Articles written by brad trumbo
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 53
Marvin's Time
Shaking hands across the table, I immediately pegged Marvin Shutters as Pennsylvania Amishman. His thick gray beard and high cheekbones were a dead giveaway. It's risky diving into your potential...
Palouse Outdoors: A New Day for Grasslands Conservation
The early golden hour bathed the landscape in a peachy hue as the setters and I stood by the truck. It was somewhere around day number 200 that I had set foot on the grasslands between Waitsburg and...
Bugs Shots to Enhance Photography
Outdoor photography goes far beyond birds and mammals, even for this hunter who loves nothing more than trying to capture that perfect pairing of upland birds and pointing dogs on the grasslands. We...
Palouse Outdoors: The Ebb and Flow
The old cliché "The only thing constant in life is change" was coined by Greek philosopher Heraclitus. This epiphany struck him around 500 B.C. I assume taxes were not a thing at the time,...
Beware of Algae for Summer Swimming Safety
The dog days are close at hand, and with a record heatwave happening as we speak, what better way to beat the heat than to head down to your favorite swimming hole with "Rover" in tow. Few things are...
The June Hogs of the Columbia Basin
Our jet sled bobbed near the infamous "Buoy 10" in the mouth of the Columbia River. It was a stormy September afternoon with angry Pacific surf bullying its wave action far upriver. Coho were the targ...
Bluegill Beginnings
Picture a portly, toe-headed boy standing along the muddy shoreline of a farm pond as the sinking summer sun casts a warm amber glow across the water. He wore pastel yellow jogging shorts and a Mr. T...
Carving out a Memory
Honestly, I have no legitimate excuse for not having returned. The experience still calls like a siren song playing softly in the background. Snow-capped peaks and glaciers. Expansive vistas of low-co...
Honoring the Hinchliff Conservation Legacy
In 1992, ten years after Pheasants Forever came to fruition in Saint Paul, MN, Walla Walla’s Blue Mountain chapter (BMPF) held its first fundraising banquet. Among those responsible for its success were John and Bertha Hinchliff of Dayton, WA. Upon m...
Short-eared Owls of the Plains
Glimpses of white flashed through the heavy sagebrush as Finn dashed across the scablands. Hungarian partridge and valley quail hunkered somewhere among the sage sea, and she was working her best to...
Winter hiking beats the blues
Now in the heart of winter in the Blue Mountains, the days are short and wet in the wheat country and snowy in the higher timber. Aside from the usual chores neglected over autumn and the holiday...
Washington State imposes new emergency coastal steelhead fishery regs
Recent declines in salmon and steelhead survival across the Pacific Basin have been documented since approximately 2013 and affecting all stocks in dammed and undammed systems. An ocean "dead zone,"...
Pa'tridge in a Fir Tree
With the holidays upon us, the sights and sounds of Christmas surround the Waitsburg community. From glittering street decorations to themed music taking over our favorite radio stations, the magic...
Fresh Snow, Blaze Orange and opening day roosters
Turning down Lewis Gulch, I spied a beautiful draw curling into the wheat fields, free of human track. A sight for sore eyes on the eastern Washington pheasant opener. Whipping the Tundra to the...
WDFW takes an important step in post-fire habitat recovery
In September, wildfires that tortured the Pacific Northwest did a number on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's (WDFW) Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area (Swanson Lakes), located about 10 miles...
Pheasants Forever cooperates with local growers to preserve sagebrush habitat and wildlife guzzlers
Blue Mountain Pheasants Forever (Pheasants Forever) recently teamed with Mike and Steve Erwin to relocate two wildlife watering guzzlers on their 1,000-acre lease with an expiring Conservation...
Restoring an Heirloom
I don't know when Dad purchased the gun or from whom or where, but one of its few outings captured on film was in 1977. My brother was a toddler and dad had hunted a gray squirrel on his parent's farm...
Tenkara Angling for Snake River Smallmouth
Since discovering tenkara fly-fishing a few years ago, I don't travel much without a tenkara rod. Tenkara rods are telescopic, collapsing down to about eighteen inches and only require a fly line,...
Wilderness Hues
Climbing the mountainside, the temperature began to drop with the elevation gain. A welcomed change from the 90-plus degree heat in the Walla Walla Valley. In the truck bed lay my frame pack, stuffed...
Phantom of the Uplands
I must admit I am my mother's son, and apparently that of her mother as well. Both enjoy collecting beautiful things to display, as well as saving practical materials that may be of use at some...
Celebrating our Native Mason Bees
Early morning strolls through the summer garden at our little McKay Alto homestead can only be described as an angelic wakeup call. The capacious songbird melody wafts on a gentle breeze as the...
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife revising game management regulations
On February 6th, The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) opened the public comment period on proposals to update regulations for a variety of game hunting opportunities, as well as the proposed 2020 hunting seasons. Among the...
Winter Birding Brings Nature to All
Growing up a hunter, my mother and I agreed rarely in our views of humans interacting with our ecosystem, save for our thoughts on habitat conservation and a deep appreciation for nature's beauty and...
Just Follow the Dog
A hint of the long shadows of evening began to cast across the rolling wheat stubble and amber bunchgrass. A solid cloud of gray dust billowed from behind my old green Ford rolling down the...
Thankful for the opportunity
The month of November is a special month. Not only because it's like an extension of October in the Walla Walla Valley, or that the late season big game hunts are open. Rather, November offers a time...