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Invasive mudsnails prompt closure of popular Casper fishing pond
Oil City News
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is permanently closing Jessica’s Pond, a popular fishing spot in Casper. The decision comes after the agency confirmed the presence of invasive New Zealand mudsnails. The pond will be filled in and the area will be reclaimed in order to remove the threat of potentially spreading the destructive mudsnails to other fisheries, Oil City News reports. Read the full story.
Nutrition education program keeps cooking despite bare-bones budget
Wyoming Public Radio
Wyoming’s Cent$ible Nutrition Program lost the majority of its budget last fall, when the Trump administration eliminated funding for the education arm of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Association Program. Despite cuts, Cent$ible Nutrition is still finding creative ways to help low-income Wyomingites learn more about budgeting, cooking and healthy lifestyle choices. The program taught nutrition education classes to nearly 900 adults and more than 2,000 kids around Wyoming in 2024, Wyoming Public Radio reports. Read the full story.
President Arthur’s Yellowstone fireweed sample sits in the Smithsonian
Buckrail
President Chester A. Arthur is the only U.S. President to be represented in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s specimen collection, and his interest in Wyoming’s fireweed might have contributed to the preservation of Yellowstone National Park. On an 1883 visit to Yellowstone, Arthur collected a stalk of fireweed, a pinkish-purplish wildflower known to grow rapidly in areas that have been affected by fire. Why he collected the wildflower remains a mystery, Buckrail reports. Read the full story.
Visiting psychiatrist highlights novel approach to mental health care
The Sheridan Press
Future staff operating out of Sheridan Memorial Hospital’s $18 million behavioral health unit facility will seek a new framework to the “all or nothing” mental health care psychiatrist Eric Arzubi says the country has relied upon for far too long. Arzubi, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and co-founder and CEO of Frontier Psychiatry, spoke at the hospital’s “Building a Mental Health Collaborative” event. Arzubi relocated to Montana from the East Coast and quickly found he was dissatisfied with the level of care he could provide to his patients, The Sheridan Press reports. Read the full story.