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Boulder White Clouds, Idaho's next Wilderness? Photo courtesy of the Idaho Conservation League. The 111th Congress could come up with another massive public lands omnibus bill before convening in January. Congressman Mike Simpson's (R-ID) Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act and Senator Jon Tester's (D-MT) Forest Jobs and Recreation Act could be included, or not.

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FEATURED PHOTO FROM NEW WEST IMAGES

Skalkaho HDR 1
Skalkaho Creek Ranch, by Bill McDavid.  This image was captured in the early morning hours of June 24th while photographing the landscape of the Skalkaho Creek Ranch located near Hamilton, Montana.  Click here to view more of Bill’s photography.

See more photos on the New West Images photoblog.

THE NEW WEST BLOG

Bear and Cubs Caught after Highly Unusual Campsite Mauling Near Yellowstone

The bear who killed a man and injured two others at the Soda Butte campground just outside Yellowstone National Park early Wednesday returned to the site today. She was trapped along with two of her three cubs after she tried to tear down one of the tents she rampaged, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim, who spoke to the Associated Press.

Killed was Kevin Kammer, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich., who was camping alone, according to the Billings Gazette. The bear, estimated to weigh between 300 and 400 pounds, pulled Kammer out of his tent, dragging him about 25 feet to where his body was found, Aasheim told the AP.

The other victims, Deb Freele of London, Ontario, and an unidentified male, have been hospitalized in Cody, Wyo.

They were attacked around 1:30 a.m., while they slept. According to a story reported by Brett French in the Gazette, the campsites showed no immediate evidence that garbage or food left out attracted the bears.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks Warden Capt. Sam Sheppard described for the AP a highly unusual predatory attack. “She basically targeted the three people and went after them,” Sheppard said. “It wasn’t like an archery hunter who gets between a sow and her cubs and she responds to protect them.”

COMMUNITY BLOGGERS

Priest River’s Future Celebrates its Past

A Beardmore river pig crew. Charles Beardmore is the man wearing a tie.

The town of Priest River will be holding its Timber Days festival at the end of this week, continuing a ritual that has gone on in some form as long as anyone can remember. The annual event has grown out of the celebration that used to occur after the yearly log drive down the Priest River, when brave and spry “river pigs” cajoled logs down the foaming and rock-infested waterway to its confluence with the Pend Oreille River and the lumber mills there.

Although the last drive was held over 50 years ago and most of the river pigs no longer walk this earth—and most of the mills are no longer with us either—the celebration remains as a commemoration of Priest River’s heritage as a timber town.

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