BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A senior official at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law with his involvement in awarding $324,000 in conservation grants to a nonprofit where his wife worked as a contractor, according to federal investigators.

As chief of the agency’s international conservation division, Richard Ruggiero made a series of grant awards and extensions to the International Fund for Animal Welfare beginning in 2014, according to a report from the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General.

The awards improperly benefited Ruggiero’s wife, Heather Eves, a wildlife biologist who was paid $5,600 by the nonprofit for training she conducted as part of the grants. A second group paid more than $14,000 to Eves for training under the program, investigators concluded.

Ruggiero’s involvement in the grant violated a federal law that prohibits government employees from participating in an official capacity in matters that could financially benefit them or their direct family, the report said.

He’s been placed on administrative leave pending disciplinary action, Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said Wednesday.

Ruggiero and Eves could not be reached immediately for comment.

The results of the investigation were given to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia, where the Fish and Wildlife Service is headquartered, but prosecutors declined to press criminal charges.

The investigation into Ruggiero began last June, about two months after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered a review of all Interior Department grants worth more than $100,000.

Zinke said in a statement that the report issued by the inspector general “identified exactly the kind of mismanagement and tax dollar abuse I have been concerned about.”

Ruggiero did not directly participate in the panel review process that led up to the initial grant award to the International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2014. But he approved a $30,000 modification to the agreement in 2015, even though he later denied any involvement when confronted by investigators.

Ruggiero eventually admitted he knew it was wrong to approve the agreement, the report said. However, he denied that his wife had financially benefited, claiming she ultimately lost money on the training program due to travel expenses and unpaid volunteer work she contributed.

A representative of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Alex Osorio, said the group had cooperated fully with investigators but was not itself a subject of the probe.

Osorio said the group valued its relationship with the Fish and Wildlife Service “and is committed to ensuring that our interactions are conducted with integrity, transparency and adhere to high ethical standards.”

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A senior official at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service broke the law with his involvement in awarding $324,000 in conservation grants to a nonprofit where his wife worked as a contractor, according to federal investigators.

As chief of the agency’s international conservation division, Richard Ruggiero made a series of grant awards and extensions to the International Fund for Animal Welfare beginning in 2014, according to a report from the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General.

The awards improperly benefited Ruggiero’s wife, Heather Eves, a wildlife biologist who was paid $5,600 by the nonprofit for training she conducted as part of the grants. A second group paid more than $14,000 to Eves for training under the program, investigators concluded.

Ruggiero’s involvement in the grant violated a federal law that prohibits government employees from participating in an official capacity in matters that could financially benefit them or their direct family, the report said.

He’s been placed on administrative leave pending disciplinary action, Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said Wednesday.

Ruggiero and Eves could not be reached immediately for comment.

The results of the investigation were given to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia, where the Fish and Wildlife Service is headquartered, but prosecutors declined to press criminal charges.

The investigation into Ruggiero began last June, about two months after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered a review of all Interior Department grants worth more than $100,000.

Zinke said in a statement that the report issued by the inspector general “identified exactly the kind of mismanagement and tax dollar abuse I have been concerned about.”

Ruggiero did not directly participate in the panel review process that led up to the initial grant award to the International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2014. But he approved a $30,000 modification to the agreement in 2015, even though he later denied any involvement when confronted by investigators.

Ruggiero eventually admitted he knew it was wrong to approve the agreement, the report said. However, he denied that his wife had financially benefited, claiming she ultimately lost money on the training program due to travel expenses and unpaid volunteer work she contributed.

A representative of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Alex Osorio, said the group had cooperated fully with investigators but was not itself a subject of the probe.

Osorio said the group valued its relationship with the Fish and Wildlife Service “and is committed to ensuring that our interactions are conducted with integrity, transparency and adhere to high ethical standards.”

IRWIN — A 47-year-old snowmobiler from Idaho Falls was found dead on Tuesday after being buried by an avalanche near Palisades Reservoir.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office said the body of Troy Leishman was found near the upper bowl of Sheep Creek about 6 miles from the trailhead at approximately 4 p.m. Tuesday.

According to authorities, Leishman was snowmobiling with friends in the area when he was buried by an avalanche.

Though he was pulled out of the snow, authorities said he succumbed to his injuries.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by Bonneville County Search and Rescue, Star Valley Search and Rescue, Swan Valley Fire and Idaho Falls EMS. Leishman’s friends and families also assisted in the recovery.

The incident on Tuesday near Palisades Reservoir is the latest in a string of snowmobile deaths in the region. Last month, two snowmobilers were killed by avalanches in the Island Park area.

On Jan. 10, Idaho Falls resident Adam Wayne Andersen was killed while snowmobiling following an avalanche in the Centennial Mountain Range. Less than two weeks later on Jan. 20, Raymond John Moe of Missoula, Montana, was killed by an avalanche while snowmobiling with friends near the Idaho/Montana border.

Authorities are warning that avalanche danger remains high throughout the region and will continue to increase as temperatures warm up during the rest of the snowmobiling season.

IRWIN — A 47-year-old snowmobiler from Idaho Falls was found dead on Tuesday after being buried by an avalanche near Palisades Reservoir.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office said the body of Troy Leishman was found near the upper bowl of Sheep Creek about 6 miles from the trailhead at approximately 4 p.m. Tuesday.

According to authorities, Leishman was snowmobiling with friends in the area when he was buried by an avalanche.

Though he was pulled out of the snow, authorities said he succumbed to his injuries.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by Bonneville County Search and Rescue, Star Valley Search and Rescue, Swan Valley Fire and Idaho Falls EMS. Leishman’s friends and families also assisted in the recovery.

The incident on Tuesday near Palisades Reservoir is the latest in a string of snowmobile deaths in the region. Last month, two snowmobilers were killed by avalanches in the Island Park area.

On Jan. 10, Idaho Falls resident Adam Wayne Andersen was killed while snowmobiling following an avalanche in the Centennial Mountain Range. Less than two weeks later on Jan. 20, Raymond John Moe of Missoula, Montana, was killed by an avalanche while snowmobiling with friends near the Idaho/Montana border.

Authorities are warning that avalanche danger remains high throughout the region and will continue to increase as temperatures warm up during the rest of the snowmobiling season.

IRWIN — A snowmobiler was found dead on Tuesday after being buried by an avalanche near Palisades Reservoir.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office and Bonneville County Search and Rescue responded to the upper bowl of Sheep Creek about 6 miles from the trailhead at approximately 4 p.m. Tuesday.

According to authorities, an adult man who was snowmobiling with friends in the area was buried by an avalanche.

Though the man was pulled out of the snow, authorities said he succumbed to his injuries. His name has not been released pending notification of his family.

The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office said deputies and Search and Rescue would work throughout Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to bring the man’s body out of Sheep Creek.

POCATELLO — When Zachariah Rollins’ 11-year-old son Bran said there was a mountain lion in a nearby cottonwood tree, nobody believed him at first.

“He likes to play tricks on his parents,” Zachariah laughs.

Zachariah, Bran and other members of the Rollins family were walking on Hilo Drive in south Pocatello on Sunday evening at approximately 7 p.m., and their dog even started lunging toward the tree. When they all looked up, they realized Bran wasn’t joking.

Nestled within the tree’s branches about 30 feet off the ground was a mountain lion, and according to Zachariah, the big cat seemed shy and was staying perfectly still.

“I think we might have startled it and it jumped in the tree,” he said.

According to both Zachariah and officials with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the encounter on Sunday was just one of numerous sightings in the Pocatello area during the past year.

A few weeks ago, residents reported a mountain lion near Cedar Lake Road. In December, an adult male cougar mauled a pet dog to death on Buckskin Road. Fish and Game officers later located the lion and the animal was euthanized.

Last winter, 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.

According to Jennifer Jackson, regional conservation educator with Idaho Fish and Game, wildlife officials will relocate a mountain lion if it is causing conflicts with humans. However, in the case of the recent sightings on Hilo Drive and Cedar Lake Drive, Fish and Game did not take any action.

Jackson said that any residents who encounter a mountain lion near their property can contact Idaho Fish and Game. For more information on mountain lions, visit idfg.idaho.gov.

However, she also said that living side-by-side with wildlife is a part of life in many areas in and around Pocatello, particularly in the south side of town.

“We’ve been living with mountain lions in the Johnny Creek area for decades, and we will continue living with them for decades to come,” Jackson said. “It’s what happens when we share the same habitat.”

But despite so many encounters with mountain lions, Jackson said there have only been three mountain lion attacks on humans in Idaho since 1990. None of these attacks were fatal.

One attack occurred near the Salmon River and another occurred in the southwestern part of the state.

The third attack made national headlines in 2016 when a lion attempted to drag a 4-year-old Blackfoot girl away during a family get-together near Rexburg. The girl survived the attack with minor injuries.

For the Rollins family on Sunday night, the mountain lion did not seem to present itself as a threat. After a neighbor shined a light at the cat, Zachariah was able to snap a photo. Soon afterward, the cat jumped from the tree and ran off into the darkness of night.

Zachariah said his mother-in-law and father-in-law are visiting from Texas, and he’s glad they were able to catch a glimpse of a cougar. Zachariah lives in the Johnny Creek area and he said he’s seen deer, moose, hawks, owls and coyotes. The mountain lion was another item to cross off on his wildlife-sighting checklist.

“It was really cool to see,” he said. “I’ve never seen a mountain lion in the wild before.”

With all the subspecies, elk are pretty widely distributed in various places around the world. Norway even has elk that look more like moose to Americans.

In the United States, the subspecies we are most familiar with are Roosevelt Elk, Rocky Mountain Elk, Tule Elk of California, Manitoban Elk in the Midwestern states and Canadian prairie provinces, and the now-extinct Eastern and Merriam’s Elk.

For this column, I will concentrate on Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain Elk because they are the elk that are prominent in the Rocky Mountain Northwest and the Pacific Northwest coastal states of Washington and Oregon.

Roosevelt Elk, named after President Theodore Roosevelt, inhabit the rainforests of Oregon and Washington and were introduced to Kodiak, Alaska, in the Afognak and Raspberry Islands in 1928.

They are the largest of the four surviving subspecies of elk in North America, having bigger bodies and smaller antlers than Rocky Mountain Elk.

Calling is how most hunters bag Roosevelt Elk.

There is a myth that Roosevelt Elk don’t bugle. In the congested, wet confines of the coastal range, hearing them bugle is less likely since the sound is quickly soaked up by the dense vegetation.

However, bugling will often bring Roosevelt to you. To get a shot, they must come to you.

The demeanor of Roosevelt Elk seems to be similar to white-tailed deer than Rocky Mountain Elk. Roosevelt Elk are less likely to wander than nomadic Rocky Mountain Elk, but they remain invisible, and when pressured by hunters, Roosevelt Elk tend to hunker down in the dense Pacific forests they call home.

One of the best places to see them is at the Dean’s Creek Elk Viewing Area, which is 10 miles east of Reedsport, Oregon, on Highway 38.

Rocky Mountain Elk are found in the Rocky Mountains and the adjacent ranges of Western North America. These elk have more impressive antlers than Roosevelt Elk. Rocky Mountain Elk have winter ranges that are typically in open forests and floodplain marshes in the lower elevations. In the summer, they migrate to the subalpine forests and alpine basins.

They stay higher up during warmer weather and migrate down to lower elevations in the winter. They may come down to lower grasslands during part of the day during spring and summer, but return to the higher elevations during the evening. Visitors at the Madison Campground in Yellowstone National Park are often treated to bugling elk in the meadows along the Madison River from about 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the summer. Sometimes we have heard them bugling after we have turned in for the night.

In Idaho, elk numbers have remained at healthy levels in most pars of the state, and the hunting forecast remains good. The Lolo Zone along the Idaho/Montana border is of some concern as the elk numbers have not rebounded as fast as hoped since the harsh winter of 1996-1997 killed most of the elk in Units 9 and 10. Idaho Fish and Game has relocated or killed a number of wolves in the area so that there is only one pack in the area in hopes of seeing the elk herd rebound to pre-1996-1997 numbers.

Calling is also an effective method of hunting Rocky Mountain Elk, but under hunting pressure, Rocky Mountain Elk, which are nomadic by nature anyway, tend to leave the area for greener and safer pastures.

Unless you have horses, plan on long steep walks and carry binoculars to scan the area being hunted. You will also need to carry a rifle capable of hitting with authority at 500 or 600 yards, but hope for a shot at 300 or 400 yards.

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.

The South Fork Angler Incentive Program continues on the South Fork of the Snake River, and Fish and Game biologist Brett High was recently on the river capturing fish and putting coded wire tags in the snouts of rainbow trout and rainbow/cutthroat hyb…

(AP) — A 53-year-old Illinois man who fell to his death in Yellowstone National Park last year was looking for a supposed hidden cache of gold and jewels.

KULR-TV reports that Jeff Murphy of Batavia, Illinois, was looking for the treasure that antiquities dealer Forrest Fenn says he stashed somewhere in the Rocky Mountains several years ago.

The investigation by Yellowstone officials into Murphy’s death was kept private, but KULR obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The investigative report reveals Murphy’s wife told park authorities that Murphy was looking for the treasure when she called to report him missing.

Murphy’s body was found June 9, 2017. He had fallen about 500 feet down a steep slope.

The report ruled the death an accident.

Thousands have hunted in vain across remote corners of the Western U.S. for the supposed buried treasure.

LOGAN, Utah (AP) — Authorities say a missing 15-year-old teen who was separated from his family while snowmobiling in Utah has been found safe.

KUTV-TV reports the Cache County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Monday night the teen had been found after he had gone missing earlier in the day.

Authorities say the teen was able to make it to the road on his own and find help.

The teen went missing around 3:30 p.m. Monday in Logan Canyon near the Beaver Creek Lodge.

___

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