Panel considers sex offender bill

CHEYENNE - Wyoming's more than 1,300 registered sex offenders could be required to check in with their county sheriffs, rather than with a state agency in Cheyenne, under a proposal that a legislative committee plans to consider this week.

The Joint Interim Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing in Casper for Thursday on a bill that would specify that all sex offenders have to register with the sheriff in the county in which they're residing. Currently, offenders register with the state's Division of Criminal Investigation.

Sen. Tony Ross, R-Cheyenne, is co-chairman of the interim committee. He said DCI proposed that the committee consider some new language to clean up the state's sex offender registration law.

Ross said the Judiciary Committee wants to clarify some anomalies in the current law, "such as who and where they're registering, so that we can disseminate that information to the public."

The Legislature last year toughened the state's sex offender laws, including requiring all offenders to be listed on a public Internet data base. Other new provisions included enacting laws to punish people who harbor unregistered sex offenders and increasing penalties for incest and certain sex crimes against minors.

Study: Protect overlapping groups

JACKSON - Wolverine researchers say the long-term survival of wolverines in the Greater Yellowstone region requires protecting the overlaps among populations in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

The Wildlife Conservation Society recently released a research report about Greater Yellowstone wolverines. The report covers populations in northwest Wyoming, central Idaho and northern Montana.

Bryan Aber is a carnivore biologist with Idaho Fish and Game, the U.S. Forest Service and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Maintaining connections between the three so-called wolverine "metapopulations" is difficult because the animals live at high altitude, exist in low densities and have huge home ranges. Female wolverines have home ranges that average 155-square miles while males have home ranges that average 460 square miles.

"The overlap of those three populations is critical in ensuring genetic transfer," Aber said. "Because they exist at such low densities, the area where these three metapopulations overlap is extremely important."

Counties oppose new wilderness

POWELL - Counties in the Big Horn Basin say preserving the Western way of life is their top priority.

The county commissions of Park, Big Horn, Washakie and Hot Springs counties recently submitted 22 pages of comments to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management outlining their vision of how federal land should be managed in the future.

"There is concern our Western culture is being destroyed or detrimentally changed," the counties said.

The BLM took comments through Nov. 24 on a Resource Management Plan for the Big Horn Basin. Developing the plan will take several years. When complete, it will guide nearly every aspect of the 3.2 million acres of federal land in the basin over the next 15 to 20 years.

The four county commissions submitted remarks together. They were compiled by Ecosystem Research Group, a Missoula, Mont., environmental consulting firm.

The counties' comments emphasize the importance of grazing in the basin.