Alan Gregory’s Conservation NewsRotenone has been used a number of times on carp at this national wildlife refuge, but it never gets them all. Once again there over a million carp. Is there any long term solution?
Explosion in carp numbers have caused big drop in birds at eastern Oregon refuge. By Richard Cockle, The Oregonian
Hurricane season begins June 1, and its peak is late August when the the relief wells might have finally stopped the oil gusher. Hurricane Season Raises New Fears. By Kenneth Chang. New York Times.
I recall that last year the hurricane season was quite mild in terms of them hitting the United States, but a tropical storm did form in the Gulf of Mexico in June and pounded ashore near where the oil slick floats.
Update: As if to underscore the beginning of hurricane season, the first tropical storm of the season hit central American May 30-31 and killed about 150 people. Nearly 150 dead from Central America storm. By the CNN Wire Staff
With a huge natural disaster there is political danger, but also political opportunity. For the people living on the Gulf, and the fish and wildlife, it is all downside. For the President there is a mighty political opportunity, but so far he has baubled the basketball while standing right next to the basket. He’d better recover and slam dunk it or the other team will soon have the ball. They are already calling it “Obama’s Katrina” now that it looks like the oil will gush until August, well into the hurricane season.
Let me explain.
In politics and government, there is what is actually happening, but for the average American who does not follow politics or current events much, it is what they think is happening.
What the public thinks is happening is the most important thing.
Most now understand the “oil spill” is a big disaster. They want it stopped and cleaned up, but they also want it explained. How could this happen after all the oil company ads saying how careful they are and all the political support for drilling. The average person wants reassurance, and when angry they want justice. For there to be justice, there needs to be blame placed. A convincing story (a “narrative”) explaining all these things is what the public craves. Obama needs one quickly, a narrative before an alternative one about his aloofness is put firmly in place. Maureen Dowd’s latest column in the NYT certainly understands this. “Once More, With Feeling.” NYT. May 29, 2010. The President has got to get angry and point the finger of blame. . . none of that “no drama, Obama.” He needs drama, and a good melodrama requires a hero going after the villains.
Although wolves have inhabited the the foothills and mountains north of Boise for a decade now, this is the first time they are known to have killed livestock (8 lambs, 3 ewes). The two wolves are not part of a pack.
Hopefully Wildlife Services is taking precautions not to hit bikers, joggers, etc. in the Hulls Gulch area. The sheep belonged to Frank Shirts of bighorn sheep fame. 😉
Here is the story in the Boise Weekly. Boise Foothills Wolf Hunt Underway. Posted by Nathaniel Hoffman
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My story on wolves near Boise from way back in 2000. Strong Evidence of Wolves Near Boise, Idaho. Ralph Maughan’s wolf report. Jan. 14, 2000
Mr. Abbey Goes to Washington, Cleans Up MMS. Or Not. By RL Miller. Daily Kos.
Is a man who hasn’t reformed the BLM the one who will reform MMS?
We haven’t discussed this for a couple years. There is an especially good article on Trapper’s Point constriction in Wyofile.com
The Trappers’ Point Antelope Trail – A Precarious Wildlife Corridor. By Emilene Ostlind. Wyofile.
Yellowstone National Park is doing an environmental assessment and thinking of ways to improve the historic entrance to Yellowstone Park— “An environmental assessment will be prepared in coming months, looking at subjects including vehicle circulation, congestion, and parking; pedestrian safety; signage, and vegetation challenges; all while preserving the historic nature of the area.”
They want your ideas. You have until June 18 to let them know. Here is the full news release from the Park: http://www.nps.gov/yell/parknews/10035.htm
There is also an open house June 8 in Gardiner, MT.
Bob Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management to take over running MMS. Huffington Post.
I’d say this is a minor victory. The Stockgrowers wanted even more severe “management” of bison that we already have to witness.
Stockgrowers’ Suit Over Bison Management Dismissed. Matt Gouras. Associated Press Writer
The Elwha Dam and Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River of the Olympic Peninsula were built in violation of an 1890 law which required fish passage facilities on dams “wherever food fish are wont to ascend”. The logging companies were so powerful that the fisheries commissioner allowed them to get by with a hatchery, that never worked, instead of the required passage facilities. The dams blocked miles and miles of premium salmon and steelhead spawning grounds in Olympic National Park which produced enormous Chinook salmon that were reported to have reached 100 pounds and are thought to have been up to 12 years old!
Now the dams are going to be removed nearly 100 years after their construction. Will the 100 lb Chinook return?
Will 100-pound salmon return to Elwha?.
By PAUL GOTTLIEB – PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
There is finally action by the Administration on oil leases and permits to drill in various places off-shore. It is expected that today the President will announce there will be no new deepwater wells spudded (to begin drilling) in the next 6 months. Oil lease auction sales in the western Gulf of Mexico and off the Virginia Coast are said to be canceled. A freeze or cancelation of lease auctions is very important because once bought, cancellation of a lease by the government requires the government to repay the leaseholder. That can require a lot of money.
Lease sales and spudding in the Arctic Ocean (oh, my god, they were going to do that?) are on hold.
Meanwhile, we are waiting to see if BP was successful in their “top kill” of the big oil gusher under the Gulf of Mexico.
It occurs to me that one reason why the Administration might have been slow on this is that BP holds an important card. If BP walks away, it’s not like the government has the knowledge or the resources to kill the gushing, ruined well.
AP source: Obama extends stop on deepwater wells. By Erica Werner and Charles Babington. Associated Press.
Update on May 28. U.S. to stop drilling already underway on 33 deepwater rigs! Reuters.
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Tracking the Oil Spill in the Gulf (map). New York Times.
We often speak of endangered/imperiled species in a relatively local context, in terms of wildlife that we might take for granted or might find nearby, here that often means the western U.S. of A. But every once in awhile it helps to learn more about our local situation by considering it within the context of a broader, more generalized perspective.
Globally, species are going extinct at such a rapid pace that many are suggesting that humanity is prompting the Sixth Great Extinction on Earth.
It says a lot about our time and our collective impact/influence. To me, it also suggests a fundamental urgency with which each of us has a moral obligation to become more aware of and act to preserve the plantlife and wildlife, our local communities of life, that contribute to our unique standard of living in so many ways.
End of Alaotra grebe is further evidence of Sixth Great Extinction – Michael MCcarthy – The Independent
Earth’s Five Great Extinctions
65 million years ago (mya) Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T extinction). Did for the dinosaurs. May have been caused by a meteorite hitting what is now Yucatan, Mexico; 75 per cent of species disappeared.
205 mya Triassic-Jurassic extinction. Did away with competition for the dinosaurs.
251 mya Permian-Triassic (the worst of all). Known as “The Great Dying.” About 96 per cent of marine species and 70 per cent of land species disappeared.
360-375 mya Late Devonian. A prolonged series of extinctions which may have lasted 20 million years.
440-450 mya Ordovidician-Silurian. Two linked events which are considered together to have been the second worst extinction in the list.
Lawmakers assail Minerals Management Service. By Perry Bacon Jr., David A. Fahrenthold and Steven Mufson. Washington Post Staff Writer. The agency might be beyond the ability to be reformed.
When it comes to grizzly bears, a threatened species, you can legally shoot one in self defense. However, the recent Jackson, WY conviction of a man who shot a grizzly in what he said was self defense shows that self defense does not mean you are justified killing a griz just because you saw it and were frightened.
Trial sets precedent. Verdict in grizzly bear shooting shows that people must justify a sense of threat. By Cory Hatch and Sarah Lison, Jackson Hole News and Guide.
Ken Salazar, Secretary of Interior
WildEarth Guardians initiated the drive to find signatories to the letter in which a number of conservation groups and scientists have called for the resignation of Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar. Many of the signatories had asked Obama to not appoint him in the first place.
I believe that Ken Salazar has been a disaster for the environment. He has not tackled the corruption in the Minerals Management Service, has done virtually nothing to reform public lands ranching, and has the worst record for protecting endangered species. This all comes on top of the BP Gulf Oil Spill which will forever change the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico and its coastal areas.
I have not seen who all has signed the letter but I have seen the letter floating around for about a week. I do know, however, that Western Watersheds Project (which I am an employee of) and Buffalo Field Campaign (which I am a member of the board) have signed it.
Greens call for Salazar’s resignation.
Juliet Eilperin -Washington Post
Colorado Group Urges Ken Salazar to Stay in Colorado
WildEarth Guardians – Press Release
FWP kills bighorn sheep to avoid disease outbreak.
Billings Gazette.
Buffalo Bull © Ken Cole
The insanity of bison mis-management in and around Yellowstone National Park has prompted the privatization of this iconic wildlife species.
Buffalo Roam Into Controversy ~ (Audio) ~ NPR – On Point
Bison from the park have been hazed and quarantined for ‘study’ under the promise that they would later be released. But where ?
There is quite a bit of news on their next hunting season, and I think it is still open for comment.
She was sick and beaten up by attacks from other wolves. She was trying for some livestock.
Butte, of course, is quite a distance from Yellowstone Park.
Yellowstone Park wolf killed near Butte. By Nick Gevock. Montana Standard
If biomass energy production were fully implemented, it would become the single largest human impact to land in the country, requiring the near full utilization of all the U.S. forests and much of its agricultural lands for fuel production, contributing to what one TNC scientist has termed “energy sprawl.”
Biomass Energy Juggernaut Threatens Human and Forest Health.
George Wuerthner – New West
This isn’t the first time TNC has faced controversy over ties to big energy.
Over the years TNC has been accused of “greenwashing” because of their ties to big energy companies. Of course they claim that the relationships have been productive ones that help conserve more land but their ties to BP are really hurting them now. In my opinion their record is a mixed bag. Some of the places they have been able to protect are really important but, in the West, they often continue to graze livestock on many lands even though the lands are not suitable for it.
Here is an older story about how The Nature Conservancy got into trouble with big energy, there are many others during this period as well: How a Bid to Save a Species Came to Grief. Washington Post, 2003.
Nature Conservancy faces potential backlash from ties with BP.
By Joe Stephens – Washington Post
Interagency Bison Management Plan or IBMP is the controversial bison management plan adopted in 2000 to keep brucellosis from spreading from Yellowstone Park bison to cattle outside the Park. No brucellosis has spread from bison, so a few Montana state officials say that means it has worked. However, there are almost no cattle in the area that the bison would occupy if they were allowed to leave the Park. It is a great irony that the disease itself has spread from the area’s wide ranging elk to cattle on several occasions.
The IBMP has cost over $20-million and taken a huge toll on what could be free roaming bison. It has also been a great cost by generating public resentment and conflict and violations of local people’s private property rights, civil liberties and the wild integrity of Yellowstone Park itself.
The plan should be abandoned.
Hazy results: Officials disagree on whether program to keep park’s bison from spreading brucellosis has been successful. By Eve Bryon, Helena Independent Record.
Well, here is another example of how the Obama Administration has followed the lead of the Bush Administration on environmental issues. As we can see from the Gulf Oil Spill those policies are literally a disaster. While salmon returns have been good the last few years and numbers are high for returning Chinook this year, it should be pointed out that the bulk of these fish are hatchery fish and not those protected under the ESA. It should also be noted that the return of jacks, or male Chinook that spend only one year in the ocean as compared to two or three, is about 72% of the 10-year average which is an indication that next year’s run will likely be lower.
“I believe that there are some who wish it … to be the silver bullet to remove the wolf,” said state Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell. “And it isn’t going to work.” Read the rest in “State deals with worries over worms” in the Daily InterLake. By Jim Mann.
These folks should face it, aside from their own group of wolf haters, the newspapers, TV and regular people just aren’t buying their scare about tapeworms.
There has been a lot of discussion on the blog of the speech Jim Beer’s gave Sunday May 16th, 2010 at the Gran Tree Inn in Bozeman, from 1 PM to 5 PM. The speech was sponsored by Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd, which has been complaining about wolves since it was organized in 1999.
The approximate text of the speech was posted here
Norm Bishop of Bozeman attended. Bishop worked for the National park Service for 36 years. His last 17 years were at Yellowstone, 1980-1997. He is an expert on the Northern Range elk herd, wolves, and many other aspects of the area’s wildlife. He was a contributor to the 1994 environmental impact statement, “The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho.” This is important because Beers was speaking to a crowd 15 years after the event and no doubt many who attended were children when the wolves were reintroduced and so they were open to anyone’s version of the history of the event. This version is a very strange one based on my experience which goes back to the event and the years leading up to ti.
The news media didn’t cover the event, which is probably one reason Lee Enterprises was condemned at the event, although judging from the political nature of event and a 3 hours plus speech, little coverage by major media is what you usually expect.
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Wolf Introduction is a criminal enterprise based on scientific fraud was the title of a talk I attended Sunday May 16th, 2010 at the Gran Tree Inn in Bozeman, from 1 PM to 5 PM. Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd (Friends) sponsored the presentation by (James M.) Jim Beers, retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Biologist turned whistle blower and Congressional investigator. The talk was intended to prove that the U.S. FWS and state fish and game agencies broke the law in the implementation and administration of forced wolf introduction. Purpose: to unify those that have been harmed and to fund a lawsuit. The announcement of the talk appeared in April (Vol. 1 No. 7 of The All American Patriot, a paper whose editor is listed as Robert T. Fanning Jr. (founder and chairman of Friends). Its address is P.O. Box 16129, Big Sky, MT 59716.
Fanning said the paper has a distribution of 5,000. [I have seen it mainly in the entrances of convenience or grocery stores. Based on the attendees, I presume much of the circulation of the Patriot is to small towns in southwest Montana.]
[Content that is not attributed by quotation marks, but follows the words of the speaker, should be understood as coming from the speaker, as nearly as I could record it. Some lines are paraphrased as I recall them. If I make a comment, I will enclose it in brackets. Notes in parentheses are inserted for continuity and clarity. No doubt I missed, or mis-heard some things. I accept the blame for that. NB]
Bob Fanning opened the meeting at 1:20 PM with a prayer by Barry Coe about freedom from the ruling class, and ending with, “bless this assembly of patriots.” He said he founded Friends in August 1999 with Bill Hoppe (A fifth generation rancher and co-owner of North Yellowstone Outfitters). (Fanning cites former membership in the Chicago Board of Trade 1981-1994, and the New York Stock Exchange). He said he’d hired Park County Attorney Karl Knuchel to represent them. He said he and Bill Hoppe recruited 3,742 members for Friends.
The USFS won’t allow Idaho Public Television to film in the Wilderness of Idaho because they claim that they are a commercial operation but the station is funded and operated by the State of Idaho.
It kind of puts the helicopter darting of wolves into perspective doesn’t it? FYI, that issue is still being litigated in Federal Court.
Gov. Otter takes on feds over wilderness filming.
John Miller – Associated Press
Here is this week’s update from the Buffalo Field Campaign. There is a very interesting video showing the birth of a buffalo calf where the mother consumes the entire afterbirth. This seems to contradict the myth that livestock industry perpetrates on the taxpayer. They want you to believe that the risk is so high as to justify this B.S.
For the third year in a row the Montana Department of Livestock has violated the private property rights of the Galanis’ on Horse Butte with their helicopters. The arrogance and the hypocrisy of the livestock industry is astounding. They continually cry that private property is sacred but it must only mean their private property.
Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 20, 2010
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* Update from the Field
* New! Two Video Clips from BFC
* BFC Looking for Summer Outreach Volunteers
* Buffalo in the News
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links
Read the rest of this entry »
Gulf Oil Spill: Oil Has Entered Loop Current, Officials Say. Associated Press. So, some of the oil is now off to Florida and maybe even to the East Coast. So far the main part of the oil remains north of the power Loop current. How long will this hold?
Getting oil out of marshes where it does the most damage is much harder than off the beaches. Unfortunately, the heavy black stuff is now going into the marshes. They will soon yellow and die. Will the Oil Kill the Bayou? By Steven Gray. Time Magazine.
BP says it is capturing 5,000 barrels of oil a day from gulf spill. By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson. Washington Post Staff Writers
The leak started 30 days ago, oil as thick as paint is washing up on the shores of Louisiana and there are plumes of oil deep underwater poisoning the ocean and threatening the Florida Keys and the east coast. There have been many attempts to stop the leak and it appears that it won’t be capped for a long time to come. This disaster is killing all kinds of wildlife and will change the whole ecology of the Gulf as well as its economy for many, many years if not longer. Knowing that the consequences of a spill like this are so disastrous why was the Deepwater Horizon given a categorical exclusion from environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)?
Under NEPA there are basically 3 levels of review a project can undergo. First, NEPA requires that an agency determine if the project is covered under NEPA, if it is not then the project is given a categorical exclusion. Second, if the project is covered under NEPA, the agency must determine whether it would have any significant environmental effects, if it doesn’t then the project is issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and an Environmental Assessment (EA) is prepared. Finally, if there are significant impacts then an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must be prepared.
However, the rebirth is, as you can see below, a hundred years from maturity.
Aftermath of Mt. Saint Helens in 2008. Copyright Ralph Maughan
Mount St. Helens Eruption (PHOTOS): National Geographic Marks Its 30th Anniversary
How far did the ash travel from the Mount St. Helens eruption? The Big Blog
Of course, if wolves attack cattle because they have run across dead cattle and got a taste, they are shot by Wildlife Services.
Now Idaho Fish and Game Commission is happy to let wolves become habituated to baits so they can be easily “hunted.” Those wolves that don’t take the set baits will be much more likely to attack cattle in the future. This method of hunting then means more cattle will be killed. What a self-perpetuating system! Are the commissioners just stupid or intentionally setting up conflicts?
Idaho Fish and Game to weigh traps, bait in wolf hunts. Becky Kramer. The Spokesmen Review.
Although the first article below has a somewhat pessimistic tone, this certainly seems better than the current trend in boreal Canada. There is more value to the vast boreal forest than caribou.
Caribou still at risk under historic forestry deal. Industry, environmentalists band together for sustainability. By Hanneke Brooymans, edmontonjournal.com
-Ducks Unlimited is plenty happy. DU celebrates boreal wetlands protection announcement. Vital wetland systems in Canada’s Boreal Forest conserved.
This pact will not stop the biggest threat in the area, the open pit mining of “tar sands,” conversion of which into synthetic oil is tremendously polluting and has relatively poor net energy efficiency.
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*Methane, CH4, is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, CO2
"Stalk-leaved Monkeyflower" Mimulus patulus ~ Asotin Wildlife Area © Dr. Don Johnson
I guess we don’t have many Eastern Washington readers because there were no comments on our earlier article (yesterday) on this, but today’s news in the Seattle Times is very encouraging. This graze-the-state-wildlife-areas-for-free-to-help-me-politically program of the governor’s, really made us furious.
Experimental Washington state grazing program put on hold. By Lynda V. Mapes. Seattle Times staff reporter. “A controversial cattle-grazing program on [Washington] state wildlife lands has been put on hold for the 2010 season after a sharp rebuke by a Superior Court judge.”
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Help support the important work that Western Watersheds Project does. No Washington conservation group seemed to be able to get themselves involved with this.
The article points out that the worldwide fleet capacity is about 50% to 60% larger than it should be and that there is little to no effort to conduct sustainable fishing. There are few refuges and there is little attempt at recovery of depressed fish populations.
Oceans’ fish could disappear in 40 years: UN.
By Sebastian Smith (AFP)
Interior official who oversees offshore drilling for MMS resigns.
Washington Post
The State of Washington has spent a lot of money trying to justify cattle grazing on wildlife management areas in the state which are comprised of lands purchased using Federal money specifically intended for wildlife habitat. The lands in the Whisky Dick and Quilomene wildlife areas are important habitats for the last remaining sage grouse in the state which need them if they are ever to move from one population area to the other and there is a possibility that they might re-inhabit the area. Sage grouse have been sighted there in the recent past. The lands are also important for steelhead and elk and have many native American cultural sites.
In a cynical ploy to win over votes from ranchers, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire pushed to allow grazing on these important lands but it appears that she has lost. Western Watersheds Project has been working hard to keep any further grazing from occurring on the state’s wildlife management areas. It’s shocking to hear this complaint in the article Cattle ranchers again must cope with limited grazing. Yakima Herald-Republic, about having to place to graze. They were grazing on land purchased specifically to benefit fish and wildlife. Governor Gregoire was allowing the grazing to the wildlife area for no grazing fee whatsoever! Free! The news article makes it sound like something is being done to the ranchers, when in fact the whole grazing scheme was a politically-inspired raid on the public trust, public purse, and the state’s fish and wildlife.
A judge recently scolded the State for its pilot grazing program in the Asotin Wildlife Area where there has been a lot of damage to the habitat and a worker was severely injured while trying to build a fence on a very steep slope. The judge said that not only did the program not improve habitat like was claimed, but that it damaged the habitat.
-Ken Cole and Ralph Maughan contributed to this post.
Another version of the same article in the Post Register says that these poisonings may be linked to several wolf poisonings in the area from years past.
Predator poison killing central Idaho dogs.
Associated Press in the Idaho Statesman
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Update by Ralph Maughan
We don’t know who or why the current Salmon, Idaho poisoner is setting out extremely dangerous 1080 poison and killing local dogs. However, Salmon, Idaho and the Jackson Hole, Wyoming area went through the same thing several years ago. Then the target clearly was wolves, but, not surprisingly, what got killed then were local dogs. One wolf was successfully poisoned by 1080 back then, a member of the Buffalo Ridge wolf pack.
1080 and other predator poisons should be banned before more pets die and someone is killed. Here is a video telling of people and dogs who have died or almost died.
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Currently, it does look like someone is trying for wolves in Northern Idaho. Dog dies after eating sausage on trail near Clark Fork. By KREM.com. This time the poison is the classic — strychnine.
Generalized poisons such as 1080 and sodium cyanide for m-44 “coyote getters” should no longer be produced.
The plan to introduce skunks and badgers to an island in Eastern Idaho’s Blackfoot River Reservoir so that they would prey on pelican eggs has failed because the skunks and badgers have left the island.
Badgers, skunks to F&G: Thanks but no thanks to island plan.
By JOHN MILLER – Associated Press
Past oil spills have always been on the surface. So we tend to think of measuring their size that way (by overhead photography). However this oil gushing out of the deep and much not coming to the surface. Huge underwater plumes are present unseen and unmeasurable from above.
Scientists Find Giant Plumes of Oil Forming Under the Gulf. By Justin Gillis. New York Times.
Jaguar trapper guilty. Arizona Daily Star
Idaho Fish and Game authorizes wolf kills in Lolo Zone.
Lewiston Tribune Online
Murkowski said wanted to protect the “mom and pop” oil companies from having to face large liabilities. Mom and pop oil companies?
If you can’t pay for your damages, you should not get a permit!
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Update May 18: Oklahoma Senator: Another Oil Company Whore
Inhofe Blocks Second Dem Attempt To Raise Oil Company Liability (VIDEO)
This is the time of year when Montana’s Department of Livestock pushes bison back into the Park for no real reason except to demonstrate that they run things in the area. Activist Jim McDonald has written a long essay on a blog describing the disgusting event from his perspective on the ground.
Buffalo torture 2010: Firsthand witness account of Monday’s haze. Buffalo haze 2010: Firsthand witness account of Tuesday’s haze. by Jim Macdonald. Jim’s Eclectic World
It’s an obscure agency in the Dept of Interior to some, but not to the oil companies or the federal treasury. It collects more money than any federal agency except the IRS. It has been the seat of a number a scandals in recent years from undercollecting royalities, lax safety and environmental oversight, and giving out oil and gas leases for sex from oil lobbyists.
When Salazar took office he said these days were over. He hopes splitting the environmental oversight and safety part of the agency from the leasing and royalty collection will help.
In other news, public support for more offshore drilling is collapsing in the polls. So is perception that Obama is doing a good job handling the situation.
Here’s a story from the Washington Post. Minerals Management Service to undergo radical overhaul. By Juliet Eilperin and Ed O’Keefe:
The above is a very important book that I consult often and learned a great deal from. It is time for an update given all the recent research.
The new book is The World of Wolves: New Perspectives on Ecology, Behavior and Management. Edited by Musiani, Botiani, and Paquet
I just preordered it from Amazon.com for only $24. It will be $35 when it comes out later this month.
Update: Amazon has canceled pre-orders on this book. Larry Zuckerman posted in comments that these men have another new book out: “A New Era for Wolves and Men”
see: http://www.amazon.com/New-Era-Wolves-People-Environment/dp/1552382702. I ordered that one instead.
There is a story in today’s Jackson Hole News and Guide. Moose declines puzzling. Habitat, malnutrition, predators play roles. By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, WY
I don’t see much evidence of direct population depression from predation, especially wolf predation, here. Predators do disproportionately take animals that are starving. Both Joel Berger and later Scott Becker found that by far the largest mortality source of female moose in Jackson Hole was starvation. The poor condition of female moose is also shown by the reduction in the number of twins produced from 10% to less than 5%.”
As far as much quoted B.J. Hill, local outfitter,”[who] thinks habitat loss is exaggerated and says “I’ve watched moose literally live off of pine needles,” I say everyone knows that moose eat conifer in the winter in deep snow areas. First, however, moose need a balanced diet the entire year and second, the conifer are dying. Article after article after article has appeared about the vast disease and beetle kill of pines and other conifers from the Yukon to New Mexico.
Hill claims to live in the mountains every day. Why then didn’t he notice that beginning in 1988 and a number of years thereafter, most of Teton Wilderness burned? The conifers are gone. I wrote two guides to the Teton Wilderness — one came out in the early 1980s and second in 2000. Many more pine have died of insects since then. Any damn fool that has spent time there can see that the ecology of the place has been transformed.
A new report outlines how very little has changed under Obama and Salazar. Science is being ignored and managers manipulate it to support predetermined political outcomes.
In my experience, I would say that the Interior Department under Obama and Salazar is as bad or worse than under Bush and Kempthorne. Substantial changes need to be made to protect the environment and imperiled species.
It seems that Obama appointed Salazar simply because a westerner is traditionally appointed due to the fact that the West has most of the public lands. Well, as we can see with the Gulf oil spill and endangered species, there is much more to it than that. A Secretary of Interior needs to have a greater understanding of science rather than a simple understanding of politics and cattle ranching.
I think the recent controversy over one kind of tapeworm that infests wolves and other canids and which can cause a secondary infection in other animals, including people, is mostly hot air meant to scare. However, in response to the controversy the Montana Environmental Quality Council held a hearing a few days ago. Dr. Norman Bishop of Bozeman, a naturalist with long experience with wolves and other wild animals testfied.
I also asked him to write up an account of the testimony given by the other participants in the hearing. I’m glad he took the time to do it rather than simply rely on media reports. Here is his report. I want to thank him for his testimony and time-consuming note-taking and write-up.
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Notes by Dr. Norman Bishop
I attended the Montana Legislature Environmental Quality Council’s session at the Capitol in Helena Friday May 7, 2010. Their agenda was Agency Oversight: FWP – Wolf Management.
On the topic of Echinococcus granulosis, (E.g.), Dr. Valerius Geist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, University of Calgary, gave a ten-minute talk via conference phone to the Council. He had emailed a 4-page statement to them. He said there was a chance of transmission of E.g. from deer and elk wintering where family dogs may be. He proposed a number of draconian preventive measures against E.g. spreading into family dogs: promote deworming, reduce straying and scavenging by dogs, medicate dogs after hunting. He would reduce wolves and coyotes; wolves, to prevent infections of humans when fearful elk seek refuge near buildings. He recommended hunting big game on their summer ranges, and targeting wolves there as well. He would reduce hydatid disease in wolves by using airborne baits with worming agents. He said to trap coyotes, and to burn grasslands to eliminate E.g. eggs. He warned against touching freshly skinned canids, cleaning the skins, and soaking them in helminthic. He said not to poke around scats, don’t pick berries or mushrooms, and eat with clean hands; cook liver and lungs of game over a campfire to kill cysts. Read the rest of this entry »
A lot of energy has been expended to try to make natural gas look “green”. In fact many “green” groups and others are touting it as the “bridge fuel to a 21st-century energy economy” and claim that it is “cleaner” than coal. Well, it turns out that it may not be so “green” after-all.
When you consider that natural gas is composed primarily of methane and that leaks are common it doesn’t look so good. Methane traps 21 times more heat in the atmosphere than CO2. Is it worse than coal, maybe or maybe not, but it isn’t “green” and it is responsible for devastating much of southwest Wyoming and parts of Colorado.
Natural Gas May Be Worse for the Planet than Coal
A preliminary analysis suggests that natural gas could contribute far more to global warming than previously thought.
By Kevin Bullis
George Wuerthner responds to recent hyperbole from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation concerning wolves ~
We need wolves to be wolves ~ George Wuerthner, NewWest.net
If the restoration of wolves to the Rockies is really “one of the worst wildlife management disasters since the destruction of bison herds in the 19th Century” as David Allen suggests, I believe we need a lot more of these disasters across the country.
Jim Groth, an appointee of Governor Jim Gibbons, published a declaration which calls for turning the State of Nevada into an energy colony and he doesn’t think it should be subject to National Environmental Policy Act requirements.
“The greatest thing holding Nevada back from achieving economic success right now is the need to satisfy onerous policies or laws and have the ‘right’ paperwork in order,” Groth writes in his “declaration.”
Nevada has become the latest target of energy producers and transmitters of all stripes. Gigantic solar and wind plants as well as geothermal plants have been proposed on public lands. El Paso Corp’s Ruby Pipeline has received preliminary permission to pass through northern Nevada’s most pristine sage grouse and pygmy rabbit habitat. There are also a number of proposed transmission lines to support these developments.
Public lands are not a renewable resource and the kind of development proposed in Nevada will have devastating impacts on wildlife there. It is time to make a major push towards rooftop solar and conservation rather than these centralized power plants on public lands which require transmission lines that lose power getting the electricity to where it is used.
Energy chief stuns environmentalists with renewable energy approach.
Las Vegas Sun
Grizzly tracks north of Island Park Reservoir 5/4/2010 © Ken Cole
The new gun law which allows people to carry guns in National Parks will be put to the test this year as people take to the backcountry of Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier. Will there be an increase in grizzly bear deaths or maybe even wolf deaths in the nation’s National Parks? It’s as if some people confuse the 2nd Amendment with the 2nd Commandment and insist on people being able to carry guns anywhere and everywhere. I hope I am wrong and that gun owners will be responsible in our National Parks.
“Experience shows that putting firearms and grizzly bears in the same place ends up with dead grizzly bears,” said Steve Cain, senior biologist for Grand Teton National Park.
The Associated Press: New law pits guns vs. grizzlies in national parks.
By MEAD GRUVER (AP)
Burrowing Owls © Ken Cole
Please don’t post entire articles here, just the link, title and your comments about the article. Most of these violate copyright law. They also take up too much space.
Hazing bison inside Yellowstone National Park on Madison River ©Ken Cole
The ridiculous annual event of hazing bison during their calving season is underway even though this year the bison are likely to come back out of the Park because the green-up of grass hasn’t started there due to late season snowstorms.
Each year the residents of the West Yellowstone area have to endure this fiasco on behalf of a few ranchers who whine and cry that their cattle might get brucellosis from bison when they don’t even bring them to the area a until after the buffalo have all calved. This year, due to the late green-up, it will likely be even later.
On numerous occasions I have witnessed Montana’s helicopters chasing buffalo deep into the Park even beyond the border of Wyoming in front of bewildered tourists. Last year, while hazing herds of newborn calves and their mothers off of private property where there never will be cattle again, Buffalo Field Campaign filmed a calf that had broken its leg in the malay of the hazing operation. These kinds of incidents are a common occurrence and there is no justification for it.
Arguing over Elk. By Adam Cotterell. Boise State Radio.
The Pacific Lamprey had seen drastic declines in population over the last few decades and is quickly becoming a rare sight. Last year it was estimated that only 30,000 crossed Bonneville Dam, down from 350 million to 400 million in the 60’s and 70’s.
via Plight of the Pacific lamprey: Is it a keeper?.
Seattle Times Newspaper
C’mon, how big is the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, really? USA Today.
Polar bear-grizzly hybrids are extremely rare, though one was found (that is, shot) last year.
Now a second generation bear might have been discovered (shot by a native hunter). Story in the National Post.
Interior Department opening Colorado’s North Park to gas and oil drilling. By Bruce Finley. The Denver Post
I can already see that “we” are going to get blamed for the Gulf of Mexico oil fountain. Now we learn that “we” want to sacrifice North Park.
This seems odd. I wasn’t one of those “drill baby drill” people, and I don’t know any of them. It seems to me the phrase was invented by political organizers designed to be spread from the top down.
In the article above, certified genius Dr. Patty Limerick had this to say “Given our energy habits, and given our inability to change them, we have to go forward with this,” said Patty Limerick, director of the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West, who recently hosted BLM leaders at a forum and is preparing a report to guide conservation initiatives.”
I’ve heard this noted historian speak several times. This is typical. She tends to blame the masses (us). Maybe she should read Howard Zinn’s, A People History of the United States.”
Rather than post the story about the ignorant Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks new wolf quota for 2010, I am running this story and artwork by an English painter published in the latest Wildlife Art Journal. Todd Wilkinson of the WAJ has made this available for free for several days. It lifts my spirits to see the beauty portrayed by someone who seems more than cattle.
A Letter From: The Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park. By Julie Askew. Wildlife Art Journal
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Here is another photo essay from the Wildlife Art Journal. The Great Aerial Plains: Christopher Boyer’s Amazing Views From The Sky. These are beautiful and horrible photos of how the Plains actually are. It’s horrible ones — not fun to take, but are probably the most important.
Pythons are just one of many exotics, mostly released pets, that are destroying the Everglades’ orginal ecosystem, but oddly, making it a weird and interesting place.
Defenders of Wildlife launches petition drive to stop Discovery Communications from launching a Palin-hosted wildlife show.
I don’t know, maybe she could show us the way to clean oil off birds and turtles, or maybe a recipe for shrimp substitutes?
Wildlife group targets Discovery with anti-Sarah Palin ad campaign. Los Angeles Times.
World’s biggest beaver dam discovered in northern Canada. by Michel Comte and Jacques Lemieux. Yahoo News.
Regarding beaver locally (near Pocatello, ID), today I went up to check on the big beaver ponds below Scout Mountain. I found some ATV vandal today or yesterday had ridden the ATV all over the soft mud and meadow next to the ponds, deliberately making a big mess in a vehicle closed area.
Below is today’s Buffalo Field Campaign weekly update. Of note is the shooting deaths of two bull bison that were involved in the recent APHIS tests which involved using a vibrating anal probe so that they can test their ejaculate for brucellosis. The bulls had been drugged to immobilize them then once the samples had been taken they were given a drug to wake them up again. The drug caused them to be very agitated and they started moving north of the Park towards Yankee Jim Canyon along the Yellowstone River. Because the Park Service was unable to haze them back towards the Park agents from the Montana Department of Livestock shot them.
I’ll say it again, this study is useless and has put people at risk. They are just trying to rationalize hazing and killing bull buffalo which will not transmit brucellosis to cattle.
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Buffalo Field Campaign
Yellowstone Bison
Update from the Field
May 6, 2010
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* Perseverance Despite Overwhelming Odds ~ Roman Sanchez
* Update from the Field: Two Bulls Shot, Hazing Begins
* NEW VIDEO & TAKE ACTION: APHIS Torture Testing Bull Bison
* BFC Looking for Summer Education Volunteers
* Last Words
* Kill Tally
* Useful Links
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Read the rest of this entry »
The anti-wolf fringe is working 26-hours a day trying to scare people about wolves and tapeworms. The media has hardly bothered to cover them, so with each news release they get more extreme. They are having a rally at Libby MT where they say even the air in NW Montana is dangerous to breathe because it is full of tapeworm larva.
There is no doubt that maybe half the wolves are infested with Echinococcus, but Mark Johnson who participated in the wolf capture and treatment of the new wolves says they didn’t have this infestation when they were processed.
As I’ve said from the start, the parasite was already here. A Google search tracked its presence in Oregon in deer back to the 1920s.
Vet’s View on Tapeworms, Wolves, Coyotes, Foxes and Elk. Public News Service.
“[Veterinarian Mark] Johnson notes that human cases are rare since egg-laden feces must be ingested to become infected.”
So it’s doubtful anyone is going to be infected with Echinococcus except those stupid enough to eat canid shit, but given the hysteria from this band of clowns who knows what they’ll do. 😉
Wilderness bill revised, reintroduced. Controversial land transfers near Stanley dropped. By Jason Kauffman. Idaho Mountain Express Staff Writer
~~
Ken Salazar, Secretary of Interior
The chemical dispersants BP is dumping in the Gulf of Mexico are a cosmetic solution only. And they’re toxic.
By Joseph Romm.
Salon Magazine.
AND MORE MALFEASANCE
U.S. exempted BP’s Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study. By Juliet Eilperin. Washington Post Staff Writer.
The Department of Interior did not require an environmental impact statement on the lease at Deepwater Horizon. Only a CE (categorical exclusion) was done. This is the kind of analysis, or rather lack of it, done for constructing short fences, or repairing a government campground.
The CE was issued on April 6, 2009.
Anti-wolf folks argue that a population goal deal (or promise) was violated by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when it did not delist wolves in the Idaho, Montana and Wyoming as soon as the states had 300 wolves in total. Project leader, Ed Bangs, however, said agency changed the goal to keep up with the best available science.
The 1987 goal (years before the wolf reintroduction actually took place) was 30 breeding pairs of wolves spread out over the three states. After reintroduction this was changed to 15 breeding pairs in each of the states and a population of at least 150 wolves in each state. Bangs said that science showed the 1987 goal was too lean. He said understood that as soon as he took the job he now holds.
Kathie Lynch provides us with another detailed update on the wolves of northern Yellowstone Park.
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Yellowstone field notes. April 10 -18, 2010. By © Kathie Lynch.
During my Spring Break in Yellowstone National Park (April 10-18, 2010), I managed to see at least one wolf every day, but it wasn’t as easy as it used to be.
There are really only 17 wolves that might typically be visible in the Northern Range (nine Blacktails, five “Silvers,” and three in 755M’s Group). Sometimes the three Canyons or some of the seven or eight Quadrants help out by dropping in to the Mammoth area for a visit.
The most exciting happening was the rediscovery of the Druid Peak pack two-year-old “Black Female” (formerly called the “Black Female Yearling”). She had not been seen since March 9. So, on April 17, we were delighted to find her taking turns with a grizzly scavenging on a carcass below Hellroaring.
Before that it had been almost a month since a Druid had been seen (571F on March 24). The other missing Druids and last confirmed sightings include: alpha 480M (February 9), 690F (March 10), “Dull Bar” (March 9, with the “Black Female”), “Black Bar” (end of January), and “Triangle Blaze” (January).
Read the rest of this entry »
“National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration officials last fall warned the Department of Interior, which regulates offshore oil drilling, that it was dramatically underestimating the frequency of offshore oil spills and was dangerously understating the risk and impacts a major spill would have on coastal residents.”
Story in the Huffington Post. NOAA Warned Interior It Was Underestimating Threat Of Serious Spill. By Dan Froomkin.
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Not to give Obama Administration exclusive discredit for the oil gusher. The zanies are undeterred.
Sarah Palin: ‘Drill here, drill now’. The Alaskan’s support for off-shore oil-drilling undeterred by Gulf spill. By Mark Silvea in the Swamp, Chicago Tribune’s Washington Bureau.
Oil gusher is Act of God says Texas’ secessionist governor Rick Perry. Austin News. KXAN. By Catenya McHenry. Governor “Good Hair” continues say it could have been an Act of God.
The Bison have been stuck on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake awaiting transfer to the Book Cliffs. By Mike Stake. AP
People forget that Utah has wild bison herds — herds that are hunted.
Mann Lake Lahontan cutthroat © Ken Cole
Goldfish invade Eastern Oregon trout lake. Associated Press
The oil gusher will last into the hurricane season, and at some point it is likely to drift into the Gulf of Mexico’s Loop Current which will take it out of the Gulf, onto Florida’s east cost and up the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.
Story: Could oil slick hitch a ride out of Gulf of Mexico? By Andrew Freeman. The Washington Post.
Vultures in Scott Valley, east of Cascade, Idaho © Ken Cole
Please don’t post entire articles here, just the link, title and your comments about the article. Most of these violate copyright law. They also take up too much space.
Although Representative Simpson (R-Idaho) has not introduced his CIERDA bill this year in the House, Idaho’s two U.S. Senators yesterday introduced it in the Senate. If it moves, it will probably get attached to omnibus or other legislative and sort of by-pass the House.
This year’s version, which I have not reviewed, strips out some controversial public land giveaways at Stanley, Idaho.
Unlike Senator Tester’s Wilderness bill in Montana, the Idaho bill provides a mechanism and incentives for the voluntary retirements of grazing allotments.
Story: Rep. Simpson’s Boulder-White Cloud bill is introduced in the US Senate. By John Miller. AP
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