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JACKSON - After an acrimonious, three-hour meeting, Wyoming's top five state elected officials have approved a contract for a $100 million sale of the Kelly parcel to Grand Teton National Park. "I believe in our office we can take the $100 million and turn it into $1.6 billion," Treasurer Curt Meier said, shortly before voting for the deal. "That that could be a perpetual - actually, generational - fund that would benefit the students and the education system of the state of Wyoming until the...
JACKSON — Grizzly 399’s cub was not collared when its famous mother was hit and killed by a car Tuesday evening in the Snake River Canyon. That means wildlife managers do not have an easy way to locate the yearling. The cub has not been seen since the accident, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said Thursday. But biologists said they’re optimistic about the cub’s chances because denning season is approaching. The cub is large and approaching 2 years old, when grizzly mothers typically kick off their young. “High chances of survival...
JACKSON — Scientists aren’t sure whether it’s possible to detect hydrothermal explosions like last Tuesday’s Biscuit Basin blow-up before they happen. Still, they want to try and learn what they can about the subterranean blasts. Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly is open to the idea. “We definitely had what I’d call a close call. I’m very happy no one was injured or worse,” Sholly said. “We’ll continue to work with the scientists to figure out if there’s any better ways to improve monitoring. Obviously, we want to make sure...
JACKSON - As the Wyoming Department of Transportation aims to open the temporary Teton Pass detour next week, only three weeks after a landslide took out part of the pass, geotechnical engineers say monitoring is key. WYDOT is planning to monitor the detour with instruments. But officials did not say by press time whether they plan to staff observers on the road around the clock, a key piece of advice from outside engineers. "The once-daily reading, combined with the visual monitoring, would be...
JACKSON — Wolverines officially have federal protection after federal wildlife biologists determined the species is “less secure” than previously believed in the face of climate change and habitat loss. On Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the elusive, rare alpine-dwelling mesocarnivore — an animal whose diet is only slightly above 50% meat — would be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The decision comes after a lengthy legal battle between envir...
JACKSON – In the windy, unincorporated hunting and ranching enclave of Bondurant, south of Jackson Hole, Richard Pearson is thought to be one of the oldest residents who grew up there. Pearson doesn’t like what he’s seeing in the town he’s called home all of his 70-plus years. Some eight miles away from the rustic Elkhorn Bar and Trading Post, the community watering hole, billionaire Joe Ricketts is trying to develop a resort and guest ranch on the banks of the Hoback River. “These billionaires have some kind of status thing going on where the...
JACKSON -It doesn't take much to get a mountain goat's goat. They go from "passive to aggressive really fast," said Joel Berger, the Barbara Cox Anthony University Chair of Wildlife Conservation at Colorado State University. One of Berger's recent studies found that in high alpine environments in the Rocky Mountains where mountain goats and bighorn sheep compete for resources, goats displace sheep - as much as 95% of the time when salt licks were the issue. Their aggressive behavior is part of t...
JACKSON — The House Revenue Committee was again disinterested in new taxes last week as it voted down a real estate transfer tax and an expansion of the sales tax from goods to services. Teton County legislators supported the real estate tax. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort lobbied against the sales tax expansion. Rep. Cathy Connolly, D-Albany, was the lead sponsor on the sales tax bill. Pointing to a report on Wyoming’s estimated “tax capacity” — the ability to increase taxes while remaining competitive business-wise — she argued that Wyomin...
JACKSON — The new, fast-spreading coronavirus variant first discovered in the United Kingdom has been detected in Teton County, and health officials are repeating their plea for people to only gather with household members. “Our community is in perhaps the most critical position we have faced yet in the course of this pandemic,” Teton District Health Officer Travis Riddell said in a press release Saturday. “With the identification of the COVID-19 variant along with cases of COVID-19 rapidly rising in our community, we are asking all residen...
JACKSON - Three hot air balloons carrying dozens of people lost control Monday morning and came to a crashing halt in a field near Teton Village. The multi-balloon incident is under investigation by federal authorities. More than 16 passengers were hurt. Some of them described the incident as "terrifying." "We were descending so fast," Clinton Phillips told the Jackson Hole Daily. "It was lifting us up and slamming us back down again. We were desperately trying not to fall out." Phillips said...
