Wolf transition from Idaho Fish and Game is still not complete

Feds still looking for a cooperating, non-Idaho agency-

Personally, I’d rather see the federal government manage them in Idaho. They are doing it in Wyoming, and the wolf population there is growing slowly, livestock losses are stable or declining, and every elk unit its above the population “target” in Wyoming.

In Idaho, before Idaho Fish and Game Department took over, the feds (meaning Carter Niemeyer, the federal wolf manager) oversaw a similar situation.

If a cooperating agency is not found for Idaho, however, it may be that there will be no Idaho wolf population count for 2010.  That will mean that every interest will make their own claim.  Perhaps the extremes will be those saying there are less than 100 wolves and the other extreme 10,000 wolves.

Idaho wolf management transition still not complete. U.S. Fish and Wildlife still looking for monitoring agency. By Katherine Wutz. Idaho Mountain Express staff writer

Bat deaths from Wind Turbines

“Barotrauma”

University of Calgary researchers provide answers to the mysterious deaths of bats and wind turbine facilities in southern Alberta, Canada.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Barotrauma- Bat deaths from Wind Turbines

Barotrauma – Wikipedia.org

Barotrauma is physical damage to body tissues caused by a difference in pressure between an air space inside or beside the body and the surrounding fluid.

Barotrauma typically occurs to air spaces within a body when that body moves to or from a higher pressure environment, such as when a SCUBA diver, a free-diving diver or an airplane passenger ascends or descends, or during uncontrolled decompression of a pressure vessel.

Million acre! wildlife refuge to be established in the Flint Hills of Kansas

Private land refuge to be tried to conserve much of the remnants of the tall grass prairie-

As everyone knows, very little prairie has been conserved or restored.  This is an effort said to be the model for the 21st century. This might be true in the sense that it seems like the kind of thing that would appeal to some kinds of conservatives. Most what was done came during the Great Depression and was short grass prairie.

New wildlife refuge set in Flint Hills of Kansas. By Roxana Hegeman. The Associated Press. It will be named the Flint Hills Legacy Conservation Area and a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System

There is a Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve of about 10,000 acres. It was established in 1996. This was the culmination of  about 70 years of efforts to create a tallgrass prairie national park, monument, preserve, conservation area or whatever. Most of this national preserve is, oddly enough, the result of purchases by the Nature Conservancy and remains in their hands.

James Nedresky. Photographs of the Flint Hills.

Bighorns transplanted to WY Seminoe Mountains doing well

. . . and another transplant to this obscure mountain range planned-

We’ve been following this for about a year now, and it’s good to hear good news on bighorn sheep because so much has been bad.

Article on the transplants. By Jeff Gearino. Casper Star-Tribune in the Billings Gazette.

Seminoe Mountains BLM photo