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POWELL - Kendell Cummings isn't sure what he'll do when he returns home after graduating from Northwest College, but he'll be taking a rare medal with him when he goes. The Trapper wrestler who grabbed a grizzly bear by the ear to save his friend has now been honored for his heroism. He was recently announced as one of the latest group of heroes who will receive the Carnegie Medal for Heroism, North America's highest honor for civilian heroism. The medal is given to U.S. and Canadian citizens...
POWELL - The Bureau of Land Management released a draft Thursday of an updated sage grouse management plan that places species protections back on track after several years of disruptions to the historic 2015 sage grouse plan. That was then credited for halting plans for costly protections for the species under the Endangered Species Act. Following 2019 court orders overturning Trump administration changes to the historic collaborative plans, the BLM has been managing sage grouse habitat...
POWELL -Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom has been resurrected and the show's producers have picked two area ranches' black-footed ferret conservation efforts to highlight in the first season. When Allen and Kristine Hogg, owners of the historic Lazy BV Ranch, got a call from the iconic wildlife show's representatives last fall, they were excited and invited the team to the ranch. The show, which premiered 60 years ago this month, was a favorite as the two grew up. "We weren't allowed to watch TV...
POWELL -At the Rock Creek Ranch in the Clarks Fork Canyon, Leroy, the nearly 2-ton ranch "mooscot," still has free run of the iconic ranch land. And now he has developed a taste for Christmas. "He loves Christmas as long as he's eating," said ranch manager Jerry Hill of the people-loving steer. Recently Leroy accompanied the Hill family on a trip to the woods on the ranch to pick out the ranch family's Christmas tree. They found the perfect evergreen. Hill knew it was the right one because...
POWELL —Brady Lowry noticed bear scat as he walked with three fellow Northwest College wrestling teammates along a hillside on the South Fork. They were searching for shed antlers — one of their favorite activities in nearby mountain ranges. The four close friends chose the school in part due to its proximity to the mountains. Lowry saw more scat — a lot of it. It was fresh. “I look up and a grizzly is 5 feet from us, sprinting at me,“ he recalled. The bear tackled Lowry, a 21-year-o...
POWELL- The family of Thomas "TG" Howard wanted to make sure they didn't hide his mental illness and depression, listing it as his cause of death in his obituaries. It was important to find a positive in the unthinkably hard reality of how he died. Howard took his own life Christmas day, 2015. The popular athlete at Cody High School who joined the Navy after graduation had first turned to alcohol and then opiates in an effort to deal with his mental illness. "A lot of people that struggle with m...
POWELL - Unprecedented rain, combined with fast melting late season snow, has flooded nearby communities and forced the closure and evacuation of Yellowstone National Park and nearby attractions. Visitors in Yellowstone National Park were being evacuated Monday, as several roads in the park were closed due to substantial flooding, rockslides and mudslides from the recent unprecedented amounts of rainfall. At 10:45 a.m. Monday, the park closed all entrances to inbound traffic due to hazardous con...
POWELL — After years of diligently manning aquatic invasive species checkpoints with trained inspectors, testing water systems and preparing for the worst, invasive zebra mussels were delivered to Wyoming via first class mail. For more than a decade, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has been actively planning and gearing up to keep damaging invasive species of mussels out of the state. It was once one of six states in the lower 48 proud to be mussel-free. That is, until this spring. Invasive zebra mussels were found in aquarium moss purchas...
POWELL — As the sun came up on the new year Friday, a series of significant fee increases took effect at Wyoming’s state parks. All fees are increasing, from single day use passes to annual permits, with some increasing as much as 60%. For Wyoming residents, daily use fees at state parks, recreation areas and archaeological sites will move to one rate year-round, with no more discount for off-season rates. They’re increasing from $4 and $6, depending on the season, to $7 year-round, while a visit to a historic site now costs $4 (up from $2-$3...
POWELL - Greater sage grouse numbers are expected to continue dropping across the West for the fourth year in a row, alarming scientists and conservation officials. It also raises questions of federal management of habitat home to the grouse and more than 350 other species dependent on the sagebrush steppe. Since the signing of a historic collaborative conservation plan in 2015, state-level data suggest sage-grouse populations have declined 44% on average. Scientists and conservation...
