Teen charged with homicide
A teenage snowboarder has been charged with negligent homicide in a fatal collision with a skier at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort a year ago.
Greg Doda, 17, of Crownsville, Md., ran into Heather Donahue, 29, of Shrewsbury, Mass., in the Laramie Bowl last February, according to court documents provided in Jackson, Wyo.
“The impact knocked Donahue out of her gloves, skis, poles, hat, goggles, neck warmer and catapulted her 25 feet down the hill,” sheriff’s investigator Mike Carlson said.
Carlson said Doda, who was 16 at the time, was going 35-60 mph when he struck Donahue. Though Doda was wearing a helmet, Donahue was not and died of a head injury.
Associated Press
HUNTING/FISHING
Montanans sue to protect identity
The Montana Shooting Sports Association is suing to stop the state from requiring Social Security numbers from those who apply for hunting and fishing licenses.
The lawsuit filed recently in Missoula District Court says the state’s constitutional right of privacy trumps laws put in place to force the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks to collect the Social Security numbers.
Idaho and Washington also require sportsmen to give their Social Security numbers the first time they apply for hunting and fishing licenses. The numbers are kept in databases but are not printed on licenses or available to dealers who issue them.
The Montana suit asks that the court prohibit the agency from rejecting license applicants who decline to provide their Social Security numbers, and to purge its data of Social Security numbers.
The laws were put in place to deal with federal requirements over tracking people who are delinquent on their child support, the state says. States that didn’t comply risked losing federal funding for other programs.
The Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks takes extra care in protecting the Social Security numbers, said spokesman Ron Aasheim. Only child support enforcement officials have access to the information, and it is blocked in the database from anyone else attempting to view it, he said.
Associated Press
CONSERVATION
Plum Creek deals for conservation
Plum Creek Timber Co. is expected to declare about 7,200 acres of wildlife habitat in Montana’s Swan Valley off limits to development under an $8 million deal with the Montana wildlife agency.
Seattle-based Plum Creek, one of the nation’s largest owners of private timberland, would continue to own the property in the northern Swan Valley and manage it for timber. Without the easement, however, Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials fear the land would be developed to the detriment of wildlife and recreation.
The easement is the first step in what state officials hope will ultimately be a project conserving nearly 11,000 acres of Plum Creek land in the Swan Valley, at a potential total cost of $27 million to $30 million.
The agency will rely largely on federal funding, plus dollars from the nonprofit Trust for Public Land.
The lands, intermingled with the Swan River State Forest, support grizzly bears, black bears, deer, elk, moose, and include streams that support bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. Besides protecting habitat for those species, the conservation easement helps ensure continued public access to outdoor recreation, state officials said.
An easement completed in 2003 after work by the Trust for Public Land, Burns and the wildlife agency prevented development on more than 142,000 acres of Plum Creek land in northwestern Montana. At the time, the trust described the deal as the largest conservation easement in Montana history.
Associated Press
CAMPING
Fees increasing at parks, forests
Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks have increased their vehicle entrance fees for 2006, and the Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests are planning to raise camping fees $1-$4.
Both parks have raised their fees from $10 to $15 for a seven-day pass in their first entrance fee increase in nine years. An annual pass for each park costs $30.
Eighty percent of that revenue will remain at the respective parks, officials said, providing Mount Rainier National Park with an additional $500,000 to $600,000 each year.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the park collected more than $2.37 million in fees, including entrance fees, park passes and campground revenues.
On the Wenatchee and Okanogan national forests, “It has been 10 years since the fees have been increased for most of these campgrounds,” said James L. Boynton, forest supervisor.
Rich Landers
FLY FISHING
Free class just for kids
Swede’s Fly Shop is taking registration for a free fly tying and fly fishing clinic for eight kids, ages 10-15, set for March 4. Info: 323-0500.
Rich Landers