My Page: News Briefs
National Park News
Yellowstone Opens For Winter Season Next Week
The interior roads of Yellowstone National Park are being packed and groomed in order to open to commercially guided snowmobile and snowcoach travel as scheduled in mid-December.
Limited, managed motorized oversnow travel over groomed, snow-packed park roads will be permitted again this season under the same temporary plan as last year. The plan allows up to 318 commercially guided, Best Available Technology (BAT) snowmobiles and up to 78 commercially guided snowcoaches a day into the park.
The roads that link West Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs and the park’s South Entrance with Old Faithful and Canyon are set to open to commercially guided snowmobiles and snowcoaches at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 15. Motorized oversnow travel on the East Entrance road and Sylvan Pass is scheduled to begin a week later, at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 22.
[more]NEW WEST NEWS BRIEF
Legislators Join Push To Change Wolf Policies
While Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar continued to discuss wolf management with the governors of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming on Thursday, several other western legislators from both political parties took steps to change the federal government’s handling of wolves.
[more]
What’s the value of fish hatcheries to local economies? The total for 11 western states is about $2 billion, the Fort Collins Coloradoan reported this weekend. Hatcheries create 26,000 jobs and generate $36 in economic activity for every $1 spent on fish from a hatchery, the study found. An excerpt from the Coloradoan:
[more]
New West, a next-generation media company dedicated to the culture, economy, politics and lifestyle of the Rocky Mountain West, announced today that it has closed a new round of financing and appointed veteran online media executive Lynn Ingham as its new CEO. The company is now well-positioned for a new phase of growth, and aims to build on its long-standing mission of serving the Rocky Mountain West with innovative, participatory journalism that helps readers understand and make the most of the dramatic changes sweeping the region.
“It is exciting to lead this round of funding for New West because our investment strategy is about ‘fishing where everyone else isn’t’ in places like western Montana,” said Trevor Loy, General Partner with Flywheel Ventures. “We continue to be impressed with the caliber of entrepreneurs we’ve found in Montana, who, like Lynn, grew up here and have come back to create a vibrant entrepreneurial community. We look forward to working with more entrepreneurs from this region.”
[more]KUNC FEATURE
Scientists: Huge Ice Age Fossil Discovery in Snowmass Could Offer Climate Change Insights
Our partners at KUNC have posted a story about a once-in-a-lifetime discovery in Snowmass, Colo., that turned up hundreds of prehistoric fossils, including mastodons, Ice Age bison and numerous prehistoric plants and insects.
Scientists at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science say the fossils may also teach us about how animals adapt to climate change—then and now. “These animals lived at a high elevation in a world that was warming,” museum curator Kirk Johnson told KUNC’s Kirk Siegler.
[more]NEWS BRIEFS
Two Wolves Shot in Northwest Montana; Reward Offered
From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service:
On Nov. 6, 2010, two wild gray wolves were found dead in separate locations on the Flathead National Forest in northwestern Montana. One wolf was found dead along Coal Creek Road, while the body of the other dead wolf was recovered in the Miller Creek area. Both animals appeared to have died as a result of gunshot wounds.
[more]
