LOS ANGELES — Since the Palisades Fire broke out on Jan. 7, it has burned almost 24,000 acres through Pacific Palisades and several neighborhoods along Pacific Coast Highway. Many of those acres were populated by homes, and other popular hiking trails throughout the Santa Monica Mountains. Firefighters continue to make progress on ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Radiologists can look at an X-ray and determine fairly quickly whether the image they’re seeing is of a healthy person, or a sick one.

Similarly, hunters and other conservationists can examine the photograph accompanying this column — which I took after a recent late-season pheasant hunt — and assess the health of the land...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota fishing license sales have been fast and furious since Thanksgiving, popping at a rate not seen in more than a decade as ice fishing makes a comeback after two difficult years.

For the six-week period between Nov. 28 and Jan. 13, anglers purchased 56,500 licenses from the Department of Natural Resources. That’s the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesotans are politically divided on a lot of issues, but clearly not when it comes to investing state lottery proceeds in the outdoors.

Voters set a record Nov. 5 in approving the ballot question extending dedication of lottery proceeds to the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. It sailed with 2,526,205 “yes” ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — An irregular but popular winter visitor is stirring the interest of Minnesota bird-watchers, wildlife specialists and even the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP).

Snowy owls, which typically migrate this time of year from the Canadian Arctic to the warmer climes of Minnesota and other parts of the northern U.S., ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Maybe you heard their barks and howls or have caught a glimpse of an Eastern coyote.

In Pittsburgh, it is surprising and usually fleeting to see this slim, dog-like creature with its scruffy brown and red coloring with no distinct markings. But be aware that they can be present at any time, even if you don't see them. Coyotes, ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Two winters ago, Minnesota’s frozen lakes were awash in so much slush that anglers needed hip boots to venture onto ice in search of walleyes, crappies and other fish.

Thanks to unseasonably warm weather, ice fishing was a bust last winter, too. Not just for anglers. But for the scores of Minnesota bait shop owners, sporting-...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — A startling increase in the prevalence of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in southeastern Minnesota’s deer population has triggered a new management response from the Department of Natural Resources that might surprise hunters.

Starting immediately, the agency will end its deployment of sharpshooters in all Driftless Area ...Read more

Fishermen baited a trap with fruit and dropped it into a river in southern India. When they hauled in their catch, they found a “large” river creature with “prominent” eyes.

It turned out to be a new species.

Scientists visited a river in Kerala in 2019 to search for black collared catfish with the help of local fishermen, according to...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — When Jimmy Carter returns to Plains, Ga., a final time after his state funeral in Washington on Jan. 9, America will bury not only a president, but the most dedicated and widely traveled angler ever to occupy the White House.

Carter, a Democrat who was president from 1977 to 1981, died at 100 on Dec. 29 in Plains.

Beginning ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Always an Arctic Cat lover, Tom Rowland, who owns Thomas Sno Sports in Ogilvie, Minn., with his wife, Renae, is still mulling the latest news from northwest Minnesota.

Textron Inc., owner of Arctic Cat of Thief River Falls since 2017, said recently it was indefinitely suspending production of its snowmobiles, ATVs and side-by-...Read more

BOISE, Idaho — For the past few years in Idaho, hunters, trappers and government officials have killed wolves in a variety of ways. One hunter hit a wolf with a snowmobile before shooting and killing it. Dozens of wolves had broken teeth, possibly from chewing the traps they were caught in.

But one particular state report struck wolf ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — For five months a year, venison from local hunters arrives each week in frozen, 5-pound tubes at Mission: Agape in White Oak, Pa., feeding over 1,200 families monthly.

Deer meat is welcome and necessary for the food pantry, which pays a premium for any meat.

The venison is courtesy of local hunters participating in the Hunters ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Whether it's helping to count 17,000 crows, 3,636 starlings or eight bald eagles in Pittsburgh like last year, the 125th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count needs you.

This annual census of the birds, the world's longest-running citizen science project, has been a long tradition nationally, with Pittsburgh records dating back to ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Selling bikes is interesting, but being in the woods in spring, gathering maple sap, is addictive, a distinction Mark and Melinda Spinler know well.

The Spinlers live about 7 miles outside of Grand Marais, the small town on the North Shore that was more quaint than trendy when the couple moved there in 1984.

Mountain biking ...Read more