Them on Us: Spending money in JH

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

By Jake Nichols

Elk overpopulation solved by NY paper
A New York newspaper is interested in how North Dakota game officials are going to thin their elk herd based on the way we do it here in Grand Teton National Park. Huh?

Deprived of the ravages of wolf and winter, elk populations in Jackson Hole have soared. Transplanting Wyoming elk into Rocky Mountain National Park in the early 1900s has now created a similar overcrowding problem there. The latest careful-what-you-wish-for park is Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. They received 47 elk from our Refuge in 1985 and are now wondering how to get rid of some 300 of them.

A recent editorial in The New York Times suggested the late-season special hunt in GTNP was inefficient because only trophy bulls are taken by hunters. Times editors preferred RMNP’s solution: Hiring sharpshooters to gun down undesirable elk; a model the Times called “safer, more efficient and less expensive…”
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NAG outdoor columnists get their 15 minutes
Add up the combined ages of JH Weekly reporters and we likely aren’t as old as the News & Guides’ Bert Raynes. How old? The venerable columnist told the Chicago Sun-Times, “Very.”

Raynes received a nice write-up from the Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, who couldn’t get over Raynes’ popularity in Jackson. After 37 years of his “Far Afield” column in the cross-town paper, Raynes enjoys near-celebrity status.

“I am a legend, a beloved legend, no doubt about it," Raynes told the Steinberg.
Not to be outdone, Paul Bruun garnered international notice when his outdoor column was mentioned in The Nelson Mail (New Zealand). Bruun recently took up the cause of river-users in the NZ, blasting the planned damming of the Murchison rivers for a hydroelectric scheme.

Bruun called the idea an “environmental disaster” and said it would ruin some of the "world's greatest fishing and boating" rivers. This seemed to sit well with NZ reporter Sally Kidson, who added that Bruun’s column has been forwarded to New Zealand’s Tourism Minister John Key.
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Wyoming’s money woes will hurt Jackson most
Sales tax revenue is down almost 22 percent statewide and that’s spells bad news for Jackson Hole, says Governor Dave Freudenthal. Idaho’s Local News 8 covered the governor’s press conference last week when Freudenthal said the Town of Jackson will have to start looking at prioritizing its levels of service.

Jackson resident and Wyoming state representative, Keith Gingery, concurred. "With the decrease in sales tax, we are going to see a real impact on the County and Town budgets. I would guess that the greater impact will be on the Town of Jackson, since they rely almost solely on sales tax," he said.

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Hot prospect to QB Cowboys
University of Wyoming sports officials are jazzed about the newest football recruit. High school standout C.J. Bennett of Hillsborough County, Florida announced he was committing to play for the Cowboys despite receiving other offers from teams in the southeast.

“They were my first offer and they showed me the most attention,” Bennett told his hometown paper the St. Petersburg Times. “They definitely cared about me.”
Bennett shattered record while playing for the Alonso Ravens. www.Rivals.com ranks Bennett as a three-star prospect and rated him the 27th best pro-style quarterback in the country and tops in Florida.

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Cheap digs in JH?
The Deal Detective, Kate Hamman, is www.SmarterTravel.com's resident bargain hunter. When posed with a question from one web site reader looking for a non-beach, kid-friendly vacation under $1,000, Hamman surprisingly suggested Jackson Hole.

Surprising, considering the impression that our little valley can be pricey. Hamman brought a three-day package at under $1,000 by scoring affordable accommodations; downright cheap, really.

The Deal Detective claimed a two-bedroom condo could be had for $100 per night. If that’s true, it’s news to us. Most hotel rooms go for three times that. JHW


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Them on Us: Spending money in JH | Planet JH News Article: General News

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