In brief: State, UI, Kalispels will team for study of Priest Lake trout

SANDPOINT – A study is planned in North Idaho to estimate the number of lake trout in Priest Lake along with what they eat and their survival rates.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game will conduct the study with the University of Idaho’s College of Natural Resources and the Kalispel Tribe, the Bonner County Daily Bee reported. Information gleaned will be used to develop a sport fishery plan for the popular lake.

From March to May, deep-water trap nets and short-duration gill nets will be used to capture lake trout and mark them with individually numbered tags.

Opinions of anglers about how the lake should be managed vary from sticking with lake trout to restoring cutthroats, bull trout and kokanee.

Fish and Game officials plan to schedule a hearing in late February to discuss the project and answer questions from anglers.

Three pictograph images fall from cave wall at state park

BILLINGS – Three images at Pictograph Cave State Park near Billings broke off and fell to the ground.

One of the images was a turtle that was more than 2,000 years old and represented one of the earliest known painted images on the Northern Plains, said Jennifer Lawson, of Montana State Parks.

An abstract image in charcoal and two pieces of a light red ochre image also broke off.

Park officials said the turtle remained almost intact on a single slab of rock and will become part of a display in the visitors center, the Billings Gazette reported.

Officials say the rock fall happened sometime between closing time at 5 p.m. Jan. 18 and 9 a.m. Jan. 19 when a ranger arrived.

The cave has 33 pictographs remaining.

Astronaut to help develop school science program

BOISE – NASA astronaut and former Idaho teacher Barbara Morgan will help develop a new Meridian school science program.

Next fall, Linder Elementary School will become the Barbara Morgan STEM Academy, the Idaho Statesman reported. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math.

Morgan will help develop the program at the school where work on the science classroom facilities is expected to be finished by fall.

In 2007, Morgan traveled into orbit on the space shuttle Endeavour.