From OAR Northwest:

Ocean adventure rowing and adventure education organization, OAR Northwest,is pleased to announce a title sponsorship agreement with the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF).
CWF’s presence will be immediately felt and recognized as they come aboard for the next two ocean rowingexpeditions: a 750-mile circumnavigation of Vancouver Island (April 2012), and later for the December 2012trans-Atlantic expedition. Both will connect the ocean rowing craft to classrooms and communities in Liberia,Venezuela, and the Pacific Northwest.

CWF will be integral to OAR Northwest expeditions and programming, facilitating financing andorganizational support toward outfitting “the world’s most technologically advanced rowboat.”
OAR

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A series of meetings to discuss salmon runs and fishing seasons will begin Feb. 28 with the release of salmon forecasts for the state.

The meetings, part of the North of Falcon process, will conclude April 1-6 when the Pacific Fishery Management Council meets in Seattle to adopts ocean fisheries regulations and state-tribal fishing plans.

At the Feb. 28 meeting, staffers from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife will release Puget Sound, coastal Washington and Columbia River salmon forecasts. They also will discuss fishery management objectives and 2012 recreational fishing opportunities.

That meeting will be 9 a.m.-3 p.m. in …

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Single? Love might be waiting for you on a chairlift in Oregon.

Mount Hood Meadows is hosting its annual  “Chairway 2 Heaven” – speed dating on its Blue chairlift this Sunday.

The lift will have two “singles” lines, one for women and one for men. People from each line will be randomly paired for a lift ride. When the ride continues at the top of the hill, the couple decide if they want to continue skiing together or hop back in line for another speed date.

The event is from noon to 4 p.m. and is free for those who have …

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Former Tacoma resident Ashley Wagner finished second in voting for the U.S. Olympic Committee’s female athlete of the month award, the USOC announced this morning.

Wagner, 20, recently won the U.S. National Figure Skating Championship.

Wagner, now living in Virginia, finished second to U.S. soccer player Abby Wambach for the USOC’s January honor. Snowboarder Shaun White won the men’s award and the U.S. women’s soccer team won the team award.

Wagner spoke with The News Tribune during the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, where she narrowly missed a spot on the Winter Olympic team.

“I come home to …

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Alpental ski area on Snoqualmie Pass will unveil its new two-story David Pettigrew Mountain Safety and Education Center on Saturday afternoon. The 30-minute ceremony will start at 2 p.m. with a tour to follow.

The mid-mountain center will serve as a meeting place for mountain safety and avalanche courses and as an additional ski patrol outpost and dispatch center.

The center is named in honor of David Pettigrew, a long-time snowboarder who died in a snowboarding accident at Alpental in 2005.

“The new structure will meet a growing need for additional meeting space to host a series of popular, free …

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Olympic National Park superintendent Karen Gustin plans to retire March 2. Gustin has been the superintendent at Olympic since 2008.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed working at Olympic National Park,” she said in a prepared statement. “The staff is a great group of people to work with, as are the communities of the Olympic Peninsula.  The community support and our park neighbors have been wonderful here.”

In Gustin’s time at Olympic, the park started the removal of the Elwha River dam, the nationa;s largest dam removal. The project is scheduled to be complete in September 2014. The park has also started …

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Josh Dueck, a 31-year-old member of the Canadian Para-Alpine Ski Team and a 2010 Paralympic silver medalist, became the first person to complete a back flip on a sit ski on Feb. 3 in Whistler, B.C.

Dueck broke his back in 2004 when he overshot a jump. His injuries resulted in the loss of use of both of his legs.

The state is pulling the plug on a hatchery steelhead program at Snider Creek next year to establish a wild steelhead management zone in the Sol Duc River.

After next spring, no hatchery steelhead will be released into the Sol Duc River, said the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. Snider Creek is a tributary to the Sol Duc River near Forks.

The Sol Duc will be the first wild steelhead management zone formally established in the state under the department’s statewide steelhead management plan, said Ron Warren, regional fish program manager.

Wild management zones, also known as wild …

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