DAYTON -- Bruce Goodell, general manager for Bluewood, says that if he sees just half the snow as his ski resort received last year, he'd be ecstatic.

DUNDEE, Ore. -- Duck Pond Cellars recently was designated a "Corporation for Conservation" and awarded a Bronze Teal Sponsor Award by Ducks Unlimited.

This much is clear: Both sport and commercial fishermen are unhappy with a proposed spring chinook catch-sharing recommendation for the lower Columbia River.

MAZAMA -- The first study of wolverines in the North Cascades is now an international effort.

SPOKANE -- Money, thrill kills, trophy mounts and extra meat are driving wildlife poachers and illegal traders into the Inland Northwest's forests and fields, say Washington state Fish and Wildlife officials.

People attempting to climb Mount St. Helens must self-register to obtain a climbing permit.

HEPPNER, Ore. -- Fall's flush starts here, in the heartland of Oregon wheat country.

The pending world record elk, shot in Utah in September, is raising eyebrows for its huge size as well as concerns for the direction of trophy hunting.

The Mid-Columbia will be home to two marathons this weekend.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to close about 1,000 acres south of Potholes Reservoir in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge for a few days for fire restoration work.

SOELDEN, Austria -- Bode Miller is thinking big.

RICHLAND -- It dawns quite quickly that this nondescript white house on Cottonwood Drive in Richland is the home of something special.

Upland hunters in Eastern Washington could find more birds in some locations than biologists initially expected when the pheasant season opens today, thanks to an apparent late hatch.

PACKWOOD -- The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has proposed a special hunting season in the Morton-Packwood area to reduce the number of elk that have been traipsing through yards and gardens.

LAKE WENATCHEE -- A large bear spotted three weeks ago in the Chiwawa River Valley north of Lake Wenatchee may actually be one of the secretive North Cascades grizzly bears, experts say.

TWISP -- Hunters in the Methow Valley this year will be greeted by new signs warning that federally protected wolves may be in the area and should not be killed.

Some fishermen always seem to be looking for an angle -- a way to get one up on the next guy, or better yet, a stab at getting one up on the law.

Dan Agnew invested time and gobs of money for the chance to bag what is sure to be a new Washington state record bull elk.

The White Bluffs boat launch on the Columbia River will be closed briefly next week to allow spraying for Russian knapweed.

KENNEWICK -- Hunters in Eastern Washington may see fewer deer than a year ago in some game units when they take to the mountains, hills or plains for the opening today of the modern firearms season.

EUGENE -- The Oregon rifle deer season opens today, and it appears that after a generation of declining numbers, the number of deer hunters in Oregon is on the way up.

In Washington, elk hunters are grouped into the "haves" and the "have nots."

Ryan Spaniel recoiled when he stared into his net at the unusual fish he caught in the Columbia River near the cable bridge.

PORTLAND -- The Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program paid out $40,000 in special awards to 20 lucky anglers in September, the Bonneville Power Administration announced today.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced today the closure of a 21-mile section of the Yakima River bordering the Yakama Nation Reservation to non-tribal fishing for fall chinook and coho salmon.

PENDLETON -- Blue Mountain Wildlife in Pendleton will have its 11th annual Fall Open House from noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 4.

WHITE PASS -- Clearing work is under way in the Hogback Basin where the White Pass Ski Resort is moving forward with its effort to build two new lifts, a lodge and several new runs.

On a day when a federal fishery agency issued a lengthy proposed plan for restoring threatened steelhead in the Middle Columbia River -- including the Yakima River -- a renowned expert on fish and their habitats offered his own solution.

For the first time in more than 20 years, anglers will be allowed to catch and keep fall chinook from the Snake River in Washington, starting today.

YAKIMA -- A closed sign now graces the front of the KOA Campground east of Kmart along the Yakima River, signifying a new use for the site that has attracted permanent residents and overnight campers for 40 years.

BENTON CITY -- They won't be dueling at high noon, but the fastest and most accurate gunslingers in the Northwest are bringing their six-shooters, rifles and shotguns to the Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Range this week.

RIMROCK -- Roll on, mighty Tieton, roll on -- at least through the end of the month.

The Columbia National Wildlife Refuge will open a popular area south of O'Sullivan Dam for youths to hunt Canada goose, duck and coots today and Sunday.

BILLINGS, Mont. -- The government is planning to retreat for now from its attempt to take gray wolves in the Northern Rockies off the endangered species list, a federal wildlife official said this week.

RICHLAND -- Dave Kromm's wait has been well worth it, and a good day of fishing this afternoon could be worth $100,000.

Dave Kromm has been looking forward to this week for ... well ... about a year now.

Most of Lake Roosevelt's 1.4 million annual visitors have come and gone for the season, and what many of them left behind will make you wince.

A federal oceanographer says a flip-flop in atmospheric conditions is creating a feast for salmon and other sea life off the West Coast, reversing a trend that contributed to a virtual shutdown of West Coast salmon fishing this summer.

Officials of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest are warning hunters to be aware of a potential hazard in the woods this fall.

Will 2009 be the year that general-season whitetail deer hunters in Northeastern Washington will be limited to shooting only bucks with at least four points on one side of their antlers?

HEPPNER -- Authorities are looking for someone responsible for illegally killing six deer and leaving them to waste in Morrow County.

A boon to rafters on the Tieton River and a hazard to a part of the Yakima River, the Yakima basin's annual flip-flop is getting under way.

YAKIMA -- Seldom do conservation groups applaud a road project.

For the first time since the late 1970s, Washington mourning dove hunters won't have to cram their hunting into two weeks.

The Richland Rod & Gun Club will have its first meeting of the fall at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the City of Richland maintenance facility, 2700 Duportail.

In his seven years as a backcountry ranger in North Cascades National Park, Tom Corbett saw a lot of injured hikers and campers.

The Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program is adding weekly cash prizes to increase incentives for anglers to catch and turn in pikeminnow.

Most of the Pacific Northwest's Columbia River Basin continues to see good returns of adult salmon as they head back to their native streams or their hatcheries to spawn.

WASHOUGAL -- Chinook and coho salmon releases in the Washougal River will be reduced by 70 percent or more as part of a hatchery reprogramming effort to boost wild fish recovery in lower Columbia River tributaries.

Ending a decade of negotiations, U. S. District Court Judge Garr King in Portland has approved a 10-year agreement governing the catch of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River between the four tribes with treaty rights and non-Indians.