Tagged: Grand Teton National Park

Drivers in and around Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole need to watch out for large animals. Right now the spring migration of elk is underway.  Bison, mule deer, and moose are also leaving their winter ranges and traveling into their summer range in the Park.

Park Spokeswoman, Jackie Skaggs says that colliding with such animals can be extremely dangerous.

“Hitting something that large can cause serious damage to your vehicle,” Skaggs says, “could cause serious injury to you or the occupants of your vehicle, and it will likely cause the death of an animal.”

Grand Teton National Park says that because of the federal sequestration, it will be hiring fewer seasonal workers this summer and will be making cuts to emergency response teams.

The park was instructed to trim its budget by $700,000 for the next six months. Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott says the changes will be noticeable.

“We know there will be delays in responding to search and rescue, as well as medical emergencies and law enforcement,” Scott said.

She says they will also have fewer fire fighters.

Grand Teton National Park and Trout Unlimited are partnering to demolish a dam near Kelly, WY, which will restore access to the  Gros Ventre Watershed for spawning trout and non-game fish.

The Newbold Dam was once used for irrigation, but the park’s public affairs officer, Jackie Skaggs says the structure is now obsolete, and removing it will help the park.

“In the long run it saves us money in maintenance for a structure that is no longer needed, is no longer used, but greatly benefits fish and fish habitats,” said Skaggs.

The National Park Service and the Game and Fish Department changed regulations for hunting elk in Grand Teton National Park. Part of the reason for these changes is to avoid contact between hunters and grizzly bears.

Last year a hunter participating in the annual elk reduction program shot and killed a grizzly in the park. In 2011, a grizzly mauled a hunter. Both encounters involved bears protecting animal carcasses.

The U.S. Attorney’s office has decided not to file criminal charges against hunters who killed a grizzly bear in Grand Teton National Park last year.

The hunters were participating in the annual elk reduction program when they shot the bear. But Park Spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs says investigators determined that they acted in self defense after the grizzly charged them. She says the hunters did the right thing after the bear died.

The death of a grizzly bear in Grand Teton National Park on Thanksgiving Day of 2012 has triggered calls for ending the park's annual elk hunt. A hunting party shot the grizzly after the hunters said the bear charged them. Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott calls the bear's death a travesty. It's the first hunting-related grizzly death in the park. But Scott says her agency, the National Park Service, can't just end the hunt. Rebecca Huntington has more.

Avalanches killed two skiers from Jackson in western Wyoming yesterday.  Elizabeth Gray Benson, 28, was west of Bondurant when an avalanche caught her and carried her into a tree. Nick Gillespie, 30, was in the north end of the Teton Range.

Bob Comey with the Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center says significant new snowfall on top of a slick, older base of snow means the risk for avalanches is considerable.

The Department of Interior has paid the state of Wyoming 16 million dollars for a second parcel of state land located inside Grand Teton National Park.  Two more parcels remain to be purchased. 

The Grand Teton Program Manager of the National Parks Conservation Association says she is thrilled.  Sharon Mader notes that since the land is owned by the state, it could have been made available to private developers.  So having the federal government buy the land is important.

The federal government might not be able to buy a tract of land within Grand Teton National Park, as it had planned to do.
 
An Interior Department spokesman says the agency may not be able to allocate funding to buy the land from Wyoming.
 
Wyoming has owned the roughly two square miles of land since statehood. The parcels are surrounded by park land but aren't formally part of Grand Teton.
 
Two years ago, Wyoming's governor threatened to sell the land at auction. The threat prodded Interior officials to agree to buy the land for $107 million.

The United States Government is bringing a number of Foreign Ambassadors to Jackson Hole this weekend to learn about conservation and preservation.  The trip is being led by U-S Chief of Protocol Capricia Penavic  Marshall who says the goal is to teach the diplomats about how the National Park System is a major part of the country’s environmental heritage.  She hopes this will lead to an interesting discussion.

A young Grizzly Bear and a mother antelope were killed Thursday in Grand Teton National Park on Highway 89, the park’s main road.

The grizzly was killed when one car swerved to avoid another car and rolled, hitting and killing the bear that was by the side of the road. The driver was treated for minor injuries at Saint John’s Hospital in Jackson. Another car hit an antelope near Gros Ventre Junction, and failed to report the collision. Park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs says, drivers need to be extra aware when driving in the park.

Fire managers in the Jackson area have raised the fire danger rating to “high” for Teton County, the Bridger-Teton National Forest and Grand Teton National Park.

National Park spokesperson Jackie Skaggs says the rating is based on a combination of high temperatures, high winds, low humidity and low moisture content in plants. She says campers need to be exceptionally careful with cigarettes, camp stoves and camp fires.

The number of elk harvested in Grand Teton National Park this year is down nearly 30 percent from this time last year.

Park spokesperson Jackie Skaggs says warm fall weather and plentiful vegetation led the animals to migrate later than usual.

“We had such a good year for growth of native vegetation that the elk have remained in their summer ranges,” Skaggs said.

More elk are coming to the park now, though, and hunters have one more week to pursue the animals as part of the annual elk reduction program.