Field reports: Kayak guide dies rescuing client in Yellowstone

PADDLING – A kayak guide in his first season on the job in Yellowstone National Park has died while trying to rescue a park visitor who capsized on Yellowstone Lake.

Initial reports have not indicated whether the guide or the client were wearing wet suits or dry suits in coldwater conditions.

Timothy Hayden Ryan Conant, 23, of Salt Lake City died on Wednesday in the West Thumb area of the lake, according to the National Park Service.

Conant was among three guides on a kayaking excursion with a group of nine tourists.

Park rangers found Conant in the water and worked to revive him.

Park officials say the client whom Conant attempted to save was rescued by other guides in the group and was treated for hypothermia at a park clinic.

The incident is under investigation.

Yellowstone spokeswoman Morgan Warthin said the incident occurred approximately 400 yards off the west shore of the lake.

There was no unusual weather at the time of the incident, which occurred in the late afternoon when the lake often can become rough because of wind, Warthin said.

Warthin said the average year-round temperature of the lake is 43 degrees. It’s likely cooler now because Yellowstone has just come out of its winter season. Some areas of the park received snow earlier this week.

Conant worked for O.A.R.S., a company based out of Angels Camp, California, that has offered non-motorized boat tours in Yellowstone under a permit since 1996.

Max Pelosi, director of the Jackson Hole Kayak School in Jackson, said any rescue 400 yards from shore in Yellowstone Lake would require a deep water rescue technique where the guide would dump water out of the capsized boat and help the client back in.

The guide typically does not get out of his or her boat during a deep water rescue, said Pelosi, whose company conducts kayak tours in Yellowstone Lake.

Since 1894, there have been 41 deaths in Yellowstone Lake. The most recent was in 1997 when two people died while canoeing.

Ferry County wolves killed calf, state confirms

PREDATORS – One or more wolves from the Sherman Pack are responsible for the death of at least one calf whose carcass was discovered on June 12 in a grazing allotment of Ferry County, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has confirmed Friday.

The attack occurred even though the producer uses five WDFW contract range riders to increase the level of human presence around the cattle throughout their grazing allotments, the agency said.

This is the first confirmed cattle attack involving the Sherman Pack.

Successive wolf depredations in Ferry County last year prompted the state to partially exterminate the Profanity Peak Pack.

Investigators also found scattered skeletal remains of a second calf, but they could not confirm the cause of its death.

A GPS collar on a Sherman Pack wolf indicates the animal was in the vicinity of the attacks.

The attacks occurred on U.S. Bureau of Land Management grazing lands, the agency said, noting the livestock producer grazes private and public lands in the area.

“There are no known wolf dens or rendezvous sites in the area,” the agency report said.

Skagit County wolf first for Western Washington

ENDANGERED – Field staff for state and federal wildlife agencies trapped, collared and released what is believed to be an adult male gray wolf east of Burlington near Marblemount, officials say.

Wolves are federally listed as endangered species in the western two-thirds of Washington and protected statewide by Washington endangered species rules.

The wolf was found and captured last week after reports of wolf tracks, howling and chickens being attacked, the Skagit Valley Herald reported.

Although several other collared wolves have been monitored in Western Washington, this animal is the first gray wolf to be caught and fitted with a GPS collar on the West Side, says Craig Bartlett, Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife spokesman.

Blood and saliva were taken from the animal and sent to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service forensic lab to confirm whether the animal is a full-blooded wolf and to help determine its origin.

Camp Skills 101 taught at Riverside State Park

CAMPING – Practical, hands-on tips for camping trip will be taught in a free program on Wednesday at 6:30 at the Riverside State Park Bowl and Pitcher amphitheater.

It’s the first Wednesday in the Woods program of the season sponsored by REI.

The programs are free but preregistration is required online: rei.com/spokane