backdrop of boxes of Coors Light and Blue Moon. 

It was the beer drinking angler’s dream, and the two men in the photo were among the first to arrive. They told the Spokesman-Review that they collected some beer and cardboard to help jumpstart cleanup efforts. 

“I think my buddy drank one,” one of the anglers said. “Then we compared it to the river water. It improved the taste of both.”

May

Former Spokesman-Review outdoors editor Rich Landers went to Africa this past spring, and he came back with four stories from the bucket-list trek for a wildlife nerd like him, the first two of which ran in May. 

“Our rustic African safari camp, with chairs around a central fire pit and eating tables under a tarp canopy, was much like a group site you’d find in the forests of Washington, Idaho or Montana – except for the elephant by the tent,” Landers wrote. 

State-side, May also marked the beginning of spring runoff, and the healthy snowpack had rivers running high early in the month.

And the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife named a new supervisor for its eastern regional office: Mike Kuttel Jr. Kuttel Jr. spoke to the Spokesman-Review in August, after he had a few months to settle in. 

June

A former gymnast from Spokane made news in June by doing something you might not expect: competing in the International Women’s Cup in timbersports in the Netherlands. 

Erin LaVoie, a 2000 graduate of Ferris High School, was already a decorated timbersports athlete, with world records in the underhand chop, medals from the ESPN Great Outdoor Games and the Guinness world record for felling the most Christmas trees in 2 minutes. 

And she did not disappoint. LaVoie took home a gold medal in the underhand chop, setting yet another world record, according to KREM. 

Meanwhile, her chainsaw skills would have proven useful in the Pasayten Wilderness, where maintenance backlogs led to many blocked and impassable trails. 

In Idaho, a hunter mistakenly killed a threatened grizzly bear north of Upper Priest Lake. 

July

There’s nothing better than being on a boat in the heat of summer. That’s right where Spokesman-Review Deputy Business Editor Tom Clouse was for a couple days in July, chasing sockeye salmon outside of Brewster.

He was far from alone. Hordes of anglers travel to Brewster each year in search of salmon. “It’s a free-for-all, literally, for anyone with a craft that will float (and some are more willing than others to challenge that definition),” Clouse wrote.

Persistence pays off. Clouse and friends ended up with a few salmon for the grill.

August

Two Ellensburg climbers with a penchant for climbing a lot of mountains quickly did it again this summer. Nick Burson and Marc McPherson summited the 12 tallest volcanoes in the Cascade Range in just 11 days, ending on Aug. 3 at Mount Baker. 

Among other things, the journey included a spooky nighttime encounter with a cougar.

About 50 chinook salmon were released in the Little Spokane River as part of a cultural release in early August. It was also a celebration of big plans for the Glen Tana property, a former farm that was purchased by the Inland Northwest Land Conservancy. The organization plans to donate the land to Washington State Parks and the Spokane Tribe. 

September

The Spokane Bicycle Club celebrated its 50th anniversary in September, a major milestone for a group that began with just a few women in Spokane Valley who got together to ride bikes once a week. Now, it boasts a few hundred members and organizes rides most days of the week. 

In animal news, efforts to restore northern leopard frogs in the scablands continued, and the Kalispel Tribe continued its work to increase its understanding of waterfowl populations in the Pend Oreille Valley. 

At the end of the month, Trout Unlimited brought its national conference to Spokane.

October

A grizzly bear showed up in an unusual place in early October. 

The bear was trapped and relocated after it had repeatedly gotten into a chicken coop in the Onion Creek area northeast of Colville. Finding a grizzly there was “certainly a rare event,” said Wayne Kasworm, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s grizzly recovery program. 

The bear was released near Sullivan Lake, and biologists have been tracking its movements ever since. 

Invasive mussels showed up in a new place this fall, too: the Snake River near Twin Falls, Idaho. After the find, Idaho officials announced a plan to poison a 6-mile section of the river, hoping to eradicate the aquatic invaders before they cause the sort of damage they have elsewhere.

It was the first time that zebra or quagga mussels had been found in the Columbia River basin, and it raised concerns for river managers across the West. The Idaho Department of Agriculture began a 10-day treatment of the river on Oct. 3.

In North Idaho, local volunteers made progress in their work to preserve an aging Forest Service barn near Priest Lake. 

In Washington, researchers made new discoveries in their work on treponeme-associated hoof disease, which mangles the feet of elk. A study from Washington State University found the condition has epigenetic impacts that go well beyond the animals’ feet. 

November

A cougar that chased a mountain biker in late October got a lot of attention from researchers in the following month.

The cat was collared and enrolled in a study of how hazing can change the animal’s behavior, which involved researchers approaching it repeatedly over several weeks. 

Federal officials released a detailed proposal to restore grizzly bears to the North Cascades this fall, and an initial public comment period ended in November with thousands of people weighing in on the plans. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service are proposing introducing a few bears a year to the mountain range until the population reaches 25. The population would be considered “experimental” under the plans. 

December

The Biden Administration made major news this month by announcing a 10-year plan to begin exploring the possibility of breaching four dams on the Lower Snake River, though the deal stopped short of calling for the dams to come down. The news came in an agreement with tribes that outlines a plan to develop clean energy that could replace power supplies if Congress authorizes breaching the dams.

It followed two other announcements this fall related to salmon recovery. In the Upper Columbia River Basin, the administration committed $200 million to the Upper Columbia United Tribes’ 20-year research program aimed at answering key questions for the reintroduction plans. Less than a week after that was announced, the administration announced a “whole of government” approach to recovering salmon. 

The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission dealt with a lot of issues when the panel met in December, advancing some items while delaying others. 

A controversial conservation policy was released for public review. A petition seeking new bear and cougar rules advanced. And a long-awaited land deal proposed for Spokane County’s Chapman Lake took a step forward. 

The bevy of activity gives outdoors-folk plenty to watch going into 2024.