WEST END NEIGHBOR: Rainforest Arts Center celebration in Forks
WEST END NEIGHBOR: Rainforest Arts Center celebration in Forks

PAT NEAL: In loving memory: Goin’s gone fishing

SEEN ANY GOOD movies lately? I did. It’s a love story where boy meets girl and then boy goes fishing. “The Memory of Fish” tells… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: The best April Fools’ joke ever

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY must be my favorite holiday. It’s on April 1, which makes it easy to remember. As we get ready for the big… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Wheels spin on replenishing our salmon

IT WAS ANOTHER tough week in the news for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Fund. It’s a federal grant program that funds what is known as… Continue reading

POINT OF VIEW: Congress should step up for rural communities

POINT OF VIEW: Congress should step up for rural communities

FOR NORTH OLYMPIC Peninsula residents, severe storms aren’t a nasty surprise. They’re a fact of life. Our roads take a beating every year, and our… Continue reading

POINT OF VIEW: Congress should step up for rural communities
POINT OF VIEW: The Peninsula’s dental health emergency

POINT OF VIEW: The Peninsula’s dental health emergency

ACROSS THE STATE and in the North Olympic Peninsula, low-income people are facing an oral health crisis. Simply put, there are not enough clinics and… Continue reading

POINT OF VIEW: The Peninsula’s dental health emergency

PAT NEAL: Biologists are OK after all

I THOUGHT IT would be fun to attend a meeting of some fisheries biologists with fishing folks at the Puget Sound Anglers Club in the… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Winter wanes as new chapters open

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Winter wanes as new chapters open

WASN’T THE SUN a beautiful sight Sunday afternoon? The northern part of the West End on the Makah reservation seemed to embrace the relative warmth… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Winter wanes as new chapters open

PAT NEAL: Oh, for the good old days on the Elwha River

IT’S ALWAYS SAD to read about the loss of an old friend. I prefer to remember the good times. Picture a little campfire along a… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: By chance, spared the savage sea

SOME SAY THERE is no such thing as a coincidence. They say it’s luck, fate or God working in some mysterious way. Coincidence becomes legend… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: The seeds of our fishless halibut fishery

IT WAS ANOTHER tough week in the news for the diminishing breed of fishing-license buyers who insist on fishing in Washington. Oregon has a halibut… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Will the Sasquatch ascend the cryptid throne?

IT MUST HAVE been a slow day at the Legislature. Somebody cracked open the Oxford English Dictionary and found the word “cryptid.” According to the… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Don’t get suckered in by sunshine

IT WAS DAYLIGHT on the river. Something had gone terribly wrong. Maybe it was just the old guide instincts kicking in, but it seemed like… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Cabin fever cure, the alternative

IT’S OFFICIAL. THE cabin-fever season has officially attacked the North Olympic Peninsula in a vise-like grip that shows no sign of weakening in the foreseeable… Continue reading

POINT OF VIEW: A challenging voice among voices

I HAVE TAKEN an internal Hippocratic oath of choir participation: At first, do no harm. The best way to proceed would be quietly, preferably very… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Stretching a hand from Forks to India

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Stretching a hand from Forks to India

SOME PEOPLE TEACH and find ways to learn no matter where they go, even if it’s the eastern shore of India. Diane Cowles is the… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Stretching a hand from Forks to India

FROM A WRITER’S NOTEBOOK: Serenity in accepting things as they are

AT FIRST, IT just felt like a crazy new year. It took me awhile to realize it is something else, too. Demi pointe: supporting your… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: A saga of mice and me

I CONSIDER MYSELF a humane person. I brake for crows. I swerve to miss squirrels who employ the practice of using automobiles to crush spruce… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Steelhead fishing’s last bastion gasping

I KNEW IT was the end when a low-holing, fly-flogging fishing guide floated past on the river and said, “We’re going to get rid of… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Leave your garbage-bag rain gear at home

THE RECENT MARTIN Luther King Jr. holiday is a three-day weekend that traditionally marks the peak of the winter steelhead season on the North Olympic… Continue reading