The Wilderness Sportsman

Link

Plum Creek Timber Co. officials believe the Government Accountability Office is mistaken in questioning the company’s right to turn hundreds of miles of forest roads into forest home driveways.

Link

The aptly named “Big Pine” is the largest known ponderosa pine in Montana and third-largest in the United States. Its surprisingly unblemished red-orange skin belies its age, which would be roughly 100 years older than George Washington if he were not dead.

Link

“When we got there, they had both been eating on it. We scared them off, but they kept circling us. They didn’t want to leave,” said Kline, who owns the land where the two were hunting along the Artichoke River, about 25 miles northwest of Duluth.

Link

Now researchers are trying to determine why people are staying away from the prized public playgrounds, including the nearby Mount Hood, Gifford Pinchot and Deschutes national forests. Their ideas include high gas prices, rising visitor fees, youths glued to television and video games and a busy, urban society with little time for outdoor pursuits.

Link

The Day Fire raged for more than a month and cost more than $78 million to suppress. It injured 18 people, destroyed 11 structures and was the fifth-largest fire in California’s history, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Tsk, tsk. Obama needs to come in and take control of this mess.

Link

In the face of competing rulings from federal judges hearing lawsuits over snowmobile use, park officials now say they will allow 720 snowmobiles a day.