BROOKINGS — Chinook salmon anglers will be on the Chetco River for the first time — though not for long — beginning today after rains washed away a persistent emergency fishing closure there.

Continued low-water conditions on Southern Oregon's Chetco River likely will mean that an emergency closure will remain in effect through the weekend to protect wild fall chinook salmon from too much fishing pressure.

PROSPECT — The weatherman is bringing good news, but not great news, for Saturday's start of the general bull-elk season.

LAKE CREEK — The blacktail-rich hills around this central Jackson County outpost are normally so crackling dry for the opening of the buck-deer season that rifle hunters say they don't eat their Cornflakes for breakfast ... they walk on them.

GRANTS PASS — Derrick Stevenson has learned much about how to catch chinook salmon this past month during his quest to capture one of the Rogue River's grand denizens before the legally blind man completely loses his sight.

Health authorities expect to learn this week whether two of four dogs that died recently after swimming in algae-laced water in the Umpqua River basin are Oregon's first pets confirmed to have died from algae-induced toxins.

Diamond Lake will continue to be stocked with up to 400,000 fingerling trout in late spring or early summer under a new plan for long-term management of the lake in its post-tui chub era.

Archers and shotgunners are shaking off forecasts of hot weather as they prep for the long-awaited openings of their seasons, which usher in the unofficial start of fall hunting in Oregon.

MERLIN — Ten cotton balls and some smooth handiwork by wildlife rehabilitators sent a young osprey to freedom Wednesday.

Thirteen turned into a lucky number for Oregon waterfowl hunters, who are seeing their record run at long duck seasons continue at least one more year.