Author: Staff Writer

17SEP

Yellowstone has second-busiest August, but tourism still down

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyoming (AP) — Yellowstone National Park had its second-busiest August on record but tourism is still down substantially this year, park officials said Thursday.

The coronavirus prompted the park’s closure in March and Yellowstone’s five entrances opened for spring automobile traffic a few weeks later than usual. The two Wyoming entrances opened May 18, followed by the three Montana entrances June 1.

Park services including some restaurants and lodges gradually reopened over the summer season and much later than usual.

In August, the park had 881,543 recreation visitors, up 7.5 percent from the year before for the second-busiest August on record. The busiest was August 2017, when tourists flocked to Wyoming to see a solar eclipse, park officials said.

From January through August, Yellowstone had 2.5 million visitors, down 18 percent from the same period in 2019.

Tourism in Yellowstone tapers off in September and October. Most lodges, restaurants, stores and other services close for the year in October, followed by all park roads in early November.

29OCT

Montana hunter reports shooting grizzly bear in self-defense

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — State wildlife officials are investigating after a hunter reported shooting a grizzly bear in self-defense in southwestern Montana.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the shooting happened Saturday in the Eureka Basin south Gravelly Mountains. Four hunters were attacked by grizzly bears during a 10-day period in September in the Gravelly Mountains, including one in the Eureka Basin area.

State and federal wildlife managers said Monday they are also investigating two other human-caused grizzly bear deaths that happened in the last week in the West Yellowstone area. Officials haven’t released any further information about those deaths.

20AUG

Hiker with local ties recalls harrowing week in Montana-Idaho wilderness

FLORENCE, Montana (AP) — A Utah man with ties to Southeast Idaho said he ate berries and bugs to survive for nearly a week while lost in wilderness along the Idaho-Montana border.

Kaden Laga, 25, is about to become a father and told himself he had to survive and make it home to his pregnant wife no matter what, he told Salt Lake City station KUTV in an interview Sunday.

Several friends in south Bannock County reportedly responded to a request from Laga’s family, made on Facebook, to pray for his safe return while he was missing.

Laga, of Orem, was on a horseback outing in Bitterroot-Selway Wilderness on Aug. 11 when one of the horses in the group went lame. He said he volunteered to hike back to the trailhead and get help but took a wrong turn and got lost without cellphone service.

He carried only a water bottle and a Ziploc bag, KECI-TV in Montana reported

“I ate a lot of grasshoppers. I only ate one ant, it was my dessert,” he said.

Meanwhile, search crews were combing the forest as aircraft flew overhead. Laga saw a helicopter at least twice, but the searchers couldn’t see him through the thick trees, he said.

“They’re coming and I’m like ‘This is it, they’re going to get me,’ then whoosh! And they just take off the other direction,” he said, KUTV reported.

Finally, Laga discovered a trail and wandered into a search camp on Friday.

His wife Arden Laga said she collapsed when she heard the news.

“I just fell to my knees and I’m just on my hands and knees. He did it. He’s alive. He’s OK. We’re OK. It’s finally over,” she told KECI-TV.

—The Idaho State Journal contributed to this report.

12AUG

Sage grouse numbers continue to drop in Idaho

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho’s sage-grouse numbers have dropped 52% since the federal government decided not to list the birds as an endangered species in the fall of 2015.

It’s not yet clear whether the three-year decline is part of a cyclical pattern or indicative of a more serious issue, but the Idaho Statesman reports the trend could force state and federal wildlife and land managers to take a closer look at how sage grouse are faring in Idaho and other western states.

Under Idaho’s sage grouse management plan, wildlife managers must work to determine the cause of population declines and come up with an appropriate response any time numbers drop below a certain level. Idaho Fish and Game biologist Ann Moser says it looks populations are low enough in several parts of Idaho to trigger the plan.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services estimates that there are between 200,000 and 500,000 sage grouse, most of them in Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Colorado.

18JUN

Black bear euthanized after Utah boy injured in tent

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Wildlife officials say a black bear has been euthanized after a child was injured during a Boy Scout camping trip.

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources spokeswoman Faith Jolley says the boy suffered minor scratches when the bear disturbed his tent south of Salt Lake City early Tuesday morning.

She says a bear believed to be responsible was located in Hobble Creek Canyon hours later, and it was put down under department policy because it showed a lack of fear of humans.

It wasn’t clear why the bear disturbed the tent, but Jolley says many bears live in the area and are now waking up from hibernation, so it could have been foraging for food.

Hobble Creek is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Salt Lake City.

05JUN

Former guide gets lifetime hunting ban for poaching

BILLINGS, Montana (AP) — A 23-year-old Montana hunting guide has received a lifetime suspension of his hunting, fishing and trapping rights for poaching multiple trophy big game animals in 2017.

The Billings Gazette reports Brandon K. Schuhen was also ordered Friday by District Judge Don Harris to complete 500 hours of community service for a wildlife conservation organization, serve 10 years of probation and pay $33,050 in restitution to the state of Montana.

Harris says one of the things that disturbed him about the case was that the killed animals were mostly left to waste.

Schuhen pleaded guilty to five counts of unlawful possession, shipping or transportation of a trophy big game animal, a felony.

Authorities say the animals poached by Schuhen included three bull elks and a buck antelope.

15MAY

Noisy Yellowstone geyser roars back to life after 3 years

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyoming (AP) — A noisy geyser in Yellowstone National Park has roared back to life after three years of quiet.

Ledge Geyser is one of the biggest in Yellowstone’s Norris Geyser Basin.

The Billings Gazette reports the geyser shoots hot water at an angle up to 125 feet high and a distance of 220 feet.

Yellowstone geologist Jeff Hungerford says Ledge Geyser is noisy because its water and steam must pass through a narrow opening in the ground.

Yellowstone has 1,300 thermal features and 500 geysers, more than anywhere else on Earth. Some geysers such as Old Faithful are predictable but most, like Ledge Geyser, erupt erratically.

07MAY

Researchers to trap Yellowstone bears starting Monday

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (AP) — Wildlife biologists will be baiting and trapping grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park from Monday through July 31 as part of ongoing research.

The research by the National Park Service and Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team is to monitor the population of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

Officials say none of the trap sites in the park will be located near any established hiking trails or backcountry campsites and closure warnings will be posted around all trap sites for any recreationists in the area.

Backcountry users who come upon any of the posted areas need to stay out of the area.

In 2010, a man was killed near Yellowstone by a grizzly bear that had recently been captured and released by researchers.

01MAY

Wyoming commission decides against grizzly bear hunt

JACKSON, Wyoming (AP) — The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission has opted not to hold a grizzly bear hunt this year.

The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports that the decision last week follows a bill passed by the Wyoming Legislature this winter that authorized state wildlife officials to hold a grizzly bear hunt in spite of the species’ “threatened” federal status.

But the commission voted unanimously against drawing up grizzly hunting regulations.

Commissioner Patrick Crank explained to his fellow board members that 230 years of case law supported the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which establishes the precedence of federal laws over state law.

Crank says if the state authorized a grizzly hunt, hunters who killed bears could face federal prosecution.

An estimated 700 grizzly bears reside in and around Yellowstone National Park.

27MAR

Utah woman survives week in SUV stuck in snow

PARK VALLEY (AP) — Michelle Richan was stranded for a week in snow and mud in rural Utah — but she was prepared, police said.

Richan travels with an abundance of survival gear and had enough food and water in her SUV to last another week, she said.

She got stuck March 19 on a remote road in the northwest corner of the state while traveling home to Brigham City from Eureka, Nevada, the Deseret News reported.

Trapped without cellphone service, she decided to stay put, spending her time collecting firewood and burning fires.

Richan said she likes visiting secluded locations and was expecting to get stranded one day.

“I like going out in the middle of nowhere,” Richan said. “It’s just, you know if you’re going to be out there, you need to be able to survive out there.”

A week after she got stuck, a pilot spotted her from his small plane and radioed searchers on the ground.

“I spotted something orange, so I just went really low to look at it and saw her actually running out of the car,” pilot Ivo Zdarsky said.

A snowplow driver found Richan Tuesday and freed her vehicle. She was reunited with her family in Park Valley.

Richan’s daughter, Kaylee Vaughan, said it was a “terrifying and exciting” ordeal.

When she got the call that her mother was OK, Vaughan said, “I almost was in shock and was kind of like, ‘I don’t believe you. I have to see it for myself because it’s been so long and it’s been such a crazy rollercoaster of emotions and just thoughts.’”

If help had not arrived, Richan said she would have burned a spare tire and considered leaving the SUV to find shelter.

“I figured I had enough food left to at least last a week, so I figured I probably had enough to at least walk out if I had to,” Richan said.