POWELL, Wyo. (AP) — As the sun peeked over the horizon just high enough to tickle the top of Heart Mountain, Frank Fagan spotted some mule deer just 200 yards up the next hill.

At his side, his daughter Shelby started to follow her father’s advice as he walked her through the steps to load her rifle, line up, switch off the safety and look for the perfect shot — just like they practiced. Shelby, 12, was after her first deer. But this was far from her first hunt. At three months, her mother, Bre, brought her on an elk hunt.

“She went back to the truck to breast feed after tagging her elk,” Frank said.

Shelby and her 10-year-old sister Danika have been on just about every hunt since. It’s a family activity, Frank said.

Shelby hesitated. Two fawns were hanging close and she wasn’t confident with the shot. Her father was supportive and calming.

“If it doesn’t feel right, there’ll be other deer,” Frank said.

If Shelby was nervous it didn’t show. Other than having cold fingers and being a little tired, she was excited to finally get a deer in her scope and try out the .243 shells her father hand-loaded for her hunt. She considered the day a practice session for more exciting hunts later this year.

“Next week, I get to hunt for a buck in Sunlight and then I have an elk tag for next month,” she said. Shelby hopes to have a mount, like her mom and dad, hanging from the living room wall soon.

The doe and two fawns got a pass. Frank took a quick look to the west and quickly signaled his daughter to head his way. She grabbed her rifle and the two slid on their rears down the hill to the draw below. High winds covered the noise. Crouching down, they snuck to the next ridge, 150 yards from a small herd. The deer continued to feed.

Concealed by the ridge, Shelby lined up her shot. Earlier in the year, she placed second in the state at the 4-H air rifle competition — and she practiced by shooting milk jugs before the season started. She was steady and confident.

She fired and the doe fell. With a dozen years of experience on family hunts, the 12-year-old had just taken her first deer. Frank gathered up his daughter and hugged her tight. And then they went to work, dressing and transporting the deer home to hang before breakfast.

Despite living in an agricultural area, Shelby said only a few of her friends at Powell Middle School get the opportunity to hunt.

“I’m pretty lucky,” she said.

Danika will start training to hunt next year. Frank is planning to attend hunter’s education with his youngest daughter, like he did with Shelby, and then mentor her on a hunt next season.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department sold 14,770 resident licenses to females last year as well as 8,790 resident youth hunting licenses. Since 2008, the number of licenses sold to resident female hunters has gone up about 32 percent (one-day licenses do not specify gender so the number of female hunters is actually higher). The Game and Fish has several programs in the works to attract women and children into the outdoor sports, said Rebekah Fitzgerald, communications and outreach supervisor for the Game and Fish.

For women 18 and older, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department sponsors Becoming an Outdoors-Woman workshops. The workshops give women a chance to learn the basics of canoeing, archery, fly-tying, shooting skills, backpacking, outdoor photography and more, regardless of skill level. The 2018 date will be finalized by the start of the year and will likely be in August.

“As women get interested in outdoor sports, they’ll bring their kids along,” Fitzgerald said.

The department also hired a new Hunter and Angler Participation Coordinator to try to reach families. Kathryn Boswell has already made an impact, according to Fitzgerald. One program — a three-day shooting and hunting seminar for women and their children — ends Saturday with a pheasant hunt.

Boswell will also bring back the Outdoor Expo, a three-day affair aimed at families. Scheduled for May 17-19 in Casper, the first two days will be geared toward educating children on conservation and activities including hunting and fishing. On the final day, the entire family will come together to enjoy shooting and fishing activities.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to connect the dots and the interest will continue through fall,” Fitzgerald said.

After Shelby’s shot found its mark on Sunday, Frank Fagan gathered his daughter in his arms and squeezed her tight.

“I love you, Pumpkin,” he said and kissed her forehead.

For Fagan it’s about more than gender. It’s about family. And he and Bre are exploding with pride that their children love the outdoor sports.

OK, before we start I’ll admit. I like to make list. My wife, Katy, says I make list just so I can check things off so I feel like I’m getting stuff done. There may be a small sliver of truth to what she says, but how else do you remember everything if you don’t make lists?

But my system works because I usually don’t forget things, so if you have trouble remembering, things read on. I think there are a few habits that should help you arrive at hunting camp, vacation destinations or even a meeting without forgetting some key item.

Here’s a few tricks that help me. First, don’t wait until the night before you leave to start packing. That’s a guarantee system failure. I’m not a prophet, but here’s what will happen. You’ll be running around like a madman yelling at everyone and leave home the next morning with the wife and all of the kids with hurt feelings. You’ll forget numerous items. At about 10 p.m. you’ll run to the store for the fourth time for some item you forgot the other three times. You’ll suddenly discover that your trailer lights aren’t working. You’ll leave the next morning dead tired. Not a good formula for fun or a successful hunt.

Let’s try this route. Start slowly packing a week ahead of time. Keep a running list on you the last week. That way at work when you remember something, you can write it down. Have your main packing done the day before you leave. That way you can nonchalantly finish packing the night before. This way you’ll have an enjoyable evening with the family. No screaming and hurting everyone’s feelings. In fact, they may actually want you to come home after the hunt!

Other things that can help are to make a camp box. That way all of your cooking utensils are in one spot — just grab the box and you’re good to go. If you have a trailer, that’s even easier. Load it down at your leisure, hook up and you’re off for the mountains.

One last step that I’ve started doing the last few years is to set down a minute and visualize (nothing weird here, you’re just walking through each step and what equipment you’ll need) every activity. Here’s what I mean by this. I think about cooking dinner. Ok, do I have a frying pan, plates, seasoning, walk through every step of that activity listing what you’d need. You get the drift. Do the same thing with what you’ll need to hunt. Make sense?

Try some of these tricks and see if they don’t help you out.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

OK, before we start I’ll admit. I like to make list. My wife, Katy, says I make list just so I can check things off so I feel like I’m getting stuff done. There may be a small sliver of truth to what she says, but how else do you remember everything if you don’t make lists?

But my system works because I usually don’t forget things, so if you have trouble remembering, things read on. I think there are a few habits that should help you arrive at hunting camp, vacation destinations or even a meeting without forgetting some key item.

Here’s a few tricks that help me. First, don’t wait until the night before you leave to start packing. That’s a guarantee system failure. I’m not a prophet, but here’s what will happen. You’ll be running around like a madman yelling at everyone and leave home the next morning with the wife and all of the kids with hurt feelings. You’ll forget numerous items. At about 10 p.m. you’ll run to the store for the fourth time for some item you forgot the other three times.

You’ll suddenly discover that your trailer lights aren’t working. You’ll leave the next morning dead tired. Not a good formula for fun or a successful hunt.

Let’s try this route. Start slowly packing a week ahead of time. Keep a running list on you the last week. That way at work when you remember something, you can write it down. Have your main packing done the day before you leave. That way you can nonchalantly finish packing the night before. This way you’ll have an enjoyable evening with the family. No screaming and hurting everyone’s feelings. In fact, they may actually want you to come home after the hunt!

Other things that can help are to make a camp box. That way all of your cooking utensils are in one spot — just grab the box and you’re good to go. If you have a trailer, that’s even easier. Load it down at your leisure, hook up and you’re off for the mountains.

One last step that I’ve started doing the last few years is to set down a minute and visualize (nothing weird here, you’re just walking through each step and what equipment you’ll need) every activity. Here’s what I mean by this. I think about cooking dinner. Ok, do I have a frying pan, plates, seasoning, walk through every step of that activity listing what you’d need. You get the drift. Do the same thing with what you’ll need to hunt. Make sense?

Try some of these tricks and see if they don’t help you out.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The state of Wyoming wants to ensure those who live and work in Yellowstone register their vehicles in the state.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation, at the request of Gov. Matt Mead and members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation, is pushing to get more Yellowstone residents and workers to follow state law and purchase Wyoming registrations and driver’s licenses.

State and federal officials say they don’t know how many of the about 550 permanent and more than 3,000 seasonal employees working for the National Park Service and Yellowstone’s concessionaire, Xanterra Parks & Resorts need to get Wyoming plates. But with an average vehicle registration costing a couple hundred dollars, the state could theoretically be losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees each year, the Powell Tribune reported .

Wyoming Department of Transportation Director Bill Panos says it’s been a problem “for years and years and years.”

“The U.S. government trucks are one thing, but the private vehicles that are up there all the time, and the Xanterra vehicles? I want to see Wyoming plates on those trucks,” Panos told Park County commissioners in August. “And that will occur.”

The Wyoming Department of Transportation, joined by the Park County Treasurer’s Office, has spoken with Yellowstone and Xanterra officials about the issue this year.

“We actually did find that there were a number of people — not as many as people thought, but there were a number of people — that were permanent residents up there that didn’t have Wyoming registrations and didn’t have Wyoming driver’s licenses,” Panos said.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation plans to make a push to increase the number of registrations when temporary employees start arriving in the park next spring.

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (AP) — The state of Wyoming wants to ensure those who live and work in Yellowstone register their vehicles in the state.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation, at the request of Gov. Matt Mead and members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation, is pushing to get more Yellowstone residents and workers to follow state law and purchase Wyoming registrations and driver’s licenses.

State and federal officials say they don’t know how many of the about 550 permanent and more than 3,000 seasonal employees working for the National Park Service and Yellowstone’s concessionaire, Xanterra Parks & Resorts, need to get Wyoming plates. But with an average vehicle registration costing a couple hundred dollars, the state could theoretically be losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees each year, the Powell Tribune reported .

Wyoming Department of Transportation Director Bill Panos says it’s been a problem “for years and years and years.”

“The U.S. government trucks are one thing, but the private vehicles that are up there all the time, and the Xanterra vehicles? I want to see Wyoming plates on those trucks,” Panos told Park County commissioners in August. “And that will occur.”

The Wyoming Department of Transportation, joined by the Park County Treasurer’s Office, has spoken with Yellowstone and Xanterra officials about the issue this year.

“We actually did find that there were a number of people — not as many as people thought, but there were a number of people — that were permanent residents up there that didn’t have Wyoming registrations and didn’t have Wyoming driver’s licenses,” Panos said.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation plans to make a push to increase the number of registrations when temporary employees start arriving in the park next spring.

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Fish and Game Commission is set to vote on a proposal to allow catch-and-keep steelhead fisheries on the Snake, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers and on the Clearwater River and its north, south and middle forks.

The commission will vote on the proposal Friday. If it passes, anglers on the Clearwater and its tributaries and the Snake River downstream of Couse Creek would have to release all steelhead longer than 28 inches.

The size restrictions are designed to protect steelhead bound for the Clearwater Basin. The state expects only about 7,300 hatchery and about 1,400 wild B-run steelhead to make it back to Idaho waters, The Lewiston Tribune reported .

Many fly fishermen are concerned about low numbers of wild fish on the Clearwater and lobbied the department and the commission to stick with catch-and-release rules, while many others, including outfitters and guides, back the state’s proposal.

However, some of the outfitters said they would accept lower bag limits and suggested the state should reduce them even in years with good steelhead returns.

“We all need to come together and come up with a new way to manage the entire fishing experience,” Lewiston outfitter Jason Schultz said.

The state adopted a one-fish daily bag limit in 1990, another year with a poor steelhead run, but allowed anglers to catch and release steelhead even after they met the limit. Current rules require anglers to stop fishing when their bag limit has been reached.

“If (catch-and-release) mortality is not that big a thing, that could be something that worked every year,” Riggins tackle shop owner and fishing guide Kerry Brennan said.

Schultz, who agreed with Brennan, said the normal three-fish bag limit on the Snake and Salmon rivers is too high and said a later opening of catch-and-keep fishing on the Clearwater would improve the fishing experience for everyone.

“I’d like to see the catch and release stay on the Clearwater beyond Oct. 15, but catch and kill on fish 28 inches and under,” Schultz said. “After Jan. 1 turn them loose. I think it would be an amazing world-class fishery if they did that.”

Some outfitters also backed a requested regulation by fly fishermen that would require wild fish, which must be released, to be kept in the water. Idaho allows anglers to lift them from the water to take pictures. Some contend doing that reduces survival.

Fish and Game Commissioner Dan Blanco of Moscow said the commission likely will vote on the state’s proposal in three pieces — one for the Clearwater, one for the Snake River and one on the Salmon River.

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Fish and Game Commission is set to vote on a proposal to allow catch-and-keep steelhead fisheries on the Snake, Salmon and Little Salmon rivers and on the Clearwater River and its north, south and middle forks.

The commission will vote on the proposal Friday. If it passes, anglers on the Clearwater and its tributaries and the Snake River downstream of Couse Creek would have to release all steelhead longer than 28 inches.

The size restrictions are designed to protect steelhead bound for the Clearwater Basin. The state expects only about 7,300 hatchery and about 1,400 wild B-run steelhead to make it back to Idaho waters, The Lewiston Tribune reported .

Many fly fishermen are concerned about low numbers of wild fish on the Clearwater and lobbied the department and the commission to stick with catch-and-release rules, while many others, including outfitters and guides, back the state’s proposal.

However, some of the outfitters said they would accept lower bag limits and suggested the state should reduce them even in years with good steelhead returns.

“We all need to come together and come up with a new way to manage the entire fishing experience,” Lewiston outfitter Jason Schultz said.

The state adopted a one-fish daily bag limit in 1990, another year with a poor steelhead run, but allowed anglers to catch and release steelhead even after they met the limit. Current rules require anglers to stop fishing when their bag limit has been reached.

“If (catch-and-release) mortality is not that big a thing, that could be something that worked every year,” Riggins tackle shop owner and fishing guide Kerry Brennan said.

Schultz, who agreed with Brennan, said the normal three-fish bag limit on the Snake and Salmon rivers is too high and said a later opening of catch-and-keep fishing on the Clearwater would improve the fishing experience for everyone.

“I’d like to see the catch and release stay on the Clearwater beyond Oct. 15, but catch and kill on fish 28 inches and under,” Schultz said. “After Jan. 1 turn them loose. I think it would be an amazing world-class fishery if they did that.”

Some outfitters also backed a requested regulation by fly fishermen that would require wild fish, which must be released, to be kept in the water. Idaho allows anglers to lift them from the water to take pictures. Some contend doing that reduces survival.

Fish and Game Commissioner Dan Blanco of Moscow said the commission likely will vote on the state’s proposal in three pieces — one for the Clearwater, one for the Snake River and one on the Salmon River.

BOZEMAN, Montana (AP) — An accomplished climber who took his own life after his girlfriend died in a southwestern Montana avalanche left directions to lead a recovery team to her body.

The parents of 27-year-old Hayden Kennedy of Carbondale, Colorado, said he survived Saturday’s avalanche, but “not the unbearable loss of his partner in life,” 23-year-old Inge Perkins of Bozeman.

Doug Chabot with the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center says Kennedy did not call 911 to report the slide. His body was found Sunday in Bozeman.

Chabot says Kennedy left an “incredibly detailed and well-thought-out note” that included the GPS coordinates of where the slide happened.

Just two weeks earlier, Kennedy had written on a climbing blog that he had watched too many friends die in the mountains over the last few years.

BOZEMAN, Montana (AP) — An accomplished climber who took his own life after his girlfriend died in a southwestern Montana avalanche left directions to lead a recovery team to her body.

The parents of 27-year-old Hayden Kennedy of Carbondale, Colorado, said he survived Saturday’s avalanche, but “not the unbearable loss of his partner in life,” 23-year-old Inge Perkins of Bozeman.

Doug Chabot with the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center says Kennedy did not call 911 to report the slide. His body was found Sunday in Bozeman.

Chabot says Kennedy left an “incredibly detailed and well-thought-out note” that included the GPS coordinates of where the slide happened.

Just two weeks earlier, Kennedy had written on a climbing blog that he had watched too many friends die in the mountains over the last few years.

BILLINGS, Montana (AP) — Communications towers proposed for a historic fire lookout and popular hiking destination in Yellowstone National Park would detract from its views, park officials have determined.

The finding has triggered consultations with Wyoming preservation officials to look for ways to minimize the impact.

Yellowstone is proposing to erect a three-sided mounting structure with 40-foot towers for cellular antennae and other equipment around the Mt. Washburn Fire Lookout.

It’s part of a broader effort to improve Yellowstone’s wireless infrastructure and cell service in developed areas — changes that have sparked debate over how much connectivity is appropriate in a park that for many visitors offers an escape from an increasingly linked-in world.

The determination that the Mt. Washburn proposal would have an “adverse” visual effect was included in a letter from Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk to preservation officials that was obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Park officials will consult with Wyoming’s historic preservation office on ways to minimize or offset the equipment’s visual impact, said Yellowstone spokeswoman Morgan Warthin.

The new towers and mounting structure would allow for the removal of telecommunications equipment that’s been installed on the lookout tower over the course of decades, park officials have said.

Wyoming Historic Preservation Officer Mary Hopkins said that would benefit the structure itself but there still would be visual impacts.

“I don’t think it’s going to look any worse,” Hopkins said. “Our concern is the historic structure and the effect on that only — not whether there’s cell service.”

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility executive director Jeff Ruch said the park was making a bad situation worse.

“It was ugly and it’s about to get ugly squared,” Ruch said. “Given the nature of what they’re proposing, we’re not sure how you can eliminate the adverse impact other than by putting a cloak of invisibility on the whole structure.”