JH Underground – news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Unwilling to budge on spending cuts, Wyoming’s congressional delegation announced today a new plan to turn Yellowstone National Park into a dystopic battleground in which public land managers will fight to the death for funding.

Grand Teton superintendent Mary Gibson Scott and YNP chief Dan Wenk will compete in Hunger Games: Yellowstone, along with Scott Guenther, head of the Jenny Lake rangers, National Elk Refuge manager Steve Kallin and Cheryl Probert, acting Bridger-Teton National Forest supervisor.

U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis held a lavish bash at Four Seasons to announce the contest, attended by hundreds of oil and gas industry executives. Lummis hailed the plan as necessary belt tightening in a time of economic austerity.

“Instead of blindly filling desks, these bureaucrats will expose themselves to feel what wretches feel, and show the heavens more just,” she said.

Sen. John Barrasso said Yellowstone’s 3,500 square miles will serve as the perfect venue for the competition. Flesh-hungry grizzly bears and wolves will add extra drama as land managers engage one another in an atavistic struggle, against a backdrop of steaming geysers and bubbling mud pots. Barrasso has signed a deal with Fox News to broadcast the contest.

Read More…

Posted under Environment, Humor, Politics, Republican Party

Tags: cynthia lummis, grand teton national park, john barrasso, yellowstone

From its beginnings as a trickle of snowmelt off Two Ocean Pass to the thunderous cataracts of its Grand Canyon and sinuous meandering through the plains of Montana, the Yellowstone River is the longest undammed river in the lower 48 states.

A new film by Hunter Weeks follows a 30-day journey by drift boat down the river to its confluence with the Missouri at Fort Buford, N.D. Where the Yellowstone Goes chronicles the people and landscapes the party encounters while floating and fishing this majestic waterway.

Weeks will show the film and take questions Wednesday night in a benefit for American Rivers at the Pink Garter Theater. Tickets are $10, available online or at Jack Dennis Sports and Teton Mountain Lodge. Showtime is 7 p.m.

I’ve always thought of the Yellowstone as one of the uppermost headwaters of the Mississippi. Along those lines, I’d someday like to make a journey from Atlantic Creek all the way to New Orleans.

Posted under Environment, Sports

Tags: conservation, fishing, pink garter, river running, yellowstone

Earlier this summer, three tourists were gored by bison in separate incidents in Yellowstone National Park.

This nearly makes four, or five, or six.

August will be over soon.

Enjoy.

————————————

• Utard films herself being gored by bison (July 27, 2010)

Posted under Entertainment, Environment, Humor

Tags: bison, tourists, wildlife, yellowstone

Here is why there has been a controversy putting park officials at odds with wildlife photographers this summer.

Via Todd Wilkinson, this video depicts a bear jam near the summit of Mount Washburn in Yellowstone. A professional freelance cameraman captured the scene recently while driving through the park.

The clip would be funnier if edited with pop-up comments from the griz. “Roots or corpulent white people?” “Seriously, jorts?” “Putting up the window is unlikely to keep me out of your SUV.”

For more on the brouhaha and corresponding new park policy, read Todd’s piece. And be sure to click on the related video, “man photographing grizzly bear mother with two cubs in Yellowstone.”

Posted under Environment, Media

Tags: bears, grand teton national park, photography, tourists, wildlife, yellowstone

Runoff on the Snake River, drawn out by cold weather and diminished by dam control, may or may not have peaked this weekend.

But in Yellowstone National Park, rivers are running wild. This is the confluence of Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River, in the park’s northeast corner.

Photographer Greg Winston has more images on his blog. The road, which runs from Tower Junction to the northeast entrance, has been closed since Friday.

The Snake River above Alpine hit nearly 25,000 cubic feet per second Saturday. If not for the dam, the flow of the river would have exceeded 36,000 cfs, with inflow to Jackson Lake at more than 13,000 cfs.

Posted under Environment

Tags: river running, yellowstone