ShareAt times, technology enhances the wilderness experience. Today’s smartphones, for instance, allow me to carry in my pack a wide range of nature guides so I can quickly identify birds, beasts, wildflowers and stars — with minimal weight. Readers seem to agree, with many e-mailing suggestions of apps for me to try, or asking for [Continued...]
ShareNot a creature was stirring, except for the 40 or so fishers being reintroduced to the former habitat in Olympic National Park., Fishers, a small predatory mammal, rarely eats fish. These close cousins of martens and weasels are mostly nocturnal hunters of any small critters, including birds and occasionally fish, that live in the forest. [Continued...]
ShareCanaries can keep their mines. When it comes to indicating threats to the living desert, look to the ferruginous hawk. These amazing raptors favor wild, open desert country like that found near in southeast Washington. They favor undeveloped, open terrain. But these big birds are in danger. They numbers are in decline, in large part [Continued...]
ShareGiven the way these things usually work, you’d expect that disgruntled ranchers would be the biggest threat to efforts to reintroduce a stable population of endangered Mexican Gray Wolves to the wild. Certainly, though cantankerous cattlemen aren’t helping, but the biggest threat to the reintroduction efforts seems to be the bumbling efforts of the Keystone [Continued...]
Share“Federal defendants have spent the better part of the last decade treading water and avoiding their obligations under the Endangered Species Act.” Those words, written by U.S. District Judge James Redden in a letter issued May 18, 2009, were addressed to various factions fighting over the recover plans for the Pacific Salmon, listed as endangered [Continued...]
ShareTiny little fur balls stand as icons for the massive western mountains. Weighing less than half a pound (typically, about 6-7 ounces), the American Pika may seem an odd choice as an iconic species to represent the massive mountain ranges of the western United States. But these cute little fur balls thrive in some of [Continued...]
