Vol. I  ·  No. 13
Thursday, September 24, 2026
76 stories in the archive

Front page › Sources

Where this paper gets its information

51 primary sources and 45 secondary, by beat

Sources to work each beat from. Every URL here was checked. Primary sources are agencies and organisers who publish the underlying fact; secondary sources are trade press worth reading but never worth citing alone. A story built only on secondary sources is a story worth holding. State wildlife agency feeds are listed where they exist: of 24 agencies probed, six publish parseable RSS. The rest either publish no feed or refuse automated requests, and have to be read by hand.

Primary

InciWeb

Interagency incident system. Narrative updates written by the agency managing the fire, plus maps and closure notices. Has an RSS feed.

Cal Fire incidents

California incident pages with acreage, containment and evacuation status.

Forest Service alerts

Entry point to per-forest alert pages. The forest order is the legal authority; every other account is a summary of it.

Pacific Crest Trail Association

Crowdsourced conditions plus the official closures page.

Green Mountain Club

Long Trail and the Vermont A.T. Shelter and bridge work nobody else reports.

Pacific Northwest Trail Association

Also maintains a good list of regional fire coordination centres.

InciWeb RSS

Every active federal incident as a feed, with the state in the description. The only way to notice a fire nobody is covering.

NIFC interagency perimeters

Live perimeter polygons with acreage, containment and personnel. Public domain; fetch_federal.py draws our maps from it.

Primary

Montana FWP, via Daily Montanan

Covers hoot-owl restrictions river by river as they are issued and lifted.

CDFW Marine Management News

Where California ocean salmon season changes are announced first.

Pacific Fishery Management Council

Sets West Coast ocean salmon seasons. Meeting decisions precede the state announcements.

NOAA Fisheries West Coast

Approves the council's recommendations; useful for the reasoning behind a closure.

Michigan DNR newsroom

Fisheries orders take effect on dates that do not appear in the printed regulations.

MassWildlife stocking report

Updated daily through the stocking window.

Maine IFW fishing report

Written by regional biologists. Better regional reading than most magazines.

NOAA Fisheries in the Federal Register

Quota changes, catch sharing plans and season rules appear here before any state announcement.

WDFW emergency fishing rules (RSS)

In-season rule changes river by river, as they are issued. The single most useful state feed on any beat; watch_federal.py reads it.

CDFW marine management (RSS)

Ocean salmon and groundfish in-season changes. WordPress, so the feed is reliable.

Primary

Colorado Parks and Wildlife, CWD

Hunt-code-level testing requirements.

Idaho Fish and Game

Publishes a season outlook that names the units that changed.

Montana FWP

Commission sets two years of regulations at a time; the changes are where the stories are.

Washington WDFW

CWD in the 100-series units.

Delaware DNREC newsroom

First detection states move by emergency regulation, which is fast and easy to miss.

US Fish and Wildlife Service

Listing decisions, grizzly rules, comment periods.

Federal Register

The proposed rule itself, ahead of anyone's summary of it.

WDFW newsroom (RSS)

Seasons, surveys and enforcement.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife (RSS)

Season openers and rule changes for the Northeast.

New Mexico Game and Fish (RSS)

Draws, seasons, prescribed burn notices affecting hunt units.

Arizona Game and Fish (RSS)

Southwest seasons and conditions.

Primary

National Park Service newsroom

Fee schedules, closures, incident statements.

NPS fee-free days

The list changes year to year, quietly.

Bureau of Land Management

More acreage than the Park Service and a fraction of the coverage.

Federal Register

Fee proposals, rule changes, comment deadlines.

NEEF, National Public Lands Day

Coordinates the volunteer programme.

Federal Register API

Free, no key, JSON. Exposes comments_close_on, which is how you catch a deadline before it passes. watch_federal.py queries it.

Primary

Recreation.gov

Booking rules, cancellation policy, and the transaction fee that is not a camping fee.

Forest Service regional newsrooms

Fee proposals run per forest with a named recreation officer and a comment deadline.

Tahoe Rim Trail Association

Campground and dispersed-camping rules on the east shore.

Primary

CPSC recalls

Grill and griddle recalls. Searchable, authoritative, and almost never covered until someone gets hurt.

Traeger newsroom

Public company, so product launches come with filings and dates.

Primary

CPSC recalls

Stoves, knives, lithium batteries, coolers. The most under-covered outdoor beat there is.

ATF and the Federal Register

For anything firearms-regulatory. Read the rule, not the headline.

Outdoor Retailer

Show dates, exhibitor lists, Innovation Awards.

BLADE Magazine

Runs the Knife of the Year awards; the results are the industry's own verdict.

Primary

Overland Expo Compass

Show recaps, debut lists, DIY Showcase builds.

Off-Road Business Association

SEMA subsidiary doing the lobbying that keeps trails open.

Primary

Hyundai newsroom

Where the Boulder concept and the body-on-frame platform were announced.

Manufacturer newsrooms

Trim, price and availability changes come from the manufacturer first. Everything else is a rewrite.

avoid A large volume of Kia Tasman and other pickup content is content-farm output: recycled phrasing across many domains, confident US pricing with no manufacturer statement, no automotive-press confirmation. Do not file from it. If a truck is coming to the United States, the manufacturer newsroom will say so.

Primary

History, Alone

Season pages, episode listings, air dates.

SBS

Alone Australia announcements and cast.