http://www.greateryellowstone.org/news Latest News From the Greater Yellowstone Coalition en-us Tue, 10 Jun 2009 09:41:01 GMT Weblog Editor 2.0 5 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1934 Editor's note: This is a logical outcome from the demise of cutthroat trout. Yellowstone grizzly bears are looking elsewhere for food now that the creeks feeding Yellowstone Lake have many fewer trout — and elk calves are easy prey. A drop in migratory elk calf numbers in and around Yellowstone National Park may be linked to a loss of cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake, according to research published Tuesday. Grizzly bears may be the link. As cutthroat trout numbers declined, some grizzly bears began switching from eating trout to preying more on elk calves, said researcher Arthur Middleton. Read more about Yellowstone grizzly bears and elk. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1934 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1933 Editor's note: Wyoming's plan for wolves in the Greater Yellowstone region is actually pretty moderate — the problem lies with the state's Predator Zone, where wolves can be killed at any time for any reason and in any way. The state has no solid foundation for being stubborn on this issue given that Yellowstone wolves are unlikely to colonize in most of the state anyway because they'd be destined to get in trouble with livestock. Park County might join a growing list of “interveners” in lawsuits filed in Washington, D.C., attempting to stop Wyoming’s wolf hunts. “Initially, I thought, I don’t want to possibly spend any more money; I don’t think we should intervene in D.C.,” commissioner Joe Tilden said. Read more about Wyoming and its wolf controversies. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1933 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1929 Editor's note: Today marks the beginning of a new era at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. Caroline Byrd starts as our new executive director, succeeding the iconic Mike Clark. This news and notes piece from High Country News refers to her hiring about halfhway through. We are delighted to announce that Boston-based journalist Lisa Song (an HCN intern in 2010) has won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, along with her InsideClimate News colleagues Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer. They received journalism's premier award for "The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You've Never Heard Of." Read more about Caroline Byrd from High Country News. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1929 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1930 BOZEMAN, Mont. — America’s Voice For A Greater Yellowstone has a new executive director. Caroline Byrd, an accomplished conservation leader in the West who has spent the past 10 years in Missoula as Western Montana program director for The Nature Conservancy, is the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s new leader. She succeeds Mike Clark, who is stepping down after two tenures guiding a Bozeman-based conservation advocacy group known internationally for its efforts to protect the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s lands, waters, and wildlife.  “I am thrilled and deeply honored to be joining the Greater Yellowstone Coalition team,” Byrd said. “I truly believe there is no greater landscape in the continental United States than the country around Yellowstone; it is an international treasure and is globally important for all that it offers. From its full array of wildlife, stunning mountains and rivers, the people that live in its embrace and its inspiring history of conservation, the Yellowstone ecosystem is unmatched.” Byrd’s roots in the region run deep. She was first smitten with Greater Yellowstone as an 18-year-old Californian on a spring university field course. She spent the summer working on a trail crew in the Absaroka Mountains of Wyoming, and upon finishing college packed her Volkswagen and returned to Wyoming. Byrd has lived in the Rockies ever since. After starting as a backcountry seasonal for the Forest Service, she spent many years as a National Outdoor Leadership School instructor followed by time as a graduate student and law student at the University of Montana, staff attorney for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, and intern and board member for High Country News She has spent the past 14 years with The Nature Conservancy, first as Southwest Colorado program manager and then as Western Montana program director. From Missoula, Byrd helped implement the innovative Blackfoot Community and Montana Legacy projects, which conserve more than 400,000 acres. Before her tenure with The Nature Conservancy, she spent three years as staff attorney for the Wyoming Outdoor Council in Lander. In addition, Byrd has served on eight boards of directors, including the Blackfoot Challenge in western Montana, High Country News, and the Montana Forest Restoration Committee. An avid mountaineer, in 1999 she was a member of the first all-woman expedition to summit an 8,000-meter peak — Tibet’s Cho Oyu — without the support of Sherpas and oxygen. Byrd also is the first woman to climb Alaska’s Denali via the Northwest Buttress. Byrd began her tenure at GYC on May 13. “I am so excited to be a part of GYC and to give back to this fabulous place I call home!” she said. GYC has been America’s Voice For A Greater Yellowstone for 30 years and is the only conservation group whose work is dedicated solely to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1930 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1932 Editor's note: Yellowstone grizzly bears have suffered record mortalities in three of the past four years, due primarily to conflicts with humans. The population has plateaued. This remains a major concern as we edge toward delisting. Grizzly bears lack a reputation as a rule-following animal, but they sure inspire a lot of rule-making. The bears of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem have a draft 158-page rulebook up for public comment this summer as they move toward possible removal from federal Endangered Species Act protection. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan describes how roughly 1,000 grizzlies in that area would be managed, protected and restricted. It’s up for public comment through August. Read more about the future of Yellowstone grizzly bears. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1932 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1931 Editor's note: GYC supported the move of Yellowstone bison to Turner's ranch because it was the only real solution. The bison had been quarantined and tested for five years, and the State of Montana still didn't have a place for them to go. And letting them return to Yellowstone National Park — where they'd be exposed to brucellosis — would've resulted in the waste of five years of research. The other solutions were slaughter and keeping them in pens. We applaud Turner and his ranches for stepping up to save these treasured Yellowstone bison. A Gallatin County district judge ruled that billionaire Ted Turner can keep his Yellowstone National Park bison calves. Three weeks ago, District Judge Holly Brown dismissed a lawsuit brought by bison advocacy groups against the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks for the agreement FWP made with Turner to take care of some disease-free bison.   Read more about Yellowstone bison and Ted Turner's ranch. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1931 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1928 Editor's note: As our Chris Colligan notes, Montana was once a beacon of wolf managment but it continues to take steps backward. Much of the hue and cry nationally about wolf managment in the West revolves around Montana's stubbornness when it comes to prohibiting trapping and hunting in areas adjacent to Yellowstone National Park. HELENA — Proposals to liberalize the 2013-2014 wolf hunting and trapping season in Montana drew a wide range of comments this week from both supporters and opponents of the plan put forth by the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The usual sportsmen’s groups in favor of increased hunting and trapping activities noted that they’re still looking for the proper predator-prey balance on the landscape, and the majority endorsed the proposal. Among other items, it calls for a six and a half month wolf hunting season and a bag limit of five wolves per person, up from one per person. Electronic calls also would be allowed. Read more about wolf hunting in Montana. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1928 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1925 Editor's note: Few species offer a better snapshot into the intricate chain of life than the Yellowstone cutthroat trout, whose status in Yellowstone Lake affects no fewer than 42 other creatures. The osprey is one of those, and quite clearly paying a price for the illegal introduction of lake trout into the lake in the 1980s. CODY, Wyo. — The decline in Yellowstone cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake has meant that anglers in Yellowstone National Park must release any of the native fish that are caught. Unfortunately, for the park’s osprey, catch-and-release fishing is not an option. Osprey are among the 40 species of animals in Yellowstone that rely on cutthroat trout as a food source. But unlike grizzly bears, for instance, or even bald eagles—two species that can adapt their diets somewhat to different food sources depending on available prey—osprey are almost entirely reliant on fish. Read more about osprey and Yellowstone cutthroat trout. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1925 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1926 Editor's note: Cyclists agree that there is no better time to hit the roads in Yellowstone than the spring, when traffic is light or non-existent. Such rides are also a great tuneup for Cycle Greater Yellowstone in August! The sounds were soft but defining: the steady crunching of fine black pumice crushed beneath bike tires, the patter of rain pelting helmet and jacket, labored breaths exhaled in plumes, and the drumming of a rapid pulse as blood rushed through my carotid artery. Slowly pedaling up a highway in Yellowstone National Park during a cool spring rainstorm last weekend, I wondered: “What the heck was I thinking?” I could have been lying comfortably on a soft couch, snug under a fleece blanket and munching popcorn while watching a movie. What drove me to punish my body like this, because on a scale of 1 to 10 — 10 being the fittest people I know — I’m maybe a 5. At the time though, I felt like a sluggish minus 10. Read more about bicycling in Yellowstone. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1926 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1927 Editor's note: Yes, Yellowstone Lake isn't the only place where native cutthroat trout are imperiled. Wherever you look — southeast Idaho's phosphate mining district, oil and gas fields, and even the river that runs through it (Gallatin) — there are challenges. When Lewis and Clark camped at the Great Falls of the Missouri River 200 years ago and discovered the westslope and Yellowstone cutthroat trout, the species was numerous and unchallenged as the only trout east of the Continental Divide. With the exception of northeast Montana, the cutthroat’s two subspecies ranged throughout the entire state’s waters. That was then. Now, the cutthroat populations, especially the westslope variety, are all but gone from waterways east of the Continental Divide due to competition and hybridization with the non-native trout varieties. This is especially true in the Gallatin River Drainage. Read more about the imperiled cutthroat trout. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=1927