Outdoors category, Page 6

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun scattering millions of packets of oral rabies vaccine from helicopters and planes over 13 states from Maine to Alabama. The major aim is to keep raccoons from spreading their strain of the deadly virus to states where it hasn’t been found or isn’t...

A small but vital trail link recently opened in Natrona to connect the community park with the Allegheny River shoreline. The strip of land — 10 feet wide and 100 feet long — provides a major impact. “It is critical,” said Bill Godfrey, president of the Natrona Comes Together advocacy...

Penn State Extension is hosting a meeting about the invasive and destructive spotted lanternfly in the region at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 22 at the lodge in North Park. Populations of the spotted lanternfly, the invasive plant hopper from Asia, have skyrocketed in Allegheny County: From Jan. 1 to July 11,...

An old railroad bridge spanning the Kiski River that kids double-dog dared each other to cross is now a critical link to hundreds of miles of hiking and cycling trails — and potential economic development. Armstrong County purchased the bridge, erected in 1899 over the Kiski River, and 14 miles...

Researchers from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh’s North Side are among a group of experts presenting new evidence to prevent the federal government from declaring the ivory-billed woodpecker as extinct. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is evaluating whether it will list the large, charismatic woodpecker that inhabits swampy bottomlands...

“What the hell is that?” three anglers asked as an official with the Roaring Run Watershed Association reeled in a creature swirling around in the Kiski River. It turned out to be an American eel. It’s a rare find in the river, said Gary Smith, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat...

Tarentum resident Jim Bonner, executive director of the local Audubon Society, has heard many bird stories. Over the years, he has fielded countless inquiries from the public to the Audubon Society of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s headquarters at Beechwood Farms in Fox Chapel. But there was something different about a recent call....

They’re here and there are lots of them. Reports of spotted lanternflies in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County are on the rise. According to the PA Department of Agriculture, as of July 11, there had been 2,944 reports of lanternflies from Allegheny County compared to 102 on the same date last...

Scaling North America’s tallest peak is difficult enough without temporarily losing a vital means of communication. “You’re on this rope, and you can’t talk to anybody because you have to be separated on the rope,” Julie Beall-McKelvey said. “In case one of you falls, you can’t be right next to...

The people involved in overseeing and maintaining Western Pennsylvania’s trail systems nearly all said that cooperation is key in keeping the trails clean, welcoming and open. Along the Five Star Trail that runs from Youngwood to Greensburg, chapter President Vaughn Neill is working with a few dozen volunteers on fence...

As walkers, hikers and bikers make their way onto the crushed limestone gravel of one of Western Pennsylvania’s many trail systems, it might not seem as though they are merging onto an economic highway. But if they’re stepping onto the Great Alle­gheny Passage — the trail between Pittsburgh’s Point State...

The largest grove of giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park remained closed Saturday, a day after hundreds of people were ordered to evacuate as a wildfire burning through dense forest became the latest to threaten the world’s largest trees. A team was being sent to the Mariposa Grove to wrap...

There’s no doubt that crossbows have grown in popularity when it comes to archery deer hunting in Pennsylvania, but by just how much may be a bit surprising. First allowed in the state’s special regulations areas, and also for use by individuals who had a disabled hunters permit, crossbows became...

The return of the American marten, a larger relative of the weasel and mink, will be up for consideration by the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners when it meets this weekend at the agency’s Harrisburg headquarters. The marten, a tree-climbing predator about 24 to 30 inches long, including the tail,...

Pittsburgh is one of the top cities for fishing in the U.S., according to a ranking prepared by ApartmentGuide.com, an online rental resource. The Three Rivers City came in at No. 9 in the top 10 ranking among all U.S. cities with populations of more than 50,000. For each city,...

(Editor’s note: Penn Township resident Robert Szypulski — a computer programmer with Windstream Communications — is a regular visitor to Yellowstone National Park and documented his most recent visit to the park’s northern range in April. In the wake of the historic flooding this month of the Yellowstone River and...

Growing up around Seattle, Ainsley Seago said she never saw a firefly until she visited Hershey as a teenager. These days, she watches in amusement as her 10-year-old son, Maxwell, enjoys catching lightning bugs and releasing them. “How can you not catch them?” asked Seago, associate curator of invertebrate zoology...

Fishing license and boat fee increases are up for consideration by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission in a special meeting Friday. The resident fishing license fee — the basic fee paid by most anglers — will climb from $21 per year to $23.50 if commissioners approve the new fees...

Youth groups will now be permitted to camp in Pittsburgh’s parks. Pittsburgh City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to allow youth organizations to obtain permits to camp in city parks. “I am going to continue to say that I hope we become independent of using organizations to use our parks,” Council...

Youngsters of the formerly endangered peregrine falcon are popping up at usual places like the Tarentum Bridge and an unexpected location — the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works. The peregrine falcon was removed from Pennsylvania’s endangered and threatened species list last year. In the 1970s, exposure to pesticides, especially DDT,...

Grab the fishing pole, pump up the bicycle tires, and knock the mud off your hiking boots. Hearty cyclists and hikers easily mix with novice trail walkers on hundreds of miles of trails and shorelines to be found across the region. Here are 10 of our favorites, worthy of a...

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Mt. Pleasant resident caught a record carp while fishing from the bank of Summersville Lake in West Virginia, regulators said. Ayden Minick caught and released the carp on May 7, the Division of Natural Resources said in a news release. It measured by a DNR...

BILLINGS, Mont. — President Joe Biden’s order to protect the nation’s oldest forests against climate change, wildfires and other problems devastating vast woodlands is raising a simple yet vexing question: When does a forest grow old? Millions of acres are potentially on the line — federal land that could eventually...

Heavy rains last weekend triggered a large landslide covering a 40-foot section of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail near the border of Buffalo and South Buffalo townships. The slide occurred about a mile from the trail’s Laneville entrance. The 21-mile recreational trail stretches from Freeport to Butler. “It’s a very big...