Ranchers say that in recent months they have lost more sheep to coyotes than they typically lose in an entire year, before the county stopped its trapping program last year. The ranchers say they are trying nonlethal methods, but that they are not entirely effective.


• A 37-year-old Tuolumne City woman was killed at night when she was struck by a pickup truck while comforting a deer that had been hit by the car in which she was riding.

The woman was a passenger in a car which was being driven south on Tuolumne Road shortly after 8:30 p.m. when the vehicle struck a deer that ran out in front of it. After stopping, the woman ran onto the roadway and crouched down to console the animal.

A 50-year-old woman was driving north on Tuolumne Road at or below the speed limit and never saw the woman by the deer. The woman was wearing dark clothing and stood up only an instant before she was struck.


• There isn't room enough in the town of Whitewater for a trout hatchery and a black bear that spent the summer snacking out of its ponds and garbage cans. And with relocation out of the question for both the bear and the Whitewater Trout Co., the 300-acre farm nothwest of Palm Springs has received a state permit to shoot and kill the mammal.

The 350-pound bear's appetite is hurting future production at the 60-year-old farm, which supplies about 600,000 pounds of trout a year and stocks ponds and lakes across Southern California.

Bears can eat up to 200 pounds of fish a day — more than 500 6-ounce trout.