Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 17

Casper StarVTribune mm Friday, June 15, 2001 COMICS B4 ADVICEMOVIES B5 In Brief unaii oeMie: Defense says Greybull man only took head of dead animal I STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS OK By MARK BAGNE Star-Tribune correspondent CODY A Greybull man accused of poaching two bighorn sheep west of Cody on Christmas Eve denies that he killed either one of the sheep, conceding only that he took the head from one sheep after he found it dead. Wendy Press Sweeny, the attorney for Gary C. Vorhies, asserted that defense Thursday during her opening statement in the ongoing sheep poaching trial in Park County Circuit Court. "There will be no evidence to show my client killed either one of these bighorn sheep," Sweeny told a six-person jury. "People see dead animals, and they take the horns, and that's what the evidence is going to show you.

That's not illegal." Vorhies, 38, is charged with two counts of taking a sheep without a license or during a closed season and two counts of wanton destruction of a bighorn sheep. His alleged accomplice, 32-year-old Cody Can-nady, faces one count of aiding in the taking of a sheep, and one count of aiding in wanton destruction. The sheep killed during the early afternoon of Christmas Eve were two of the finest rams frequenting the North Fork of the Shoshone River during the winter of 2000, according to a key witness, Dennis Winter, the first to take the stand. Winter, the horse manager for a North Fork ranch, says he had seen and photographed the rams dozens of times and gave them some affectionate names they are now being referred to in court documents and courtroom testimony. He called one of the rams "Big Guy" because he was a "nice, big, wide ram" with a three-quarter curl.

He called the second ram "Arnold" because he was a fully curled trophy Please see SHEEP, B7 Cardboard king 'V Enzi sides with Scouts Senate: Schools can't boycott group over discrimination JAMES WOOOCOCKAP John Falb, a recycler from Cody, hauled in his one-millionth pound of cardboard to the BFI Billings Recycling center Monday afternoon. Cody recycler hits milestone FROM Overdue climbers MOOSE -Grand Teton National Park rangers rescued two climbers who tried to ascend Grand Teton in one day. Climbers Ranch staff reported Michael Feldman, 30, of Morristown, and Sherrill Stockton, 33, of Athens, missing Tuesday morning, according to park officials. The two had last been seen around 2 p.m. Monday on Exum Ridge.

After a night of heavy snowfall, rangers set out over 6 inches of snow and ice and other rangers were helicoptered despite poor visibility. Feldman and Stockton had climbed slower than expected and never made the summit. They huddled in snow caves during their unexpected night on the mountain. They had some spare clothing but minimal food. Tuesday morning, the two tried three times to ascend and find a better way off the mountain, but new snow made route-finding difficult.

They were trying another ascent when rangers found them below the Upper Saddle. Feldman and Stockton hiked out on their own. Test results to be announced Wyoming State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Judy Catchpole, will announce test results Monday for the state's Wyoming Comprehensive Assessment System (WyCAS). Data released will include the percentage of students tested, the percentage of students achieving advanced, proficient, partially proficient and novice in the content areas of reading, writing and mathematics on the standards-based portion of WyCAS. The WyCAS test, adopted by the Legislature in 1997, is made up of two types of testing: One is a standard-based test that measures student aptitude in learning Wyoming educational standards, while the other is a national norm-referenced test called the Terra Nova, which indicates how students perform in relation to students nationwide.

School and district results will be released on June 28. Fire damages resort cabin CODY -A fire damaged a cabin at the Pahaska Tepee resort near the east gate to Yellowstone National Park on Thursday. No one was injured, and the fire did not cause any damage to the historic hunting lodge built about 95 years ago by Buffalo Bill Cody. The cause of the fire was under investigation. The resort is about 30 miles west of Cody.

Jerry Lewis stalker on trial LAS VEGAS A trial is scheduled to start Monday for a convicted stalker accused of again threatening entertainer Jerry Lewis. Gary Randolph Benson, 57, of Sheridan faces an additional one to five years in a Nevada state prison if convicted of violating a court order that directed him to stay away from Lewis, prosecutor Abbi Silver said. Benson is accused of sending Lewis a letter reading: "Dear Jerry. Your Dead. Your friend, Gary Benson." Lewis received the letter April 11, 2000, at his home in Las Vegas, Silver said.

Benson had been freed from prison eight months before the letter after serving a previous six-year sentence for stalking Lewis. Benson has seven prior felony convictions, the prosecutor said. He has been held at the Clark County Detention Center In Las Vegas after his arrest May 5, 2000, in Wyoming. By JASON MARSDEN Star-Tribune Washington bureau WASHINGTON Wyoming's Eagle Scout in the U.S. Senate sided with the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday in its ongoing legal battle with schools across the country that are refusing the youth group access to their buildings over its ban on gay scouts and leaders.

Schools which bar the Scouts from meeting on campus because the organization forbids homosexuality will lose all federal aid if the language the Senate added to the education reform bill with support from U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi. "This amendment will ensure the constitutional rights of six million Boy Scouts are not violated by public schools that receive federal education funds," said Enzi, one of 51 senators voting to deny federal funding to school districts which bar the Boy Scouts from their facilities because the Scouts shun homosexuals. Sen.

Jesse Helms, sponsored the measure which Republicans portrayed as an anti-discrimination measure -but against the scouts, not the gay youth and adult leaders excluded due to Boy Scouts intolerance of homosexuality who have themselves alleged discrimination by the 91-year-old organization. Eight Democrats and 43 Republicans, also including Sen. Craig Thomas, passed the measure over the six Republicans, 42 Democrats and one independent who instead supported the local boards' Please see SCOUTS, B7 BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -John Falb, the cardboard king from Cody recycled his 1 millionth pound of cardboard Monday, dropping it off at BFI Billings Recycling Center. The 63-year-old retiree has been collecting and recycling cardboard from Cody trash bins since 1994.

He earns a penny a pound, which doesn't even cover gas for his pickup truck. "I just wanted to do something for the area I live in," he said. "I'd rather see cardboard recycled than go to a landfill." One million pounds of cardboard would fill 12 railroad boxcars, or cover a football field two feet deep, Falb said. It's taken him 315 loads to reach the milestone. Tim Ward, also of Cody and a friend, helped Falb unload the crushed cargo and videotaped part of the event.

"I asked him years ago, 'Why are you doing He said 'Because I Ward said. "John has more devotion than any man I've ever seen. He doesn't have to do this. He's got a pension. He's already paid his dues." Falb spent 32 years traveling the West working as a civil engineer for the Bureau of Reclamation.

He retired in 1994. That year, he bought a trailer and developed his cardboard route after being bothered by the sight of cardboard being hauled to the local land fill. Six days a week, Falb gets into his 1989 Chevrolet pickup and begins a 90-minute route. Most evenings, the route is fairly routine: He finds cardboard, crushes it and puts it in his trailer. Once in a while he finds something peculiar, like a rotting deer carcass or a "spanking-new" pair of work boots.

He's also discovered four new Stetson hats on separate occasions, still in their cardboard boxes, and one of them fit perfectly. Every week, Falb drives 113 miles to Billings, where he sells his cardboard. Cody has a recycling center, but it does not buy cardboard, Falb said. His truck has 336,000 miles and is on its second engine. The cardboard route used to pay enough for upkeep on his rig.

When prices jumped to a nickel a pound a couple years ago, he even made a few bucks. Most of the time, including now, cardboard fetches a penny a pound. A typical load takes about nine hours to collect, and brings in about $30. "As long as it pays for the gas, that's my only concern," Falb said. "Right now, it doesn't even do that.

But that's OK. I'll still do it." In 1998, he was named Wyoming's recycler of the year. When he first got serious about recycling in 1994, Falb thought he would try to collect 1 million pounds before quitting. "Now I think I'll go at least until I'm 65," he said. "I don't know.

Maybe I'll go for 2 million pounds. It's been fun." Coalbed methane Marathon boosts production at oil field near Meeteetse Wyo, Montana closer to water agreement ploitation projects seeking to increase production from existing fields have taken the place of new exploration. Many analysts see such developments as the key to the future of domestic production. Environmentalists have supported the idea in their efforts to fend off drilling in untouched wildlands. Marathon estimates that 150 million barrels exist in the Spring Creek field.

About Zl million barrels, or 15 percent of the total, have been produced to date. The company is hoping to recover 25 percent of the remaining reserve using current technologies. Marathon used steam injection to boost production in the nearby Pitchfork oil field, while new technologies have also helped the company fracture the rock around well heads to boost production. Marathon is conducting an $800,000 seismic assessment to determine the extent of the field. The company wants to begin re-injecting water produced by the existing wells back into the edges of oil field itself, flushing oil toward the well heads.

Lloyd Blackburn, a geo-physicist for Marathon, said Texaco never established the boundary of the oil field. "There could be hall a dozen new locations out there where you could get oil," Blackburn said. "A good well out there might make 150,000 barrels, and at $20 a barrel, you can figure out the economics." Drilling began at Spring Creek in the 1930s and peaked in the 1950s. Fifty wells now produce in the field. With almost all major oil fields in the continental United States already tapped, ex MEETEETSE (AP) -Marathon Oil Co.

has boosted production at the 50-year-old Spring Creek oil field by at least 50 percent within the last year. Marathon bought the oil field west of Meeteetse from Texaco last year. Using the latest seismic technology on the Spring Creek field, Marathon hopes to increase production even more. It is aiming to pull 2,000 barrels a day of oil out of the field, a possible 150-percent total increase from the 800 barrels a day under Texaco. After buying the property, Marathon made some basic improvements, Including the overhaul of some wells and the installation of new, more powerful pumps.

Already, the Spring Creek field Is producing between 1,200 and 1,400 barrels a day. By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER Star-Tribune energy reporter SHERIDAN Wyoming and Montana water quality regulators sketched a tentative proposal Thursday that could free up a limited number of water discharge permits currently on hold for coalbed methane gas wells in the Powder River and Little Powder River drainages in Wyoming. The Idea, bolstered by a representative of the coalbed methane industry, Is to dump enough coalbed water on the surfaces during an interim period of 18 to 24 months to determine if that production, or larger production, would Impair the rivers, which flow from Wyoming to Montana. At the states border, the rivers are to be monitored for significant changes in sodium absorption ratios (SARs) and dissolved solids (EC) based on incomplete sampling from the past 10 years. The WyomingMontana Technical Group's proposal comes after months of failing to establish or agree on a "baseline" history of the rivers' chemical characteristics and how the coalbed water production might change them.

"We will anticipate that there will be additional development in Wyoming during that time, and that we are going to use this 18- to 24-month period to collect Please see WATER, B7 State Editor Nadia White. For Information, questions and comments about this page, call the news desk (307) 2li6fl583 or (800) 442916; e-mail edltorstrib.com; fax (307) 206568. oV- I.