It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming, for Wednesday, September 18. I’m Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - brought to you by ServeWyoming - Wyoming's center for volunteerism and AmeriCorps service for the last 30 years! For volunteer opportunities, visit ServeWyoming dot org"
So far this archery hunting season, three grizzly bears have been shot — and two killed — by bowhunters wielding handguns in self-defense.
Wildlife observers and hunters told Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz that there will be more conflicts between grizzlies and hunters.
“It's this pattern that keeps repeating itself… Last year, we had virtually the same number of encounters, or bad encounters, between archery hunters and grizzlies in pretty much the same areas… Montana and Idaho…. seem to be the hot spots, but there's no reason to think that this won't happen in Wyoming, because we've got a lot of archery hunters going into grizzly bear country in Wyoming.”
The trouble is, in order to be successful, bowhunters have to do the opposite of what is considered safe behavior in the backcountry. Hunters have to be quiet and try to mask their scent, and they use game calls to imitate the sounds of cow elk - which could be just as likely to draw in a hungry grizzly as it would a bull elk.
Read the full story HERE.
Just as wildland firefighting crews have turned a corner on getting control of the stubborn Short Draw Fire that started about 30 miles north of Gillette and burned into Montana, Mother Nature has thrown them another wrinkle - coal seams.
The fire has burned about 35,000 acres in the northern Powder River Basin, and also has ignited a coal seam beneath the ground, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson.
“If anybody knows that area, the Powder River Basin… There are coal seams all over the place. There are many coal seam fires that burn and just kind of smolder for years. So that's a different kind of firefighting than they have to do… They have to dig them up, try to bury them, whatever they can do to try to get the coal seam out. Sometimes they can't.”
Overall efforts to fight the Short Draw Fire are showing progress. The fire’s size has remained stable at a little over 35,000 acres, and fire lines continue to be built around it. Containment as of Tuesday morning was at 65%.
Read the full story HERE.
If politicians would get out of the way, carbon capture could be commercially viable in just a few years.
That was what operations manager Jim Ford said during a tour of the Integrated Test Center at the Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Dry Fork station coal plant.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson was part of a larger group organized by Governor Mark Gordon’s office for this tour. He reports that this high-tech facility will only be useful for carbon capture if the coal industry continues - but the current administration has dictated that coal-fired power plants in the Powder River Basin are to be shut down by 2041.
“There's kind of an awkward dance that some of these groups are doing with the EPA and the federal government. As far as on one hand, the federal government is kind of encouraging this technology, but on the other hand, they're kind of shutting down coal. And those two things kind of have to go to hand in hand.”
Wolfson reports that the tour was set up to help the public understand what's developing in the field of carbon capture.
Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 attracts a crowd wherever it goes. When the Cheyenne-based, 1-million-pound-plus steam locomotive arrived in Denison, Iowa, on Monday to a throng of Big Boy’s usual fans, the train was carrying a very special guest - famous comedian and gearhead Jay Leno.
Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean reports that Leno climbed aboard Big Boy in the Missouri Valley for the ride to Denison.
“Everybody knows that Jay Leno is a great big gearhead. You know, for so long he's been driving these cool vintage cars, traveling around the world. He's got a … YouTube about them, and so, you know, it just makes sense that he would do something on the Big Boy… Jay Leno was clearly enjoying himself on the big boy train. He got to pull the whistle. He had this great big smile on his face…The people who are waiting for big boy had no idea that he was on the train. So it was a pleasant surprise…a lot of firefighters posed for pictures with them. People got selfies with them. It was quite a thing. I wish I could have been there.”
Big Boy 4014 has an almost cult-like fandom around it, which demonstrates the continued power of the world’s last operable Big Boy Steam engine.
Read the full story HERE.
Political candidates and supporters in Lander, Wyoming, were voicing confusion Tuesday after a rash of political yard sign thefts in town.
And whoever is taking the signs doesn’t seem to have a political agenda, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland, as signs for both Republicans and Democrats were apparently targeted.
“The people I talked to said that the signs were stolen regardless of political affiliation. So on the left, on the right, you know, progressive, conservative, it didn't matter… two people said that they were in a heap in the middle of the road. I never could figure out whether police put them there or the alleged thief put them there, but a lot of people were able to recover their signs. And you know, the candidates who experienced this were voicing disappointment, saying, if it's a kid, it's not funny, or if it's an adult, shame on them.”
The Lander Police Department said in a Tuesday Facebook post that the issue, quote, “has been taken care of from our end,” endquote, but didn’t respond to multiple Cowboy State Daily requests to clarify what that means or for more information on the political sign thefts.
Read the full story HERE.
I’ll be back in just 20 seconds with more news.
And now let’s take a look at today’s weather, with Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day.
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You can get Don’s full forecast on the Cowboy State Daily website.
That huge, bright ball hovering over the earth in Wyoming’s night sky has been expected, but it’s still spectacular. It’s the second of four consecutive supermoons in the latter half of 2024.
There was a dash of color to it when the full moon rose Tuesday night, because part of it was covered by Earth’s shadow. It was a partial lunar eclipse of a supermoon, reports Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi.
“September is a super moon, which means that the moon is going to appear brighter and larger in the sky because it's within its closest proximity to Earth… because we had a total total solar eclipse back in April, this is going to be a partial lunar eclipse… as Max Gilbreath, the planetarium coordinator at the University of Wyoming, said, it's going to look like a nail clipper took a chunk out of it.”
Along with being the second supermoon, September’s giant orb in the sky is the last of four full moons during Summer 2024, although that’s because of a quirk of the calendar rather than a unique astronomical phenomenon.
Read the full story HERE.
Wyoming’s oil and gas industry looks poised to fend off the Bureau of Land Management’s second bite at new methane rules that could cost the American oil and gas industry millions of dollars.
The new rule, called the Waste Prevention Subject to Royalties and Resource Conservation Rule, is actually a revision of a similar rule that was struck down by a Wyoming court, according to Cowboy State Daily’s Renee Jean.
“In 2016 they passed a methane rule, it was struck down by a Wyoming court. This time the case, this revised rules come back. The case was filed in North Dakota. BLM tried to move it back to Wyoming because the new rule was written in response to Wyoming's ruling, but the North Dakota judge wasn't having it. He said there's no need to change the venue here… he basically told them that their rule is duplicative. He told them that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the rule is arbitrary and capricious.”
The BLM’s new methane rule was targeted to federal and tribal lands, a designation that would hit about 70% of Wyoming’s existing mineral acreage. The additional layer of rules would add up to $19.3 million in additional costs for the industry.
Read the full story HERE.
It seems the many signs and warnings posted throughout the park and in Yellowstone National Park literature aren’t enough.
A concessions employee at Yellowstone National Park was overheard giving a legal disclaimer to someone buying a $2.49 box of “Yellowstone Animal Cookies,” pointing out that that doesn’t mean they are cookies to be fed to animals.
Cowboy State Daily’s Leo Wolfson said Cody resident Kalyn Beasley captured the employee’s disclaimer on video.
“Cody resident Kalyn Beasley could not believe his ears when he heard a concessionaire at Yellowstone National Park's fishing bridge General Store giving a disclaimer when selling a box of Yellowstone animal cookies at the shop… he can't believe that they sell, you know, other food products at the store, but they don't make the same disclaimer as if these cookies are especially made with a special risk.”
In actuality, feeding the cookies to wildlife could land someone a $5,000 fine, and the possibility of receiving up to six months in jail. And a spokesperson for the store said they don’t actually instruct their employees to issue disclaimers when selling the cookies.
Read the full story HERE.
When it comes to hanging out with his deer buddies and snacking on crabapples fresh off the trees, a mule deer buck that lives in Rock Springs isn’t about to let anything stop him - not even terrible injuries that have left him limping along on three hooves with antlers that are a tangled mess.
Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that Steve the Survivor, as locals call him, is a symbol of perseverance.
“People think he got hit by a car somewhere about two years ago… this poor guy, he's got messed-up antlers. He's actually missing one of his hooves, I guess it was hanging by a thread last year and came all the way off. So he's stumping around on three legs with messed up headgear, and he just keeps going… t's kind of a cool inspirational story that … you can have a messed up head, you can be missing a foot, and you can be gimping along, but if you're determined enough, you can make it.”
Steve isn’t the only deer with old injuries in Rock Springs. Animal Control Officer Lydia Gomez told Cowboy State Daily that there are other deer that have old injuries, and are able to get around and eat, so Game and Fish just lets them be.
Read the full story HERE.
And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on Cowboy State Daily Dot Com - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our YouTube channel.
I’m Wendy Corr, for Cowboy State Daily.
