YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Partly because of late spring snowstorms, fewer people visited Yellowstone National Park in May when compared with a year ago.

But it was still the second busiest May on record at the world’s first national park.

Yellowstone hosted more than 419,600 visits during May, down 5.6 percent from May 2016’s 444,600 visits.

Park managers noted that snow closed roads in the park last month, although they say many factors could also be involved.

So far this year, the park has counted more than 550,000 visitors, down 7.3 percent from the same period in 2016, which was the National Park Service centennial year.

SPANISH FORKS, Utah (AP) — Utah officials say a six-year-old boy has died in a drowning at a Spanish Fork reservoir.

Police say the boy was reported missing on Saturday and later found unresponsive by a bystander. According to police, the boy was taken a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Sgt. Chris Sheriff says the boy had been in the water at Spanish Oaks Reservoir with other family members.

The boy and his family are from North Dakota. Police say he was at the reservoir for a family reunion with his mother.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — Officials are concerned cellphone communications could be obstructed when massive crowds of people flock to eastern Idaho to witness the upcoming eclipse.

The eclipse coming in August is expected to bring up to 500,000 people to the area, the Post Register reported (http://bit.ly/2rQoe3n ). Emergency managers have been working to develop plans to deal with outages, as well as the host of other situations that could arise with such a large influx of visitors.

“You’re looking at something really big, so cell towers are going to be jammed,” said Andi Anderson, manager of the Bonneville County Dispatch Center.

In 2013, authorities experienced communication issues when somebody drowned in the Snake River during the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration, where about 50,000 people were gathered.

Emergency responders have radios that aren’t tied to cell coverage, and they are even working to use ham radios as a backup.

“For emergency responders, we are building a communication plan for our region,” Idaho Falls Fire Chief Hanneman said. “We are aware of the potential for cellphone coverage going out. What we’ve been told is especially during the totality part, if people try video streaming it will probably shut the system down.”

Multi-county exercises are planned for next month, where emergency responders will test their ability to handle a variety of scenarios, including situations where communication is impaired, Hanneman said.

Representatives of AT&T said they’re working on putting more infrastructure in place ahead of the eclipse, including a mobile cell tower referred to as a Cell on Wheels, COW for short.

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Information from: Post Register, http://www.postregister.com

SPRINGDALE, Utah (AP) — Utah officials say a hiker survived a 100-foot fall at Zion National Park.

Officials said Wednesday that the man, whose identity has not been released, was in critical condition at a hospital.

Officials say he was coming down from a mountain Tuesday when he slipped near the summit and fell into a narrow ravine. A friend that saw the fall reported it to park officials.

Park medics say it took them nearly two hours to reach the hiker. A rescue team helped lower the man to an area where a helicopter could land.

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — A hiker who was reported missing near West Yellowstone in southern Montana has been found dead.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports https://goo.gl/FxOMtF searchers found the body of 42-year-old Mike Petersen on Tuesday. They had been looking for the Bismarck, North Dakota man since Sunday night after he did not return to a designated rendezvous point.

Petersen had been in the area several times over the past four months, knew the area and had backcountry experience. He also had enough equipment to stay in the forest and signal for help.

Investigators have not said how Petersen died.

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Information from: Bozeman Daily Chronicle, http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com

CODY, Wyo. (AP) — Researchers trying to preserve native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone National Park say they are on track to eliminate non-native fish from Yellowstone Lake in about a decade.

The National Park Service is trying to get rid of lake trout, which were discovered in Yellowstone Lake in 1994, the Powell Tribune in Wyoming reported (http://bit.ly/2rqqVdk). Lake trout is a voracious species that feeds on cutthroats.

“They’re a wonderful fish, but they just don’t belong here,” said Phil Doepke, a fisheries biologist who has been part of the cutthroat-trout conservation effort for 14 seasons.

Computer modeling indicates the lake trout population will collapse within 10 years, said Todd Koel, the park’s senior fisheries biologist. “Lake trout are in decline, but it doesn’t happen overnight,” he said.

Researchers use nets to remove lake trout. They have removed 2.6 million pounds (1.2 million kilograms) since 1996, including more than 366,000 pounds (166,000 kilograms) last year.

They also locate and destroy lake trout eggs at spawn sites.

Biologists are finding more efficient ways to remove lake trout every season, Koel said. They now implant transmitters in individual lake trout, called Judas fish, and release them to study their patterns.

“The Judas fish lead us to their friends, and then we kill them,” Koel said.

Small aircraft search for the transmitter-equipped fish, covering the entire 22-mile (35-kilometer) lake in about two hours, far faster than boats. “I’m hopeful we can shift completely to flights to find fish soon,” Koel said.

Recreational anglers also help. The fishing season opened in late May, and anglers can catch as many lake trout as they like — and they’re not allowed to throw any back.

“Catch them, kill them and eat them,” Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk said.

More than 50,000 visitors buy the required Yellowstone fishing permit each year.

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This story has been corrected to say the Powell Tribune is the basis of this report.

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Information from: The Cody Enterprise, http://www.codyenterprise.com

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — Wildlife managers around Yellowstone National Park should focus more on elk than bison in their efforts to prevent the transmission of an infection that causes cattle to abort their offspring, a new study recommends.

The report, released Wednesday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, says agencies should consider reducing the elk population through hunting, contraception and other methods. It also recommends gradually reducing the use of supplemental winter feed grounds in Wyoming to avoid the creation of large concentrations of elk where brucellosis could spread.

However, the study acknowledges the feed grounds could also offer managers an easy way to test and kill female elk that have been exposed to brucellosis and to administer a contraceptive to those that do not test positive.

Brucellosis has been eradicated from the U.S. with the exception of areas of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. It is spread through contact with aborted fetuses and birthing tissues and fluids.

Elk have transmitted the disease, but there has never been a documented case of bison transmitting the disease to cattle in the wild.

Current management efforts are focused on bison, in part to reduce the population in Yellowstone and because cattle producers fear bison will infect their herds as they graze near the park. Cattle that graze in the area are subject to additional testing requirements.

“However, until tools become available that would simultaneously allow for an eradication program in elk, additional aggressive control measures in bison seem unwarranted,” the study says.

Glenn Hockett of the Gallatin Wildlife Association in Bozeman and Stephany Seay of the Buffalo Field Campaign were concerned because the report puts the focus on managing wildlife.

Seay said the simplest solution is not to allow cattle to graze in the Greater Yellowstone Area.

The report says further studies are needed to monitor elk migration patterns, how the disease spreads in elk and bison, and what management efforts produce results.

The effort could benefit from improved vaccines, contraceptives and rapid field tests for exposure to brucellosis.

The report acknowledges that addressing the issue is difficult because it involves numerous agencies and an interconnected ecosystem.

Eradicating brucellosis might be an ideal long-term goal, but it’s not a feasible short-term goal for scientific, social, political and economic reasons, the study said.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice related to science, technology and medicine.

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — This year marks the final summer of construction at one of the most popular destinations in Grand Teton National Park in northwest Wyoming.

Grand Teton spokesman Andrew White says this season’s work at Jenny Lake is the fourth and final major construction phase on an $18 million renovation project.

White tells the Jackson Hole News & Guide (http://bit.ly/2qF66rE ) that all the visitor services are open at the lake but visitors might encounter altered access routes.

A temporary visitor center will be in place this summer with information on alternative routes to the lakeshore, trailhead and east shore boat dock.

Parking will be extremely limited, especially for buses, recreational vehicles and trailers. White recommends arriving either before 9 a.m. or after 4 p.m. to avoid crowds.

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Information from: Jackson Hole (Wyo.) News And Guide, http://www.jhnewsandguide.com

PLEASANT VIEW, Utah (AP) — Utah officials say one child is critically injured and three are in serious condition after they were thrown off a Utility Terrain Vehicle.

KUTV reports (http://bit.ly/2qBSYrl ) seven children of ages 9 to 12 were injured in a crash in Pleasant View. Police say the off-road utility vehicle that the children had been riding on rolled over after the driver lost control.

Police believe that there was no adult supervision at the time of the crash.

A boy that was critically injured was flown to an Ogden hospital semi-conscious and with open wounds. Three other children in serious condition were taken a hospital by ground.

Police say the identity of the owner of the UTV was not immediately clear.

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Information from: KUTV-TV, http://www.kutv.com/

NAMPA (AP) — Three people now have drowned in Lake Lowell since 2011.

The Idaho Press-Tribune reports witnesses saw a man, who was later identified as 28-year-old Denny J. Denn, swim out Monday to a buoy and then go under the water when he was attempting to swim back to shore.

Authorities conducted a search for the man and recovered his body 20 yards from the shoreline in approximately 8 feet of water.

A man drowned at the Upper Dam of Lake Lowell in July 2016. In 2011, a 15-year-old boy from Meridian drowned in Lake Lowell.