True Grit: Jon Marvel

University of Chicago Magazine does a feature on an alumni who shows true grit-

True grit “In a heated showdown with Western cattlemen, Idaho environmentalist Jon Marvel, AB’72, tries to outlaw livestock grazing on public lands” By Lydialyle Gibson. Photography by Dan Dry.

Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton manage roadside griz differently

Which method works best?

Actually it seems to me that there are too few differences in result so far to make a determination.

Glacier hazes roadside bears; Grand Teton, Yellowstone let people close. By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole News and Guide.

Back in the days before 1970, Yellowstone let people feed sandwiches and twinkes to bears along the roadside. About 60 tourists were injured a year as a result. Yet there was a great outrage from the public when the practice of roadside feeding was stopped.

Today bears are coming back to the edge or roads, but feeding is not allowed. Injuries are few to none. If injuries increase, how will the public and Park Service react?

Some Yellowstone wolf news-

I’ve been in the Park the last several days, the first time in well over a year.  I didn’t expect to see wolves because their number is down and until Jan. 19 I hadn’t visited Lamar Valley.  Yesterday I did show up in the Lamar just after mid-day. Using my “expert wolf spotting skills,” I quickly found an unusual mid-day collection of vehicles and people with spotting scopes. It had to be a major wolf appearance. It was!

Rick McIntyre filled me in, while his scope showed me a view similar to the famous acceptance of wolf 21M by the all female Druid Pack, way back in the day, although the actual interactions were not a new acceptance ritual.

The wolves were visible under some cottonwood about a half mile away — four Druid females, who had been without an alpha male in the pack, were facing a big black. healthy-looking  male wolf.  He actually had first appeared with the pack on December 2. Then on January 17, an equally glossy black fellow joined him. They are probably brothers.  His apparent brother was bedded in the snow 50 yards away. The Druid females themselves were not the prettiest wolves because they suffer from mange. McIntyre told me it appeared to be mostly on their tails, but in fact had also infested some of their rears and bellies. Nevertheless, they are hanging on.  The origin of the two fine black wolves is not known, but the one I saw with the females seems to have become the new alpha. The Druid alpha female is thought to be a wolf informally called “white line.”