The difference grazing cattle makes at the end of the season

Comparison of two sites, Nov. 4, 2009, in the Mink Creek drainage south of Pocatello, Idaho-

Mink Creek is a popular recreation area on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, just south of Pocatello, Idaho. The first 3-4 miles have no livestock grazing. As the drainage gains slowly in elevation, it is grazed from about June 1 to Oct. 15 by cattle every year.

I was up there this afternoon and I took two photos (actually more than two). They certainly show the difference. The first photo is lower down in the Mink Creek drainage with no grazing for well over a decade. The second is further up, in a wetter, actually a riparian meadow next to the South Fork of Mink Creek. The second photo should have the most grass were there no grazing.

Mink Creek drainage ungrazed. Nov. 4, 2009. The green on the right is a trail. Copyright Ralph Maughan

This riparian meadow is directly adjacent to Mink Creek (runs in the willows). It is also higher elevation than the first photograph. Taken Nov. 4, 2009. Copyright Ralph Maughan

Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team — raise GYE grizzly mortality limits?

IGBC has hard time understanding Judge Molloy ruled against them not because of grizzly mortality, but lack of food for grizzly in the area-

Perhaps the bear population could withstand more deaths; and, hey why not acquiesce with what is already happening? Bear bureaucrats could call that “adaptive management.” However, Judge Molloy didn’t relist the greater Yellowstone grizzly because too many bears were being killed. Oh well, here’s the story . . .

Link fixed! Grizzly group [IGBC] eyes raising bear death limits. Conservationists contest idea that more bruins could die without hurting regional population. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

And grizzly conservation groups need to push not so much on holding down the mortality limits as enlarging the great bear’s primary conservation area.

Schneider’s updates on Tester’s Wilderness bill

Over at New West you can follow the Montana Wilderness controversy closely-

Yesterday Ken Cole posted Senator Tester Betrays Montana Wilderness, a sharply critical opinion piece written by Brian Peck.

Bill Schneider has been following Montana’s 30 year Wilderness controversy for some time in his columns at New West. His many updates give folks a background, a history, as well as his perspective. Tester’s Wilderness Bill, Updates. By Bill Schneider. New West.

I want to add, however, that if folks want to have a wildlife migration corridor from the Greater Yellowstone to central Idaho, this Wilderness designation is of little help because the barriers to migration are 1. the Sheep Experiment Station which blocks a large swath of the Idaho/Montana border on the Continental Divide; 2. other livestock grazing on the public lands in the corridor; and 3. Interstate 15. Wilderness designation does nothing about these.

Wyoming legislation might require GYE backcountry users to have bear spray

Spike in unhappy grizzly encounters in Greater Yellowstone could result in bill-

While pepper spray isn’t always the answer in an encounter with a grizzly, most often it is with lots of benefits to humans and bears.

Bear spray bill on the way. Proposal would require permitted backcountry users in griz country to carry pepper spray. By Cory Hatch.  Jackson Hole News and Guide.