PITTSBURGH — They dove and snorkeled in the Mercer County portion of the Shenango River the second week of September to locate Pennsylvania's rarest endangered freshwater mussel: the round hickorynut.

They found two specimens — one live, one dead — of the plain-looking mussel species, which is round and the size of a golf ball.

"The fact...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — For duck hunters and their dogs, the first day of the season is the best time of year.

That’s because the chance to pull on waders and slog through wetlands and shallow lakes in the still-dark of early morning is an experience like few others.

Coffee is part of these good times, cup after cup, that and setting decoys, hiding ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — States like Wisconsin, Michigan and Maine have been issuing eating advisories relating to contaminants in wild game, but Minnesota — where similar results have been found — has not.

While the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) provides guidelines for eating fish, it doesn’t have enough resources to consider other game.

...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s wildlife agency took in more than 160,000 requests to participate in its upcoming black bear hunt, the state’s first in a decade, but many appear to have been submitted by conservationists who plan to sit out the event.

With the hunt capped at 172 animals, an application’s chance of winning a tag to bag a bear ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesotans chasing a cavalcade of seasonal colors often parade at this time of year from the Twin Cities to Duluth and from there farther north along the Lake Superior shoreline. Alternatively they divert at Moose Lake or Cloquet and angle toward Grand Rapids or perhaps continue to Ely or International Falls.

What’s missed in...Read more

DENVER — The two elk hunters found dead last week in southern Colorado were killed by lightning, according to the Conejos County coroner.

Andrew Porter, 25, of Asheville, N.C., and Ian Stasko, 25, of Salt Lake City, went missing on a hunting trip near the Colorado-New Mexico border in the Rio Grande National Forest. They were last heard from ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Geoff Smith, a biologist with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), unfurled a weighted seine and plunged it into the water last Monday at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge.

Smith and two other PFBC scientists dragged the net through the shallows of the Heinz impoundment, a sprawling wetland in Philly fed by Darby...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Carson Wentz might be the only quarterback in the NFL who tosses a football with his right arm but shoots a bow with his left.

Granted, very few archers sling a football for a living.

But the right-arm, left-arm switcheroo is a head-scratcher nevertheless, and prompts a question: Is the recently acquired Vikings backup ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Birds descend from the sky at dawn to take a break after their red-eye flight migrating south.

Where do they get breakfast and other meals to refuel for their journeys south, with some flying thousands of miles to reach their wintering grounds in South America?

During fall migration, Hays Woods, Pittsburgh's newest park, hosts ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Autumn doesn’t officially start until Sept. 22, but it already looks like the beginning of fall in parts of northern Minnesota.

The U.S. Forest Service’s regional fall color report last week singled out the Chippewa National Forest, where it said the transition already is striking: “Trees show hints of yellow, orange and ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The number of Minnesota pheasants counted in a recently completed August roadside survey jumped nearly 50% from the tally recorded last year, coming in 21% above the 10-year average, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Steven Woodley, acting DNR upland game research scientist, said all regions of the pheasant range...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Ron Schara was hired by the Minneapolis Tribune in 1967 to pen that newspaper’s outdoors column. He was making $6,000 a year writing for the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department, and the Tribune offered him twice that amount.

“I took it,” Schara said. “Part of my interview was over lunch with the sports editor, ...Read more

Giving new meaning to the fishing term “catch and release,” a Tennessee angler reeled in something bat shaped that proved to be an undetonated explosive from World War II, officials say.

It happened Wednesday, Aug. 27, and resulted in an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) team being dispatched to the Sequoyah Hills boat ramp in Knoxville, ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — “We stand guard over works of art, but species representing the work of aeons are stolen from under our noses.” — Aldo Leopold

That early teal and over-water goose hunting seasons will be offered beginning Sept. 6 by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, followed by a Youth Waterfowl Weekend, is evidence of just ...Read more

DENVER — When I first started fly-fishing in Colorado four summers ago, I quickly learned that not all outfitters and guide services are set up for every angler — or any female anglers at all.

Sometimes, that meant tripping over borrowed men’s waders that were three sizes too large, or face-planting in the Eagle River because the ...Read more