Before moving forward, it's a good time to take a look back.

Byline: INSIDE THE OUTDOORS By Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Backtracking is a valuable outdoors skill, so let's practice by revisiting people and issues that have been the subject of past Outdoors page articles:

Feral cats: A couple of months ago, this space contained an item about an unusual proposal in Wisconsin regarding wayward cats. The proposal to allow licensed hunters to shoot feral cats - considered an invasive species that kills songbirds and other wildlife - was approved by 57 percent of the voters attending statewide meetings of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. However, the group decided to drop the proposal after Gov. Jim Doyle said the plan was making the state "a laughingstock."

Fish pain: The anti-angling campaign launched by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - and the group's claim that fish feel pain - has been the subject of several column items in the past.

PETA's latest move is the launching of an advertising campaign utilizing billboards in popular fishing "hot spots" around the United States. The billboard shows a dog with a fishhook impaled in its lip, alongside the text:

"If you wouldn't do this to a dog, why do it to a fish?"

The billboard then steers viewers to a PETA Web site, FishingHurts.com. In addition to a laundry list of anti-angling material, the site includes a link to a "free vegetarian starter kit."

Fishing payin': The northern pikeminnow reward fishery is back for its 15th season on the lower Columbia and Snake rivers. Actually, the program funded by the Bonneville Power Administration was originally called the "Squawfish Reward Program," but that term was deemed politically insensitive.

The program pays a bounty to anglers who catch and turn in northern pikeminnows, believed to be one of the main predators of migrating juvenile salmon and steelhead migrating downriver to the ocean.

This year, anglers will be paid $4 for each of the first 100 pikeminnows over 9 inches in length, $5 for each fish from No. 101 to No. 400 and $8 per pikeminnow in excess of 400. Fish marked with monitoring tags behind the dorsal fin are worth $500 each.

In 2004, the program paid one angler more than $34,000. He put 4,264 pikeminnows out of their misery.

Anglers must register in advance to qualify for the bounty. Registration locations and fish check-in sites are listed at: www.pikeminnow.org.

State Fossil: Guy DiTorrace of Newport, also known as The Oregon Fossil Guy, has succeed in his four-year effort to get the Metasequoia named Oregon's "State Fossil." Both chambers of the 2004 Oregon Legislature signed off on House Joint Resolution No. 3, which adds the fossil to a long list of other state symbols.

The Metasequoia is a cedar-like tree that dominated the flora of much of what is now Oregon for 20 million years. It became extinct here about 5 million years ago, but was returned to North America following World War II after it was discovered in China. Nurseries sometimes market it under the name "dawn redwood."

Until now, Oregon was the only western state without its own officially recognized state fossil.

Worldloppet: Paul Reznick of Eugene, the subject of a March 2004 article about cross-country ski marathon racing, earned his "Worldloppet Gold Master" medal this spring after completing three more marathon races in Europe. Participants have to finish 10 races to qualify for the medal.

'Point of Sale' system: The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's aging computer system used to sell angling and hunting licenses and tags at more than 500 agencies statewide is going to be upgraded. The current Point of Sale network made big news in previous years for bogging down during periods of heaviest use.

ODFW officials hope to have a new system up and running before the start of the 2006 fall hunting seasons. About 800,000 people purchase licenses and tags through ODFW license agents each year.

Mike Stahlberg can be reached at [e-mail].