Out & About: Area avalanche updates begin
OUTSLIDE – The Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center has begun posting weekly updates on avalanche conditions at bit.ly/s1CzZZ.
The center’s staff also has posted schedules for regional avalanche awareness classes for all backcountry travelers, including snowmobilers.
Copters, trappers cull Lolo wolves
OUTFIELD – Idaho Fish and Game Department has plans to use helicopter gunners and government trappers to kill wolves roaming the Lolo Zone, a remote, rugged area in the north-central part of the state once populated by some of Idaho’s biggest elk herds.
Trapping efforts will begin later this month, coinciding with the current hunting and trapping season for wolves, said Dave Cadwallader, the agency’s regional supervisor in Lewiston. Helicopter gunning will begin later this winter.
Eagle gathering sets CdA record
OUTSTANDING – A record 259 bald eagles were counted Friday at Lake Coeur d’Alene’s Wolf Lodge Bay.
The BLM survey found the eagle gathering, lured by the feast of spawning kokanee, had increased by 123 birds in just a week.
Friday’s count tops the record of 254 eagles counted in the bay on Dec. 21, 2010.
Channel cat shows itch to travel
OUTMARVEL – A channel catfish, of all things, has set the record for traveling the longest distance of any fish in Wyoming fish-tagging history.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department official say the catfish was tagged in June 2007 just below the Kendrick Diversion Dam on Clear Creek east of Sheridan.
Last month, the fish was caught 415 miles away by an angler on the Yellowstone River near Pompey’s Pillar, Mont.
The fish likely traveled down the Powder River into Montana aided by this year’s high water and then turned upstream in the Yellowstone.
Kids have chance to beat skin cancer
OUTREACH – Many people will be hitting the sunny ski slopes this week, or maybe “coloring up” in a tanning booth, or planning a winter getaway to a warm beach.
Fine. Take your sunscreen and learn to cover up with clothing, especially if you’re a kid.
Remember, your skin is like an elephant. It never forgets.
A single bad sunburn before the age of 18 doubles your chance of contracting malignant melanoma.