CANADA AND IDAHO
Spurred by global warming or just plain
wanderlust, a female polar bear and a male grizzly got
together six years ago for what Borat would call “sexy-time.” What
the encounter produced might be dubbed a “pizzly” or a
“grolarbear.” The male hybrid was shot earlier this year on a
remote Arctic island by Jim Martell, 66, a wealthy Idaho hunter,
and DNA examination confirms that it is indeed a new kind of bear.
Martell and his Inuit guides first assumed the white furry animal
was a polar bear. But closer examination revealed anomalies: long
claws, a humped back, black-ringed eyes and a dishy face —
just like a grizzly’s. After spending seven months with a
taxidermist, reports The Edmonton Journal, the
bear went to Martell’s home in Glenns Ferry, a town of 1,400
east of Boise. The full-body mount won’t be there long.
Martell, who prefers to call his kill a “polargrizz,” plans to show
it off at a Nevada hunting expo in January. Bagging the bear was
not cheap: Martell paid $50,000 for the hunt and $10,000 for the
stuffed carcass.
COLORADO
Which is more important: opening your garage door, or
homeland security? That was the knotty question facing
Colorado Springs after the Air Force appropriated a particular
frequency — one so common that it is used by an estimated 50
million garage-door openers nationwide. The Associated Press says
the answer was a no-brainer for folks in the patriotic city. The
Air Force has since shut down its signal while it tries to solve
the problem, but if it’s unable to adjust the frequency, more
than 400 complaining residents will have to install new units.
Holly Stack, who lives near Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, joked,
“I never thought my garage door was a threat to national security.”
NORTH DAKOTA
A handsome
buck with an impressive rack of antlers turned out to be a
female, much to the astonishment of the hunter who killed
it, reports The Week magazine. “It’s got
no male utilities,” said Carmen Erickson. “It has teats.”
THE NATION
PEEReview, the magazine of Public
Employees for Environmental Responsibility, says the
National Park Service is making no friends with its new policy of
charging visitors for activities ranging from taking photos of
large groups to having weddings. Prices vary from park to park, and
the rationales seem to vary as well: “Mount Rainier National Park
charges $60 for filming and $60 for a wedding … but only $25
for scattering of ashes — the ultimate exit fee.”
COLORADO
Thanks to his upbringing in
the shadow of Chicago’s Midway International
Airport, Jim Oakley is no stranger to “the ceaseless din
of high-powered engines,” reports the Boulder Daily
Camera. That’s fortunate: Oakley had just bought a
new house in Erie, Colo., population 10,000, when a big dog of a
neighbor moved in just 100 yards away from him — a
100-foot-tall drill rig belonging to EnCana Oil & Gas USA. It
features “a deafening roar” and sports bright lights so it can
drill 24 hours a day, seven days a week. EnCana’s arrival
brought other surprises as well, such as a constant flow of trucks
and heavy equipment. The good news for Oakley is that the company,
which leased the mineral rights to 35 acres, plans to cease
drilling by the end of the year.
ARIZONA AND
WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Kaibab National Forest
south of Grand Canyon issued Christmas tree-cutting
permits for the Tusayan Ranger District, but specified
they were only for “Piñon or Jupiter.” Writer Peter Friederici
says he’s not sure what a Jupiter tree looks like, “but
I’ll sure be keeping my eyes open for one.” In the U.S.
capital, meanwhile, the Park Service’s PR chief apparently
leads a double life, with one involving a kitchen. Explaining why
his new boss, agency director Mary Bomar, wasn’t ready to
give interviews, David Barna signed his e-mail “Chef of Public
Affairs, National Park Service.”
COLORADO
Should school buses ferrying
public schoolchildren shill for America’s Next Top
Model? The Denver Post says “a
handful” of Colorado districts have decided to pay for rising
transportation costs by putting ads on their buses. Douglas County,
near Denver, has joined affluent Cherry Creek in the practice,
hoping to make a hefty $13,000 a month. Not all parents are
supportive, and Commercial Alert, an Oregon-based nonprofit group,
blasts school districts that use advertising to put “our children
up for sale.”
Betsy Marston is editor of
Writers on the Range, a service of High Country
News in Paonia, Colorado. Tips of Western oddities are
always appreciated and often shared in the column, Heard around the
West.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Heard around the West.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
