>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Observer news Yellow Pages NE Oregon Classifieds Web
web powered by Web Search Powered by Google

Today's front page

Image of The Observer's Front Page

Get home delivery of The Observer for only $8.50 a month by clicking here. After filling out one simple and secure online form you could be on your way to learning more about your city, state and world than you ever have before.

Home arrow Features arrow Outdoors

Action heats up at birdwatching paradise

Read more...
It is certain that more sandhill cranes will be appearing at Ladd Marsh. Presently about two pairs are there, but within the next few weeks many more will arrive. Ladd Marsh often has 50 to 100 sandhill cranes in the spring, many of which can easily be seen at the Tule Lake Nature Area. - Photo/JIM WARD
Pronghorn antelope have not raced across the Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area for at least a month.

Still, the hearts of excited wildlife viewers are zooming to rates of at least 120 beats a minute following the annual opening of Ladd Marsh’s Tule Lake Nature Area.

 

Nordic skiers take a liking to Meacham Divide

Read more...
Skiers glide along a portion of the 25 kilometers of trails at the Meacham Divide Ski Area. - Submitted photos
It has been a good winter for the Meacham Divide Ski Area.

So good that even a jackknifed semi truck on Interstate 84 could not keep the cross country skiing center from setting a record pace.

To date, 524 skiers have come to Meacham Divide. That’s 84 percent more than the number that had visited the area by this time year ago, when totals were first kept. This year’s total may be the highest in Meacham Divide’s 10-year history.

 

Union County Christmas Bird Count yields 13,510 sightings; 7 records set

Read more...
EUROPEAN STARLING: Starlings, numbering 3,364, were viewed during the Dec. 15 count. - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photos/LEE KARNEY
Soon it will be official in the eyes of the National Audubon Society.

The Union County birding record book will be rewritten.

The reason? The success of the 32nd annual Union County Christmas Bird Count, the results of which be submitted to the National Audubon Society next week.

Seven records were set and one tied during the count.

 

Break out binoculars for the Great Backyard Bird Count

Read more...
Sage grouse - Photo/Ted Schroeder
No backyard?

No problem.

No problem if you want to participate in the 11th annual Great Backyard Bird Count.

 

Draft plan for Ladd Marsh includes habitat enhancement

Kevin Costner visited Union County in the summer of 1990, but it is not known if the popular actor stopped at the Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area.

Still, a line from Costner’s 1989 hit movie, “Field of Dreams,” is being used informally by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to describe its draft plan for the Ladd Marsh’s next 10 years — “Build it and they will come.’’

The ODFW plan calls for the maintenance and enhancement of the marsh’s diversified wildlife habitat. This will attract even more wildlife to the marsh.

 

Where's Dennis?

Read more...
Dennis had come to the Anthony Creek feeding site of the Elkhorn Wildlife Area since at least 2000. The Rocky Mountain bull elk has not been seen this winter. - Submitted photos
The question is asked with increasing frequency by people visiting the Elkhorn Wildlife Viewing Area.

Where is Dennis?

Dennis is a six-point bull elk that has visited the Elkhorn Wildlife Viewing Area's Anthony Creek feeding site regularly for at least eight years.

 

Lostine wildlife area - where bighorn roam

Read more...
Photo/JIM WARD
LOSTINE — In the early 1900s, Northeast Oregon's Wallowa County was up to its mountain tops in wool. In a land containing fewer than 6,000 people, more than a quarter-million sheep grazed the foothills, basins, and ridges of the high country. And soon after the mountain home of the native bighorn sheep became pastures for their domesticated cousins, the wild sheep began dying.

Hunting, poaching, disease, and overgrazing — these were the bighorn's killers, and in 1927 the Enterprise Record Chieftain reported that Wallowa County contained the last wild sheep in Oregon.

 

Cabin takes chill off winter

Read more...
Members of the La Grande Sno-Drifters assemble their club's new log cabin in October. Those working, left to right, are Mitch Williams, Nick Milner and Scott Wilde. - Photo/GREG BLACKMAN
You do not need a key, money or even a reservation to enter this new forest cabin.

Snowmobiles, cross country skis and snowshoes instead are your passes.

 

Elk hunt of a lifetime

Read more...
Todd Erickson, left, of McMinnville took this elk in north Wallowa County in November. The bull's green score of 398 for non-typical antlers means it might be the third best in state history in its category. Erickson is shown with his son T.J., who accompanied him on the hunt. - Photo/JON WICK
Elk hunter Todd Erickson felt exhaustion in every ounce of his body as he crawled into his sleeping bag at 1 a.m. one day last month in north Wallowa County.

Erickson had reason to be drained. The McMinnville man had just completed two climbs — one up a steep canyon and another up the all-time state elk hunting list.

 

Of dams and dynamite

Read more...
This is how one of the buildings that was part of the old Union fish hatchery complex looked when the facility was operating from the early 1920s to 1937 - Photo courtesy of Jerry Gildemeister and from the Dick Bonney collection
The buildings stand quietly and inauspiciously today east of Union on Highway 203, housing Oregon State Parks equipment and facilities.

No obvious evidence exists indicating that the structures were once linked to a violent chapter in Union's history.

The tale begins in the early 1920s when the buildings were constructed for a new state fish hatchery. Trout were raised there and then stocked in area streams and high mountain lakes in the Wallowas.

 
<< Start < Previous page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next page > End >>

Results 61 - 75 of 355
News
Local / Sports / Business / State / National / Obituaries / Public Notices
Opinion
Editorials / Letters / Guest Columns / Columnists
Features
Outdoors / Ag / Spiritual / Go Magazine / Portraits
Classifieds
View all classifieds / Jobs / Autos / Real Estate / Rentals / Place an Ad
The Observer
About / Contact / Commercial Printing / Subscriptions / Terms of Use / Site Map
Also Online
Photo Reprints / Slideshows / Weather and Valley Cam / /index.php?option=com_rss&feed=RSS2.0&no_html=1">RSS Feed ?> RSS Feed

Follow La Grande Observer headlines on Follow La Grande Observer headlines on Twitter

© Copyright 2001 - 2009 Western Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. By Using this site you agree to our Terms of Use

LaGrandeObserver.com works best with the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Apple Safari