Hurricane Ridge Road remains closed through at least noon today as the park continues dealing with a slow rockfall onto the road.

"The amount of rocks falling into the road decreased today, and our crew has begun improvements to the existing rock berm at the base of the rockfall chute," said Sue McGill, Olympic National Park deputy superintendent, said Tuesday in a news release. "Staff will continue to closely monitor the situation and hope to complete improvements to the berm early (today). If all goes as planned, we hope to be able to open the road sometime (this) afternoon."

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Hurricane Ridge Road is closed today because of a slow but continuous rockfall onto the road,Olympic National Park officials said. If necessary, the road may remain closed longer, but park staff are currently assessing the situation and studying alternatives for reopening the road as soon as it is safe to do so.

“With a steady stream of gravel mixed with large rocks rolling and bouncing onto the road, safety concerns dictate this temporary closure,” said Sue McGill, deputy park superintendent, in a news release.

The slide, which followed a winter avalanche chute, is located just

above the

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The state Fish and Wildlife Commission is schedule to interview Wednesday and Thursday candidates for the department director position.

There are six candidates being interviewed. The candidate names and personal information are confidential, according to a commission spokeswoman.



The six were recommended by the state Department of Personnel as the top qualifiers based on the job recruitment announcement and job description approved by the commission a few months ago.

According to the notice from the commission’s office, the public is not permitted to attend the interviews, which will be conducted during executive

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The Idaho Fish and Game Commission met earlier today and set harvest limits for that state’s first public wolf hunting season to begin later this fall.

I know a lot of South Sound residents like to hunt in Idaho, so I thought I would pass along the news release that was just sent out:

Fish and Game models indicate Idaho now has at least 1,000 wolves. The population increases at a rate of about 20 percent a year, without hunting.

The commissioners adopted a strategy that would help meet the state’s wolf population objective, as outlined in

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Two Webcams have been set up to monitor the Langille Fire on the Cowlitz Ranger District in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Click here to see the images.

Camera 1 is located 7 miles north of the Langille Fire. Camera 2 is located 2 ½ miles to the southwest of the fire.

According to the Web site, the cameras let fire managers keep an eye on strategic areas that are difficult to access by foot and expensive to monitor by helicopter. Managers can pan/tilt/zoom the cameras to look closely at features of interest.

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Well, the new record single-day steelhead tally at Bonneville Dam didn’t last long.

In fact, we’ve seen records set on three consecutive days this week, according to the state’s Joe Hymer. He said 34,054 fish were counted at Bonneville Dam Thursday, topping record counts set Tuesday and Wednesday. The previous record before this week was 14,432 fish on Aug. 3, 2001.

The count on Wednesday was 28,314 steelhead and 18,671 on Tuesday.

The pre-season forecast was 352,000 upriver summer run steelhead.

He also said the first pink of the season was counted on Thursday.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is stepping up enforcement patrols and considering additional restrictions in the Strait of Juan de Fuca after discovering numerous anglers have breaking regulations designed to protect wild salmon.

Fishing for chinook in marine areas 5 (Sekiu) and 6 (eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca) closed Aug. 7. However, state fish samplers and enforcement officers have encountered dozens of anglers with chinook, said Pat Pattillo, salmon policy coordinator for the department.

“We closed chinook retention in marine areas 5 and 6 early to avoid further impacts to wild chinook salmon,”

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I had the incorrect date for the astronomy program at Mount Rainier. Ranger Mike Punches will give his presentation at 9 p.m. Friday, followed by viewing through telescopes provided by members of the Tacoma Astronomical Society.

Here is a corrected version of the story:

Friday will be a night of celestial treats, if the weather cooperates, and Mount Rainier National Park will be one of the best places to be.

The evening will begin with the program "Stargazing at Paradise." Ranger Michael Punches will start with a 30-minute presentation in the lobby of the Paradise Inn at

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