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GREAT FALLS - Trout Unlimited has bought leases for natural-gas drilling on 4,900 acres of the Rocky Mountain Front, and the conservation group said it will seek to have the leases retired for good.

Trout Unlimited announced the purchase Thursday, less than a year after the organization accepted Front leases from Questar Corp. The company donated several petroleum leases, which Trout Unlimited said would be returned to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for retirement.

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TETONIA, Idaho (AP) — Idaho game wardens tried traps, snares and fresh bait but still came up empty in their first attempt to capture a grizzly bear that mauled an eastern Idaho man this week.

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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The National Park Service says a 15-year-old list of potential Idaho national park sites submitted recently to the federal agency by the state is unlikely to gain traction because it doesn’t have grassroots support.

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A band of bighorn rams was seen bonding this week at a creek in San Antonio Canyon, north of Upland.

The sight of the wild animals in this environment is common during this season, a local expert said.

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Law enforcement officers are coordinating several off-road-vehicle patrols in the coming weeks on the western part of the Prescott National Forest.

They issued at least 15 tickets during a traffic detail along Perkinsville Road east of Chino Valley this past month.

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Their soft wood is also home to woodpeckers and migrating birds, Lightley said, but beyond the wildlife value, aspens are one of those trees that people just like seeing in the forest.

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Missouri’s Congressional delegation is providing a unified front against the Bush administration’s second attempt to sell parts of the Mark Twain National Forest.

U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt on Thursday said he considered the proposal, which would sell forests in 30 Missouri counties to raise money for rural schools, dead on arrival again