Two snowmobilers were retrieved from a snowy and dangerous situation Monday evening.

Franklin County Sheriff’s Office was notified at 5:40 p.m. Monday that two snowmobilers were missing and that they were stuck somewhere near Copenhagen Basin, which is between Preston and Montpelier in Southeast Idaho.

The Franklin County Search and Rescue unit was activated, as was the Bear Lake County Search and Rescue. It was unclear whether the exact location of the snowmobilers was in Franklin County or Bear Lake County.

Air Idaho Rescue out of Soda Springs was also called. With the coordinates given, they were able to fly in and pick up one of the separated snowmobilers.

“The other was stuck in a harder-to-get-to location, but the Franklin County Search and Rescue unit was able to make their way to the other one and get him out safely also,” Franklin County Sheriff Dave Fryar said.

Earlier in the day, avalanche warnings had been issued by the Utah Avalanche Center because of the heavy wet snow that had piled up from the weekend storm onto layers of light, dry snow.

“Avalanche danger was very high and caution was used to not cause any problems with that,” Fryar said.

Snowmobiler riders Bradley Reese of Smithfield, Utah, and Landon Carter, of Preston, were returned safely.

Avalanche danger is still considerable, according to the UAC. Avalanches in the higher elevations can be triggered from a distance, states a UAC forecast.

A free snowmobile-based avalanche awareness presentation and companion rescue clinic has been set for Friday at the Robinson Building in Preston at 6 p.m.

A field class will follow Saturday at 9 a.m. at Copenhagen Basin parking lot.

Calvin Kunz, 77, of Preston, died Saturday afternoon while hiking in the Franklin Basin area. He was attempting to cross a river when he fell and struck his head, said Cache County sheriff’s Lt. Mikelshan Bartschi

Kunz was hiking with family from Tony’s Grove to Franklin Basin. Known in his neighborhood for keeping the roadside clean of trash, Kunz did the same as he hiked and had collected some garbage that had been left behind by other hikers.

Witnesses told deputies that Kunz attempted to pass some of the garbage to another person while crossing a river. In doing so, he lost his balance, fell back and struck his head. The impact knocked him unconscious.

Kunz was retrieved from the river and CPR started when an off-duty Roy police officer and his wife, who also had emergency medical training, came by and attempted to revive Kunz.

A local physician also arrived on the scene after the incident and used his satellite phone to call 911 at 4 p.m., said Bartschi. Despite their efforts, Kunz never regained consciousness.

Bartschi said the sheriff’s office wished to share their condolences with the family and all those involved in the accident.

PRESTON — Franklin County’s Idaho Fish and Game Officer Nathan Stohosky was recently surprised with the Shikar Safari Club International Award for Idaho.

The award is presented to a wildlife officer in each state for efforts in conservation and conservation enforcement, community service and educating the public. The Shikar Safari is an exotic hunt company, which promotes conservation of wildlife species throughout the world.

“It’s a very prestigious award,” Stohosky said. “I definitely feel very honored.”

His co-workers arranged for him to be at the event thinking that he was attending a rifle committee meeting on which he represents Fish and Game. But when he looked over his shoulder and saw that his family was at the meeting, he realized there was some other reason for the gathering.

Stohosky was nominated for the award by fellow Fish and Game Officer Korey Owen.

“Nathan is a top-rate officer that has a lot of irons in the fire,” Owen said.

Stohosky is the lead firearms instructor in the region, the lead honor guard for Idaho Fish and Game and a field-training officer. He also helps cities and counties with training their officers because he is POST-certified in firearms training, ground control training and arrest training.

“He volunteers to do extra — he goes above and beyond what is expected” Owen said. “Whatever he does, he does an excellent job.”

Stohosky began working in Grace in 2005, then in Malad in 2012. He began working in the Franklin County area in 2014.

“He’s a high-performing officer that always is giving 100 percent in everything he does,” Owen said.

PRESTON — Franklin County’s Search and Rescue had a busy weekend training and then putting that training to practice.

The unit had just finished a six-hour training session last Saturday when a call was received that a man had fallen and broken his leg while ice fishing at Treasureton Reservoir. His companions were not able to move him.

Because the stability of ice concerned the ambulance crew, Franklin County Search and Rescue assisted in the task.

Then on Sunday, the search and rescue unit was paged to bring out a 36-year-old snowmobiler who had sustained stroke-like symptoms. He was located in a remote area above Copenhagen Basin by the Paris Ice Caves.

The unit ended up preparing a site for a helicopter to land and carried the man to be life-flighted to Idaho Falls.

“Our guys were with him about 45 minutes,” said Sheriff Dave Fryar. “We’re pretty proud of the S&R. They are a good bunch of people.”

An avalanche warning was issued at 6 a.m. Jan. 10, 2018, for the Wasatch Mountains in Southeastern Idaho.

“Heavy snow has overloaded the pre-existing weak snow pack. The avalanche danger is high and both human-triggered and natural avalanches are likely,” states the warning.

Backcountry travelers should stay off of and out from underneath slopes steeper than 30 degrees. Avalanches may run long distances and can run into mature forests.

Already, several avalanches have been reported to the Franklin County Emergency Management department, said director Warren Wilde.

“I have been getting reports of them occurring in the Copenhagen area, Hilyard Canyon, Franklin Basin and Bloomington Lake areas,” said Wilde.

For updated information, one can contact the utahavalanchecenter.org or call 1-888-999-4019 for more detailed information.

Clifton mother Becky Parrish recently put out a plea to area hunters to make sure their line of fire never crosses a road.

Last week, something shattered the window and made a hole in the headliner above the driver’s seat in the car she was driving on Highway 36 near 3200 West.

“Driving home from Preston, I noticed a group of turkeys out in a field, with a huge tom strutting around in the middle of the group. I pointed them out to my kiddos in the back seat and my mom in the front seat,” she said.

But as her car passed them, the front passenger window exploded, showering glass over her and her passengers.

“There was even glass in the chicken nuggets they had been holding on their lap,” she said.

Parrish pulled over and was relieved to find out that there were no injuries. As she tried to determine what happened, she was horrified with the realization that the projectile might have been a bullet intended for a turkey.

If the projectile had entered her car from the driver’s side, or if other cars had been present on the road, she might have thought it was a rock, she said. And though no bullet remnants were found, neither she nor anyone who has worked on the vehicle can think of any other possibility, she said.

“Please think twice before you pull that trigger,” she posted on Facebook to anyone that shoots a gun.

“My favorite person is an avid hunter and I am in no way anti-gun, anti-hunting or anything like that…” she said. But she thinks the incident could have been avoided.

“Please never shoot toward a road, even if it is a ways away. Even a .22 can travel a surprising distance,” she said.

The incident was reported to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.

A $5,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to the arrest of whomever caused property damage at Twin Lakes last week.

Someone destroyed several large trees and a US Department of Agriculture building. The 8×8-foot building was used to verify that boats had been checked at the USDA checking station in Franklin for quagga mussels before entering the reservoir.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time someone has damaged property on the Twin Lakes Company’s property. Within the last five years, someone has destroyed three groups of trees that were planted to provide shade for the camp host at the reservoir, and Twin Lakes officials have had enough, said Jim Naylor, a director of the Twin Lakes Canal Company. The first time, the trees were shot to the ground by shotguns. The second time they were cut down. This time someone simply drove over them.

That same person drove over the building– tire tracks were left behind on one of its flattened walls.

“We’re gong to do all we can to find the people who did this,” said Clair Bosen, president of the Twin Lakes Canal Company. “This wasn’t just trespassing. The people that do what they did are the same kind of people that would damage people’s homes. We’ve got to get it stopped or we won’t be able to keep it (the reservoir) open (to the public),” he said.

Over the last several years, the company has installed boat ramps, built campground sites, and improved the road accessing the reservoir.

Vandalism “hurts us financially, but it hurts the public as well because we won’t be able to keep it open if it keeps costing us money,” said Bosen.

Approximately 14,500 acre feet of water are stored in the twin reservoirs, and owned by 230 stockholders who use it to irrigate between an average 18,000 acres of farmland in Franklin County. In a high water year like this year, there will be about 21,000 acres on the West Side, in Winder, and in Riverdale.