POCATELLO — A woman in South Pocatello claims she recently found multiple mountain lion paw prints in her yard.

According to LocalNews8, the paw prints led to the woman’s Koi pond, though it is unknown if the cougar ate any fish in the pond.

LocalNews8 also reported that the woman’s residence is located near Country Club Drive, not far from where a local family encountered a mountain lion in a tree last month. That sighting on Feb. 18 was reported when a local family was walking their dog on nearby Hilo Drive.

According to the family, the cougar was spotted in a cottonwood tree before it jumped onto the ground and ran off. There were no injuries. 

A few weeks before the Feb. 18 encounter, residents reported a mountain lion near Cedar Lake Road.

The area also made headlines last winter, when Fish and Game relocated a mama cat and her four kittens after they made themselves at home among the human residents of the Johnny Creek area.

Jennifer Jackson, regional conservation educator for Idaho Fish and Game, said it is not unusual this time of year to see mountain lions or to find cougar tracks in the snow in areas in Pocatello and outside of city limits. Jackson also said the tracks found in the woman’s yard could belong to the same mountain lion that was spotted on Feb. 18 in the cottonwood tree.

Jackson encourages anybody who encounters a mountain lion near their property to contact Idaho Fish and Game immediately at 208-232-4703.

Hunters took more elk and white-tailed deer in 2017 than in 2016, but mule deer harvest was down. With a much milder winter so far, Fish and Game biologists expect the drop in mule deer harvest to be short lived as herds recover from last year’s difficult winter across Central and Southern Idaho.

The 2017 elk harvest was about 17.5 percent above the 10-year average, and despite the dip in the mule deer harvest, 2017’s overall deer harvest was still slightly above the 10-year average.

Elk harvest

Elk hunters are enjoying some of the best hunting in recent history. Harvest was up by 1,242 elk in 2017 over 2016, which was largely an increase in cow harvest. The bull harvest dropped 341 animals between 2016 and 2017.

Fish and Game increased cow hunting opportunities to reduce herds that are causing damage to private lands in parts of the state.

Idaho’s elk harvest has exceeded 20,000 elk for four straight years, which hasn’t happened since the mid 1990s.

Idaho’s elk herds have grown in recent years thanks in part to mild winters, but elk don’t typically suffer the same fate as mule deer when winter turns colder and snowier.

“Elk are much hardier animals and less susceptible to environmental conditions,” Fish and Game Deer and Elk Coordinator Daryl Meints said. “It has to be a tough winter to kill elk.”

Deer harvest

The 2017 deer harvest dropped by 11,426 animals compared with 2016, which included a slight increase in white-tailed deer harvested, but 11,574 fewer mule deer harvested.

In response to last year’s hard winter, Fish and Game’s wildlife managers reduced antlerless hunting opportunities for mule deer in 2017 to protect breeding-age does and help the population bounce back more quickly. That resulted in 2,517 fewer antlerless mule deer harvested.

Fish and Game’s mule deer monitoring last winter showed only 30 percent survival for fawns, which was the second-lowest since winter monitoring started 20 years ago. Those male fawns would have been two-points or spikes in the fall had they survived, which typically account for a large portion of the mule deer buck harvest. Harvest statistics showed hunters took 3,709 fewer two points or spikes in 2017 than in 2016.

Mule deer tend to run on a “boom and bust” cycle, and “every few years, you’re going to have a winter when this happens,” Meints said.

However, it tends to be fairly short-lived unless there are consecutive winters with prolonged deep snow and/or frigid temperatures. While mule deer hunting was down, whitetail hunting remains solid and stable, and hunters took more whitetails than mule deer last fall, which is rare for Idaho.

The whitetail harvest in 2016 and 2017 hovering just below the all-time harvest record of 30,578 set in 2015.

Northern Idaho had an average winter last year, and whitetails in the Panhandle and Clearwater continue to thrive after a series of mild-to-average winters there.

“We don’t have as much telemetry-collar data like we do with mule deer, but there’s no reason to believe we haven’t had higher-than-normal survival of whitetail fawns and adults, and the harvest data supports that,” Meints said.

Looking ahead

While last winter’s above-average snowpack in Southern and Central Idaho took its toll on fawns, it also provided a lot of moisture that grew lots of food for big game animals. Many animals went into winter in great condition, and so far, weather has been mild compared to last year.

A mild, or average, winter typically grows herds because a larger proportion of the fawns and calves survive, which is a critical time for their passage into adulthood.

Even during the difficult winter last year, more than 90 percent of the radio-collared mule deer does, and more than 95 percent of the radio-collared cow elk survived.

In case you haven’t noticed, the temperatures in Southeast Idaho have been much colder the last couple of weeks.

It was pretty cold after the sun went down during hunting season in October. But it would warm up enough during the day that I had to take off some of my clothing to avoid sweating when temperatures climbed back up into the 40s and low 50s.

Most people who spend a lot of time in the backcountry hunting, hiking, skiing snowmobiling, etc., during the winter months are familiar with the layering system of staying warm but not wearing enough to make themselves sweat during winter activities. Normally, when I go skiing or hunting, it is much colder early in the morning than it is later in the day, and then begins to get cooler again toward late afternoon and early evening.

For that reason, I usually wear long underwear, warm socks, sturdy hunting or ski boots, windproof pants, a warm long-sleeve shirt, a windproof pullover with hood, a very warm hunting or skiing jacket, and a wool stocking hat for early morning.

I also take a tent, along with rain gear and a down-filled vest, but I decide whether to wear them or not when I arrive at my destination or when I get up in the morning when camping. As the day progresses, I usually remove what I don’t need and stuff it in my daypack as the temperature gets warmer.

Many go into the backcountry unprepared for the fluctuations in temperature, or for storms that might develop fairly quickly.

The problem is hypothermia, and it can be a killer of the unprepared. It has always interested me how small differences in body temperature can have such a major impact on our performance and how clearly we can think.

Our normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees. At this temperature, we are happy, active, coordinated and able to think clearly and quickly.

If our body temperature drops to 96 degrees, we start to shiver and our metabolism increases. This makes our body work a little harder to keep us warm. We experience a mild form of hypothermia, but we are still able to think clearly, put on warmer clothing or get inside a shelter.

If our body temperature drops to 94 degrees, we begin to experience impairment of gross motor skills and simple tasks become very difficult.

If our body temperature drops to 92 degrees, we experience severe shivering and walking becomes difficult. At this point, medical treatment by a physician or other medical professional is critical.

At 90 degrees, we experience convulsive shivering and may not be able to stand up. If our body temperature drops to 89 degrees or lower, shivering stops and one may go into a coma.

Most heat loss is radiated from unprotected surfaces of the body. If you are in contact with something very cold, such as water or cold ground, heat is conducted away from your body. Wind removes body heat by carrying away the thin layer of warm air at the surface of your skin.

If someone in your group exhibits any of the signs of hypothermia listed above, remove wet clothing, hats, gloves shoes and socks, and replace them with dry clothes and blankets. Protect against wind and drafts and move to a warm dry shelter as soon as possible.

If the victim is conscious and you have warm liquids that do not have caffeine, you can offer it to them. Do not give a victim exhibiting even mild signs of hypothermia alcoholic beverages. Caffeine and alcohol speed up heat loss.

Have fun and go prepared, so you won’t have any problems.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He was a member of the faculty of Texas A&M University for 25 years. There he taught orienteering, marksmanship, self-defense, fencing, scuba diving and boxing. He was among the first DPS-certified Texas Concealed Handgun Instructors. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.

Three activists were arrested Tuesday in Yellowstone National Park for attempting to block the slaughter of Yellowstone bison.

Two people locked themselves inside the squeeze chute at the park’s Stephens Creek corrals early Tuesday morning. The chute is where bison are readied for slaughter. Other protesters were also there, holding signs signaling their opposition to the annual cull of Yellowstone bison.

Park spokeswoman Vicki Regula said in an email that park rangers saw the two people at 5:30 a.m., and that the two were arrested at 12:30 p.m., for entering the area around the corrals. The area is closed to the public. No damage was done to the facility, Regula said.

A third person has also been arrested. It’s not clear why.

The three activists are connected to a group called Wild Buffalo Defense. On its Facebook page, the group calls itself a “collective of indigenous and non-native organizers dedicated to seeing wild buffalo roam free on the plains.”

The group has identified the three people who were arrested as Cody Cyson, Thomas Brown and Hannah Ponder. A clerk at the U.S. District Court in Yellowstone confirmed that three people were in custody and said initial appearances were scheduled for Wednesday.

In a phone interview, Adam Luke, a spokesman for Wild Buffalo Defense, declined to say how many people are involved in the group or how long it had been active. He described it as an “autonomous grassroots group” and said they wanted to intervene in the annual slaughter of bison “directly and nonviolently.”

“The main point of this action was to draw attention to the fact that there’s really minimal numbers of wild buffalo being kept in the park,” Luke said.

Yellowstone National Park had not issued a statement on the issue, and park staff had not returned a request for more information before deadline Tuesday.

Yellowstone works with other federal, tribal and state government agencies to reduce its bison population each year. A management plan calls for a population of about 3,000. Last August, Yellowstone biologists estimated the population at about 4,800 animals.

The reduction comes through slaughter and hunting. Last year, more than 1,200 bison were culled. This past winter, managers agreed to try to remove between 600 and 900 bison.

According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, hunters have taken an estimated 200 bison so far. The park had captured at least 350 bison as of late February. A park spokeswoman declined to offer detail Monday on how many of those bison had been shipped to slaughter.

The Buffalo Field Campaign, an advocacy group that watches bison management closely, estimates that the park has captured more than 500 bison so far this year and that more than 150 have been shipped to slaughter. The park did not respond to a question about the accuracy of those numbers before deadline Tuesday.

In a press release, the Buffalo Field Campaign signaled solidarity with Tuesday’s protest. One of those arrested — Thomas Brown — was a former field campaign volunteer.

Stephany Seay, a spokeswoman for the field campaign, said in the release that they applaud “these courageous souls for sacrificing their freedom to free wild buffalo and to draw more attention to this atrocious trap.”

“This action should send another strong message to Yellowstone National Park that there are many people who strongly oppose the current mismanagement of this American icon,” Seay said.

Tuesday’s arrests come after two previous break-ins at the facility this year. In those instances, someone cut fences to let bison walk free. Separate criminal investigations into each incident are ongoing.

There have been other attempts to block the slaughter of bison. A man was arrested in 2014 for chaining himself to a barrel to prevent trucks from taking bison to slaughter. After several hours, he and the barrel were removed and the trucks hauled bison away.

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — Fisheries managers should shut down steelhead fishing in the Columbia and Snake river basins to protect a wild run that returns to Idaho’s Clearwater River, according to a conservation group.

The Conservation Angler told The Lewiston Tribune in a story on Saturday that even catch-and-release regulations threaten the survival of B-run steelhead.

In a letter to Idaho Fish and Game Director Virgil Moore, Executive Director David Moskowitz said steelhead fishing should be closed to allow the wild fish to spawn.

“The ongoing fishery will cause mortalities to the wild B-run return now in Idaho rivers,” Moskowitz wrote. “Please close the fisheries in order to allow wild B-runs to spawn in their natal rivers and put some more wild fish ‘in the bank’ — so to speak — of Idaho’s great rivers.”

Fish and Game Fisheries Bureau Chief Jim Fredericks said precautions are in place. He also said there are so few fish to catch, that fewer anglers are out trying to catch them.

“Encounter rates go up and down with the number of fish out there to encounter,” he said. “When populations are low, fewer wild fish are handled. Angler effort has been about a third of what it would be in a normal year, so encounter rates are even lower than they would be in our typical calculations.”

He said most of the fishing pressure is aimed at places holding hatchery fish, not wild fish.

When it comes to steelhead regulations, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Fish Program Manager Chris Donley said his agency will likely defer to Idaho on Idaho fish.

“If Idaho is not concerned about fish endemic to their river, we are probably not going to be concerned in Washington,” he said.

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Information from: Lewiston Tribune, http://www.lmtribune.com

The following news release was issued by Pebble Creek Ski Area on Thursday afternoon:

Pebble Creek Ski Area has received 66” of new snow in the last two weeks, and more snow is on the way. The Resort usually goes to a five day a week schedule in March but with all the new snow, Pebble will be operating the Skyline lift only this coming Monday and Tuesday, March 5 and 6.

The Aspen and Skyline Lifts will operate Wednesday through Sunday. Hours are 9:30 to 4:00.

Persons purchasing a 2018 – 2019 season pass now can ski all of this March free on their next season’s pass. Spring price passes are $325 for adults and teens and $225 for kids and seniors. Family passes are $1,225. All passes include tax. Passes can be purchased in the Ticket Office and be used immediately.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is seeking individuals and organizations who wish to participate in its popular Idaho Master Naturalist program dedicated to connecting specially trained volunteers (citizen scientists) to natural resource projects with state and federal agencies, wildlife conservation groups and other natural resource conservation organizations.

The public is invited to an open house social being hosted by Idaho Fish and Game and Zoo Idaho in Pocatello. The open house is scheduled for March 9 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Zoo Idaho Administration and Education Building at 3101 Avenue of the Chiefs in Pocatello. Light refreshments will be served.

The intent of this event is to not only share information about the Idaho Master Naturalist program, but to measure community interest in forming a new Southeast Idaho chapter of Master Naturalists and forming partnerships with community organizations/agencies/institutions whose programs would benefit from the implementation of citizen science/natural resource-trained volunteers.

An Idaho Master Naturalist is a person who enjoys nature, outdoor recreation, supporting conservation and is interested in continually learning more about the natural world around them. It is someone who also channels their skills, interest and energy to volunteer at nature centers, help biologists collect data, monitor wildlife, assist at parks and natural areas, help with fishing or hunting clinics, teach youth or contribute to many other conservation and education efforts. An Idaho Master Naturalist can be a teacher, farmer, hunter, angler, birdwatcher, retired professional, homemaker — perhaps you!

To earn the title of Idaho Master Naturalist, an individual completes 40 hours of hands-on training in areas focused on Idaho’s ecology, plants, animals and natural systems taught by experts in their fields. You don’t need to have an education or background in science, just the desire to learn and the enthusiasm to share what you have learned.

If you are interested in becoming a Master Naturalist, but cannot attend the open house, contact Tessa Atwood with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at 208-251-6510 or via email at tessa.atwood@idfg.idaho.gov.

Any group, agency or organization that would like to utilize Master Naturalists for projects, field work or outreach, or that would like to participate in the open house as a means for sharing their volunteer needs should contact Tessa Atwood to get more information or to reserve a space at the event.

Another source of information about the Master Naturalist Program can be found at the following link https://idfg.idaho.gov/volunteer/master-naturalist.

Jennifer Jackson is the Regional Conservation Educator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Southeast Region.

To me, crows are the smartest birds in the world. As a kid I never could outsmart them. I had a hand call but didn’t really know what I was doing. Years later I finally learned the system. Like I say, crows are smart. But, if you learn to call properly, you can smoke them.

I was down in Texas recently on a two-week trip and got to crow hunt for a couple of days. Here’s how I do it. I stood in a super thick clump of cedars. You don’t want them to be able to see you until they’re within 40 yards or less. If they see you, they’re going to scatter.

You want to only have an opening above you. Being this well concealed makes it tough to always get a shot but if you’re exposed, they spook. So in the perfect set-up you’ll only have a hole above you. If you don’t have a perfect set-up at least sit back in the shadows.

It’s best to be in a short clump of trees. If the trees are too tall when they fly in, they’ll almost be out of range even if they’re straight over the top of you.

You’ll also want to be camouflaged, especially your hands and face. I wear a net over my face and at least some green army gloves. They can see you bare face if it’s not hidden and your hands are the source of most of your movement.

Like I said earlier, I’ve used a hand call a lot but an electronic call is by far the best. With a hand call there’s only one of you, my electronic call sounds like there’s a whole army of them swarming.

I place the call about 20 yards from me in a clump of brush. I like to start off with a hawk whistle or an owl hooting and then go to a crow owl/hawk fight and ultimately into the crows calling. Many times they’ll be cawing when they come in, but a lot of times they’ll come in silently. On this hunt, they did about 50/50.

I also like to use a Mojo crow decoy with the spinner wings. It comes with a 3- or 4-foot stake but really, it’s better to be up higher so they see it better. It has a hook on it so you could tie on a piece of string and tie it up on a branch.

As long as they don’t see you and you don’t miss them, they’ll usually keep coming in. And if you happen to wound one, they’ll really come in.

So where should you set up? I don’t want to state the obvious but wherever you’re seeing crows. Find some good brush, set up and call. If you park and hear some off in the distance you’re more than likely to have them zip over right away.

So how far should you move between set-ups? I had one 50-acre spot and I did two or three set-ups on it. You can get on the north side of the place and point your speakers north and then go to the south side and point your speakers south to cover new turf.

What do you use for a gun and shells? I like my Mossberg 12-gauge semi-auto. Crows aren’t exceptionally hard to kill and your shots will be semi-close so I used Kent low base 6-shot.

So, if you want to enjoy a little shooting in the offseason and at the same time help the wildlife environment, grab your shotgun and go blast a few crows. They are not good neighbors. They’re death on ground birds (quail, chukars, grouse, etc.). They eat their eggs.

And for the life of me I can’t figure out why Idaho protects ravens. There sure isn’t a shortage of them and they’re really bad neighbors.

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.

Idaho has an abundant and self-sustaining population of mountain lions, and they’re an animal that Fish and Game officers and biologists deal with on a fairly regular basis during winter. This winter is no exception.

Recent incidents have included a mountain lion killed by local sheriff’s deputies near an elementary school in Bruneau, three other lions killed in the Wood River Valley, and at least two lions released after being inadvertently trapped by licensed trappers. These are likely signs of a healthy population and possibly an expanding one.

Mountain lions are game animals and hunting them is regulated by Fish and Game, but there is no trapping season for mountain lions. Idaho Fish and Game conservation officers recently recorded a video when they released a lion from a trap in the Clearwater Region.

Mountain lion incidents are more common in winter because cats follow deer and elk herds, which are more likely to be found at lower elevations, and it also coincides with prime trapping season.

Mountain lions that are inadvertently trapped when they are not near communities are typically released if it’s safe and feasible to do so.

Mountain lions are territorial animals, and mature males and females dominate the best habitat, which typically allows them to find prey and avoid people. But when young mountain lions leave their mothers, they are often pushed out of that prime territory and into areas with less prey. This often puts them closer to people. They may end up near neighborhoods and find pets a potential source of food.

When mountain lions follow deer and elk to lower elevations during winter, it also puts them in closer proximity to people, so there are more encounters. In many cases, it’s a mountain lion wandering through an area and moving on. Sometimes it’s a younger lion that’s been driven out of its usual home range.

When Fish and Game receives reports of mountain lions near towns or homes, each case is treated individually. If a lion appears to be getting too comfortable near people, Fish and Game officials usually attempt to capture the animal. However, the animals may be killed if officials feel the animal could be a threat to public safety. Because it’s difficult to predict whether a mountain lion will leave an area or take up residence there, officials may decide to err on the side of public safety and have the animal euthanized.

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) — A plan appears to be advancing to clean up cleanup of toxic waters at a former open pit copper mine where at least 3,000 migrating snow geese died when they landed in metal-laden water in 2016.

Montana Resources on Monday announced the plan that will eventually discharge treated water from the Berkeley Pit in Butte into Silver Bow Creek, The Montana Standard reports .

Atlantic Richfield officials say the goal is to slow down and eventually stop the rise of the water level in Berkeley Pit, which was declared a Superfund site in 1983.

Currently, the Horseshoe Bend Water Treatment plant is treating water that would otherwise seep into the pit, which holds about 50 billion gallons of heavily acidic, metal laden water. Montana Resources uses the treated water in its nearby copper mine’s milling operations and discharges it into a tailings pond.

Mark Thompson, Montana Resources’ vice president for environmental affairs, said a pilot project to start within the next year will divert the seep water directly to the tailings pond.

About 3 million gallons of water per day will be pulled from the pit into MR’s precipitation plant, which uses iron to recover copper from the water. The mine expects to recover 100,000 pounds of copper per month from the water, Thompson said.

After the copper is removed, the water will be run through the Horseshoe Bend plant to remove other contaminants and neutralize its acidity. That treated water will be used in Montana Resources milling operations before also being discharged into the tailings pond to settle out.

A temporary polishing plant will be built near the tailings pond to further treat at least 7 million gallons of water each day from the pond. The water will be discharged into nearby Silver Bow Creek.

Thompson said the project will run for 3 or 4 years and then reviewed to determine if it should be made permanent.

Montana Department of Environmental Quality Project Manager Joel Chavez, who spent 16 years rebuilding lower Silver Bow Creek, said he planned for the additional flow when the state began removing metals from the lower stretch of the creek. He doesn’t anticipate the additional water would create problems, such as erosion, downstream.

Matt Moore, Butte-Silver Bow Metro Sewer operations manager, said the additional water will benefit aquatic life and “make a nicer, more robust creek in the middle of our town.”

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Information from: The Montana Standard, http://www.mtstandard.com