NACHES -- On the slopes overlooking the Nile Valley from the north side of Highway 410, seeing wildlife is no big deal.

BENTON CITY -- A covered shooting range for use in hunter education and safety training classes will be built at the Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Facility near Benton City, thanks in part to a grant awarded this week to the Tri-Cities Shooting Association.

LEESBURG, Fla. -- Kiana Clark of Richland earned $2,000 for finishing third at the Bassmaster CastingKids national championships last weekend in Leesburg, Fla. Jared Raymer of Brandenburg, Ky., won the 10-14 division.

KENNEWICK -- Jake Cook may be the top junior bass fisherman in the country, but his future professional plans include catching crooks as well as fish.

KENNEWICK -- The Inter-Mountain Alpine Club plans a free lecture and slideshow about Yellowstone National Park in winter from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Nov. 17 in the Mid-Columbia Library, 1620 S. Union St., Kennewick.

Lower Columbia River sturgeon numbers are on the decline, with potentially 40 percent cuts in sport and commercial fishing looming for 2010 and beyond.

A big ego is a poacher's Achilles' heel.

Pheasant hunters in Eastern and Southeastern Washington may finally have a reason, and perhaps a season, to rejoice.

The coho run on the Columbia River continues to produce some good numbers.

MOSES LAKE -- A Moses Lake boy won and a Tri-Cities youth placed second in the 11-14 age group at the Washington State Junior Bassmasters 2009 championships last weekend at Moses Lake.

Nearly a quarter of a million steelhead have crossed Lower Granite Dam this year, making it one of the biggest runs on record.

MOXEE -- The hulking contraption looks as if it were conceived by Rube Goldberg, whose unwieldy machines seemed designed to finagle through a thousand seemingly unrelated actions what might easily have been achieved in one.

Waterfowl hunters can take home an extra pintail and again shoot canvasbacks this season, but the overall number of ducks and geese in Eastern Washington is expected to be on par with previous seasons.

SKAMOKAWA -- Larry Holland and two helpers dug their feet into the sand and pulled with all their might on a fishing seine net that looped into the Columbia River.

Columbia National Wildlife Refuge will have a "Big Sit" birding event at the Royal Lake Overlook from 8 a.m. to noon Sunday to launch National Wildlife Refuge Week.

RICHLAND -- A draft management and conservation plan released this week for gray wolves in Washington lays the blueprint for how the predators could eventually be delisted from state endangered species protection.

Hunters have a responsibility to positively identify their target before they pull the trigger.

The biggest hatchery-raised steelhead return in years and the annual fall chinook run are proving a big lure for anglers on the Columbia River.

RICHLAND -- The Richland Rod & Gun Club will have its October meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the city of Richland maintenance facility, exit 3 from Interstate 182 to Queensgate Drive, across from Wal-Mart.

YAKIMA -- Snowmobilers are reaching into their own wallets and bank accounts to help a state agency make up for a budget shortfall -- not because they want to, but because the alternative would effectively shut down snowmobiling in the Ahtanum and a handful of other popular trail areas.

With bull elk in the rut full throttle, any respectable bowhunter who can fib his way out of work or break out of jail is trying to bugle one into arrow range.

A bountiful summer steelhead run prompted the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to open the season early for hatchery-raised steelhead through the Hanford Reach, and allow anglers to keep up to three fish daily.

OLYMPIA -- Young hunters in Washington will get a jump on adults this weekend with the annual two-day, youth-only season for waterfowl, pheasant, quail and partridge.

OLYMPIA -- Washington fisheries officials are about to deliver a bombshell on Columbia River anglers, proposing single barbless hooks be required for salmon and steelhead angling as far upstream as McNary Dam.

A successful Montana fly-fishing shop owner is proving that building environmental stewardship for fish and rivers into his business model is more than just the right thing to do.

BEND, Ore. -- Mitch Thompson climbs volcanoes like Spiderman scales a burning skyscraper to rescue a damsel in distress at the top: He does not take the time to soak in his surroundings.

KENNEWICK -- Botanist Steven Link will talk about native plants of the Columbia Basin at the September meeting of the Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Kennewick.

Inland Northwest hikers don't have to travel any farther than North Idaho to make a cast for grayling.

YAKIMA RIVER CANYON -- What used to be the beer and weenies crowd here near mile marker No. 15 is now the syrah and steak set.

ASHFORD -- This summer was the busiest at Mount Rainier National Park since 2003.

OLYMPIA -- The state Department of Ecology is providing the Tri-State Steelheaders with $50,000 for a streamside restoration project on the Touchet River in Walla Walla County.

Professional paddler Tyler Bradt raised a puzzling question on April 21 when he traveled to southeastern Washington and set a world record for the highest waterfall descent in a kayak:

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Hunters can keep stalking gray wolves for now in the Northern Rockies, but the killing may be short-lived after a federal judge found problems with the recent removal of the animal from the endangered species list.

LEAVENWORTH -- What do goats, bicycles and vegetable oil have in common?

Two sections of the lower Snake River opened for hatchery-reared fall chinook salmon fishing this week because of a good return of upriver bright chinook, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

BOISE -- Gray wolves were back in the cross hairs of hunters this week, just months after they were removed from the federal endangered species list and eight decades since being hunted to extinction across the Northern Rockies.

September is becoming the month of the bicycle in the Northwest.

Fall arrives Tuesday for early archery general deer, and dove and grouse hunters in Eastern Washington.

RICHLAND -- The Richland Rod & Gun Club will hear fall hunting forecasts from two regional wildlife biologists at its 7 p.m. meeting Tuesday at the city of Richland maintenance facility.

Surviving an outdoor incident doesn't spare you from suffering through the "what if" stage.

Fisheries managers in Washington have a perplexing problem on their hands: Too many hatchery steelhead are returning to the Grand Ronde River.

Some hunters say the wolf harvest limit set by Idaho Fish and Game commissioners this week isn't high enough.

The Snake River opens for hatchery steelhead retention fishing Sept. 1, and summer steelhead apparently already are returning in large numbers.

Three cheers for outdoors enthusiasts who return from a summer vacation leaner and firmer than they were when they departed.

CHARLESTON -- Three anglers docking with more than 125 pounds of fish caught in about five hours of trolling would usually be elated.

Twin sisters Calloway and Morgan Erickson try out the Bungee Tower, Rapid Riser Reverse Bungee and the 500-foot zipline at Mt. Hood Adventure Park at Skibowl.

WHITE PASS -- A trackhoe growls as it carves the dirt where a second ski lodge will be built at the White Pass ski area.

OLYMPIA -- Eastern Washington goose hunters will have two extra days late in the season as a result of the elimination of the two-day September season, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission has announced.

MARBELMOUNT -- A well-known Colorado mountain climber was killed and his partner injured Aug. 9 when ice fell from beneath them in North Cascades National Park.

BOISE -- Federal hydropower officials buzzed two Idaho mountain rivers this week with helicopter-mounted cameras typically used for tracking illegal immigrants or finding dangerous transmission-line hotspots.