Ten Sleep Fish Hatchery fish culturist Tim Lowry gave Shoshoni kindergartners a tour of the facility this week. Above, teacher Debbie Eggleston (the daughter of Worland residents Don and Laverne Neihart) and a student look at a tank filled with thousands of tiny Yellowstone cutthroat trout. At right, Lowry shows the students the different sizes of food the “fry” are fed as they grow. Lowry explained how the trout are stocked in lakes across the state, including very remote locations where there is no road access. “We stock by helicopter now, but they used to pack them in in milk cans.”

Maintaining healthy hospital
topic of community meetings

BASIN – According to Ben Steed, Wyoming Department of Transportation Department resident engineer in Basin, a pair of projects with minimal impacts on traffic flows have started in Northwest Wyoming.
Construction of a runaway truck ramp has started on U.S. 14 east of Greybull near the Shell Falls Visitors Center in Shell Canyon.
Steed said the $616,000 runaway truck ramp project is located at milepost 27.1 on U.S. 14, just east of the visitors center. The prime contractor is Pab Good Trucking LLC of Greybull.
“Most of the contractor’s work is off the highway, and there will be minimal impacts to traffic,” Steed said.
Completion date for the ramp project is Sept. 30, 2013.
A second project involves removing and replacing substandard bridge rail and guardrail at various locations through Northwest Wyoming. The prime contractor is K’s Construction, Inc. of Otto.
The $1.4 million project includes bridge rail and guardrail improvements at four locations on Wyoming 290 (Pitchfork Highway) west of Meeteetse in Park County, three locations on Wyoming 31 in Big Horn County between Manderson and Hyattville, and two locations on Wyoming 133 between Pavillion and Kinnear in Fremont County. Work is currently under way in Big Horn and Park counties.
Completion date for the project is Nov. 30, 2013.
According to Steed, a $2.6 million Northwest Wyoming highway patching operation is scheduled to begin next week on U.S. 14A between Oasis Junction and Byron.
After the work between Oasis Junction and Byron, prime contractor Mountain Construction Co., of Lovell, is then scheduled to move its operation to other work in Big Horn County.
Highway patching is scheduled on U.S. 14A between Lovell and Byron, U.S. 310/Wyoming 789 between Greybull and Lovell, and on Wyoming 32 between Lovell and Emblem.
“This work is scheduled to take approximately 2-3 weeks, and motorists should expect delays,” Steed said. “The contractor is then scheduled for highway patching on Wyoming 296 (Chief Joseph Scenic Highway) and Wyoming 120 between Cody and Meeteetse.”
Steed said the contractor is scheduled for highway patching in Washakie and Fremont counties later in the summer.

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Environmentalists drop 1 of their 2 wolf lawsuits

By Ben Neary
Associated Press

CHEYENNE (AP) — A coalition of environmental groups has dropped one of two lawsuits challenging last year’s decision by federal officials to turn over management of Wyoming wolves to the state.
A notice dismissing the lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal court in Cheyenne by lawyers for WildEarth Guardians and eight other groups. That leaves a similar suit filed by a different coalition of groups pending in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Both lawsuits generally claim that the state’s wolf management plan doesn’t provide adequate protection for the animals. The plan classifies wolves as predators that can be shot on sight in most of the state and allows regulated hunting elsewhere.
In dropping the Wyoming lawsuit, the groups decided that it wasn’t an efficient use of anyone’s resources to have two lawsuits over the same thing going on in two different places, said attorney Jay Tutchton, who represents WildEarth Guardians. “The way for us to fix that, within our own control, is what we did,” he said.
Tutchton said his clients still believe in the merits of their case, and their action also stands as a vote of confidence in the lawyers pressing the parallel case in Washington, D.C.
Wyoming Attorney General Greg Phillips wasn’t available for comment on Friday, his office said.
Renny MacKay, spokesman for Wyo. Gov. Matt Mead, said Friday the governor is reviewing the state’s legal options. Mead believes it’s premature to say the Wyoming litigation is finished, MacKay said.
In the Washington case, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied a request last month from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state of Wyoming to transfer that lawsuit to the federal court in Cheyenne. The Wyoming case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson.
Tutchton initially filed his clients’ lawsuit in Denver, but a judge there granted a request from the state and the Fish and Wildlife Service to transfer the case to Wyoming.
Asked if he dropped the case in Wyoming because an environmental lawsuit could be more likely to succeed in Washington, Tutchton responded: “I’m not going to say that. I suspect others would, to be honest. I think that federal judges do their jobs.”

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