BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — Wildlife officials estimate nearly 1,000 Yellowstone National Park bison have been killed this season.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/2lXUccG ) that bison managers are making progress on their goal to eliminate as many as 1,300 bison from the Yellowstone area. A 2000 management plan calls for a population of 3,000 bison in the region, but about 5,500 live there now.

The herd is culled through public hunting and shipping some bison to slaughter. Slaughtered bison become meat for various Native American tribes.

Officials say roughly 650 bison have been caught for slaughter so fan and about 400 have been shipped.

Bison cannot be hunted in the park, but instead are caught when they migrate into the Gardiner basin.

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

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A key state senator is backing legislation urging Congress to turn Idaho’s Crater of the Moon National Monument into a national park.

Sen. Jeff Siddoway, chairman of the influential Senate State Affairs Committee, introduced his proposal to legislative leaders on Wednesday. It must now clear a legislative hearing.

The goal is to convert the 54,000-acre monument into a national park with no changes to how it’s currently managed — which include maintaining access to grazing and hunting. Currently, there are no national parks in Idaho.

County officials from Lemhi, Bonneville to Minidoka have all voiced support for the project with hopes that the change will spark more tourism in the rural region.

Former President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed Craters of the Moon as a national monument in 1942. The area has contains volcanic flows, which gives off an appearance of a lunar landscape.

SPRINGDALE, Utah (AP) — More than a dozen climbing routes on rocky cliffs in southern Utah’s Zion National Park have been temporarily closed to help protect peregrine falcons.

U.S. Park Service officials closed the routes on Monday on cliffs where the endangered falcons have nested in the past.

Park officials say they’ll reopen any of the sites that don’t have nests by late April or early May. Sites that do have nests will be monitored until the chicks leave the nests, typically in late July.

The closures are based on nesting surveys collected since 2001.

The routes include Angels Landing, Cable Mountain, Mountain of the Sun, North Twin Brother, Tunnel Wall and other trails.

KETCHUM, Idaho (AP) — Authorities say a 34-year-old snowboarder from southwest Idaho died after suffering injuries on Sun Valley Resort’s Bald Mountain in central Idaho.

Officials say Derek Klein of Meridian was found unresponsive at the base of a tree about 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Officials say that the Sun Valley Ski Patrol attempted life-saving measures before Klein was taken to St. Luke’s Wood River hospital, where he died at about 3 p.m. Saturday.

Blaine County Coroner Russ Mikel says the cause of death remains under investigation.

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — Wildlife refuge officials say a man with a drone caused 1,500 elk to stampede half a mile.

The stampede happened Monday at the National Elk Refuge in western Wyoming. Elk and bison often congregate at the refuge to eat feed put out to help them survive the winter.

This winter has been especially harsh. More than 3 feet of snow has piled up, conditions that can be very stressful for all kinds of animals.

Disturbing wildlife is a serious offense punishable by a fine up to $5,000.

Refuge spokeswoman Lori Iverson said Thursday refuge officials gave the man from Washington, D.C., a $280 ticket after he launched the drone from a highway pullout and flew it over the resting elk herd. Refuge officials declined to identify him.

Wildlife managers estimate that more than 570 Yellowstone National Park bison have been killed so far this winter.The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports that the numbers show that bison managers are making progress on their goal to eliminate 1,300 bison f…

JACKSON, Wyoming (AP) — There may be too many elk gathered at the National Elk Refuge in northwest Wyoming.

Potentially twice the desired number of elk are believed to be gathered right now, wolfing down alfalfa pellets, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reported .

The presumed overpopulation will be confirmed or debunked this week, when managers conduct the official count for the 24,700-acre U.S. Fish and Wildlife property north of Jackson.

Staff biologist Eric Cole estimates that the number right now is about 85 percent above the 5,000-elk goal.

“It’s obvious to me that we’re well above the 5,000 objective,” Cole said.

Given trends from recent years, the high refuge numbers were expected.

In winter 2014-15, 8,390 elk — the most in 17 years — were tallied during the refuge classification.

Last winter the number dipped by about 1,100. But nearly 1,400 elk were nearby, “wintering out” on the northern refuge and just to the east on the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is in the process of counting elk elsewhere in Jackson Hole.

On Saturday, the state surveyed feed grounds up the Gros Ventre River drainage. As of Friday, feeders estimated 1,000 elk receiving hay rations in the Gros Ventre drainage. Managers’ goal for the Gros Ventre is 3,500 elk.

If the official Gros Ventre tally comes in at less than a third of that number, it will mark the continuation of a distribution problem that in recent years has resulted in proportionately way too many refuge elk.

A decade-old interagency federal plan setting the 5,000-elk goal calls for just 45 percent of the Jackson Elk Herd on the National Elk Refuge.

The number was devised to allow managers to forego supplemental alfalfa feeding during normal winter conditions, and in doing so reduce the spread of disease and bring the historic winter range closer to the natural condition. But in recent years, three-quarters of the herd, or more, has been gathered on or around the refuge.

JACKSON, Wyoming (AP) — There may be too many elk gathered at the National Elk Refuge in northwest Wyoming.

Potentially twice the desired number of elk are believed to be gathered right now, wolfing down alfalfa pellets, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reported .

The presumed overpopulation will be confirmed or debunked this week, when managers conduct the official count for the 24,700-acre U.S. Fish and Wildlife property north of Jackson.

Staff biologist Eric Cole estimates that the number right now is about 85 percent above the 5,000-elk goal.

“It’s obvious to me that we’re well above the 5,000 objective,” Cole said.

Given trends from recent years, the high refuge numbers were expected.

In winter 2014-15, 8,390 elk — the most in 17 years — were tallied during the refuge classification.

Last winter the number dipped by about 1,100. But nearly 1,400 elk were nearby, “wintering out” on the northern refuge and just to the east on the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is in the process of counting elk elsewhere in Jackson Hole.

On Saturday, the state surveyed feed grounds up the Gros Ventre River drainage. As of Friday, feeders estimated 1,000 elk receiving hay rations in the Gros Ventre drainage. Managers’ goal for the Gros Ventre is 3,500 elk.

If the official Gros Ventre tally comes in at less than a third of that number, it will mark the continuation of a distribution problem that in recent years has resulted in proportionately way too many refuge elk.

A decade-old interagency federal plan setting the 5,000-elk goal calls for just 45 percent of the Jackson Elk Herd on the National Elk Refuge.

The number was devised to allow managers to forego supplemental alfalfa feeding during normal winter conditions, and in doing so reduce the spread of disease and bring the historic winter range closer to the natural condition. But in recent years, three-quarters of the herd, or more, has been gathered on or around the refuge.

JACKSON, Wyoming (AP) — There may be too many elk gathered at the National Elk Refuge in northwest Wyoming.

Potentially twice the desired number of elk are believed to be gathered right now, wolfing down alfalfa pellets, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reported .

The presumed overpopulation will be confirmed or debunked this week, when managers conduct the official count for the 24,700-acre U.S. Fish and Wildlife property north of Jackson.

Staff biologist Eric Cole estimates that the number right now is about 85 percent above the 5,000-elk goal.

“It’s obvious to me that we’re well above the 5,000 objective,” Cole said.

Given trends from recent years, the high refuge numbers were expected.

In winter 2014-15, 8,390 elk — the most in 17 years — were tallied during the refuge classification.

Last winter the number dipped by about 1,100. But nearly 1,400 elk were nearby, “wintering out” on the northern refuge and just to the east on the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is in the process of counting elk elsewhere in Jackson Hole.

On Saturday, the state surveyed feed grounds up the Gros Ventre River drainage. As of Friday, feeders estimated 1,000 elk receiving hay rations in the Gros Ventre drainage. Managers’ goal for the Gros Ventre is 3,500 elk.

If the official Gros Ventre tally comes in at less than a third of that number, it will mark the continuation of a distribution problem that in recent years has resulted in proportionately way too many refuge elk.

A decade-old interagency federal plan setting the 5,000-elk goal calls for just 45 percent of the Jackson Elk Herd on the National Elk Refuge.

The number was devised to allow managers to forego supplemental alfalfa feeding during normal winter conditions, and in doing so reduce the spread of disease and bring the historic winter range closer to the natural condition. But in recent years, three-quarters of the herd, or more, has been gathered on or around the refuge.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — For the first time since 1989, there’s been a confirmed sighting of a great gray owl in Utah.

Bird watchers first saw a pair of great gray owls on Feb. 9 in Morgan County.

A Salt Lake City Tribune (http://bit.ly/2lalDj1) photographer snapped a picture of a great gray owl in a tree Saturday in the Morgan County town of Mountain Green.

The avian conservation coordinator for Utah Division of Wildlife Resources says there was a reported sighting of a great gray owl in 1999, but not enough documentation to confirm it.

The bird’s habitat typically stretches from the Teton Range in Idaho and Wyoming across the Canadian Rockies.

Heavy snowfall this winter likely pushed the great gray owl farther south to find food.

The owls eat small rodents.

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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com