Yellowstone National Park

The bison death toll continues to climb for Yellowstone National Park, as park officials say they plan to slaughter an estimated 180 animals captured Monday to prevent the spread of disease. The bison were captured on the north end of the park near the town of Gardiner -- not far from Yellowstone's famed Roosevelt Arch.

Re "Focus on FISA," editorial, Feb. 23 The Times misses the crucial issue animating the retroactive-immunity-for-telecoms debate: whether we are a nation of laws in times of peace and equally a nation of laws in times of war. The government and its supporters bellowed then, and taunt now, that those who advocate lawful conduct by government during emergencies are naive. This is the same argument that dictators use to justify their extralegal acts.

Montana and federal officials announced a deal Thursday to let some bison migrate through a private ranch bordering Yellowstone National Park. It would allow a small number of the animals to avoid slaughter under a disease control program that has claimed more than 3,000 bison since 2000. Gov.

In an about-face, officials at Yellowstone National Park said Wednesday that they would quickly craft a plan to allow snowmobiles and snow coaches into the park in time for the winter season. After a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that Yellowstone's snowmobile-use proposal was unacceptable because it would put the health of visitors and animals at risk, park officials said they would not be able to hammer out a new plan before the season starts Dec. 15.

Natural forces over millennia created the geysers, peaks and canyons that fascinate visitors here. But a newer feature is emerging on this stunning landscape -- cellphone towers. One juts out from a hill behind Old Faithful; another crowns one of the park's most prominent peaks. Hikers occasionally stumble across cellphone equipment on trails around Mammoth Hot Springs. Visitors chatting on their phones have become as common in some areas as wandering bison.

Observing the actions of the Bush administration over the years, you'd think the Wyoming snowmobile industry was the economic glue holding the country together. National Park Service managers have pressed relentlessly to allow as many of the noisy, polluting recreational machines into Yellowstone National Park as possible, no matter what the public wanted (public comments were overwhelmingly against it), what park preservation laws stated or what the agency's own scientific research found.

Yellowstone National Park was jostled by small earthquakes for a third straight day Monday, and scientists watched closely to see whether the more than 250 tremors were a sign of something bigger. Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but it is unusual for so many quakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah. "They're certainly not normal," Smith said.

After more than 30 years of strict federal protection, the Yellowstone population of grizzly bears is being removed from the endangered species list by the Bush administration. Formidable remnants of the wild frontier, the Yellowstone grizzlies, living in and around the national park, have rebounded from fewer than 200 animals in 1975, when they were listed as a threatened species, to about 600 today.

A nature photographer mauled last week by a sow grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park had no time to use pepper spray against the animal, a friend said Sunday. Jim Cole "does remember trying to grab his bear spray," Michael Sanders said. "He said that that he assumed that he startled the bear and the bear startled him."

A 32-year-old woman from the Los Angeles area died in a fall off a cliff at Yellowstone National Park, park officials said. The fall happened Friday evening in the Calcite Springs area, just north of Tower Falls. Her body was recovered in the morning. Her name is being withheld until relatives are notified.