Olympic National Park said a decomposing gray whale washed ashore Friday morning north of Kalaloch Campground. That makes the 24th dead whale stranding in Oregon and Washington this year during the northbound migration. Continue Read More
National parks would be affected. The contingency plan for the National Park Service says to stop plowing roads. Given the current wintry weather, that would close Crater Lake and Mount Rainier National Parks in short order. Fort Clatsop would be likely to close too. Read More
An elusive carnivore in the weasel family is roaming free in Washington’s North Cascades for the first time in at least 70 years. Continue Reading Porcupines And Hares Beware! Weasel-Like Fishers Return To North CascadesRead More
The eye-catching scenes of mountain goats flying through the air under helicopters, riding in refrigerated trucks and taking ferries to new homes are done for the year. Roundups and relocations of non-native Olympic National Park goats will resume next year. Read More
Wildlife biologists have relocated the first two dozen of hundreds of non-native mountain goats slated for removal from Olympic National Park. The logistically-challenging capture and transfer of the woolly wild animals to the northern Cascade Range has been periodically slowed by weather this week. Read More
In 2005, when Gordon Hempton founded One Square Inch of Silence, he designated a spot, a few miles up the Hoh River Trail into the rain forest, the quietest place in the U.S. and marked it with a small, red stone. "In a place like this your auditory horizon isn't just 1 or 2 miles," he says. "You can hear everything that's happening in this valley. Read More
Mountain goats in the Olympic Mountains could soon be a thing of the past. The non-native goat population has rapidly grown over the past 14 years — to a point where it now could put hikers at risk and damage sensitive vegetation in the subalpine landscape. Read More
The National Park Service will increase entrance fees at 117 national parks by at least $5. The increases are far smaller than had previously been proposed by the Trump administration. Continue Reading National Park Service Read More
One of the most ideal places in the world to bring back gray wolves is right here in the Northwest, according to a new study. Researchers have found bringing the large carnivores back to the Olympic National Park could greatly help the ecosystem — and the predators. Read More
Olympic National Park is inching ahead on a plan to reduce or eliminate its population of non-native mountain goats. A draft plan released Monday for public comment includes options to relocate or kill the animals. Seven years ago, a large male mountain goat charged and fatally gored a hiker from Port Angeles, Washington. Rangers already have the… Read More