The Great Outdoors
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In 1907, my great grandfather – Walter L. Cole – kept a journal of a trip he took with a friend, Perry, to Central Idaho’s Riordan Lake just southeast of Yellow Pine, Idaho. This area, which I have spent a lot of time in over the years, is some very rough and steep country. I first…
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Not just these animals and birds are being hurt, but we are too- For those who pay attention, there are many stories about increasing blockage of long seasonal migrations by wildlife. These changes are accompanied by the spread of disease, and the growth of “pest” species which are normally eaten or disrupted by these vast…
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After 22 years as the chief biologist at the National Elk Refuge, Bruce Smith pens an easy-to-read, but stark warning about continuing elk feeding- Prions are bit like tiny pieces of radioactive material in that they are very dangerous promoters of illness and for practical purposes never really go away, resting in the dust and…
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Once thought extinct, reintroduction to Utah just one of a growing number- The black-footed ferret, closely related to the weasel, but a predatory specialist that eats prairie dogs almost exclusively (about 92% of their diet), was thought to be extinct back in the 1970s. Amazingly a pet dog discovered a colony near Meeteetse, Wyoming in…
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Release of 32 bighorn underway- This release by the Nevada Department of Wildlife, Nevada Bighorns Unlimited and private individuals has taken 20 years to be accomplished. The stock for the release came from Nevada to the south around Stonewall Mountain near Tonapah. They are desert, not Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. Bighorn are now back in…
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Demise of the Imnaha Pack is hardly the end of wolves in Oregon- Sneakcat has a story on this cheerful news. The Ochoco Mountains cover a large expanse of northcentral Oregon. They are not very high, but sprawl over a big area with many small drainages and only few well known points of tourist attraction…
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Hiker outraged at bovine caused mess at what is arguably Idaho’s most beautiful alpine lake- The Pioneers are the second highest mountain range in Idaho. They are of beautiful, hard glaciated rock, carved into giant peaks, spires, lake-filled cirques and waterfalls with wildflower meadows some of the time before the cattle reach them. Livestock grazing…
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Red Rock Fire grows to 5700 acres. Temperature inversion keeps the smoke under a lid in Jackson Hole- This fire, which was just resized from 5,729 acres, compared with 2,835 acres a day earlier, is burning in dead pine, aspen, fir and meadows near Goosewing R.S. and the controversial Wyoming Game and Fish Alkali elk…