By Tuesday, the cabin burglar's life on the lam came to an end, done in by an educated guess by searchers who had grown to know his tendencies, the tracks he left with his snowshoes and the sounds of him chopping wood outside a cabin near a mountain reservoir.

For the first time, federal biologists are assessing whether illegal marijuana gardens in the back woods of the West could threaten the extinction of a wild animal.

As exploding targets become more popular they are more often linked to wildfires. The devices have been blamed for starting at least two dozen fires across the West last summer.

The 4-month-old bear nicknamed "Boo Boo" was discovered by a fisherman in a tree along the Salmon River in August days after the 312-square-mile Mustang wildfire complex passed through the area.

A study of mountain streams in the West over the past 60 years finds the hottest temperatures of summer and the lowest water levels of fall are converging — which is bad news for salmon.

Fire crews continued to work on containing a 1,200-acre fire burning in rugged terrain near the Columbia River Gorge as high temperatures and increasing winds pushed smoke from the fire towards the Portland metro area on Friday.