bald eagle chicks, photo courtesy of the National Park Service

Sometimes nature throws us an experience, which gradually alters our paths. These subtle breezes of accumulated exposure to nature’s mysteries can carve your life in unpredictable ways. Here is one such a story, a story that gives me hope in the resilience of nature if we only give it a nudge and open our spirit to its universal truths. Every molecule of DNA on this planet arose and is dependent on the forces exerted on it by other collections of life. We are all bound together by the influences of another creature’s DNA.  Personally nowhere are these relationships and events more glaringly clear and freely experienced than in the wild expanse offered by the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

I was far from Yellowstone the first time I became intrigued by birds, natures little forest embers, lighting up the world with their magical concerts of color, melody and prowess of flight. I had already visited Yellowstone as a kid with my family and carried fond memorable firsts with Yellowstone’s wild creatures. I carried these memories back to our home in Georgia. From the antics of magpies and bison, to the robber gray jays stealing my Cheetos, I recognized the basic cyclic truths my young mind observed.

Unprepared for my first close encounter of the bird kind I was out one spring day in the long leaf pines of Georgia exploring the woods. On this much needed spring excursion I had decided to wear my fall deer hunting camo outfit and see just how close I could get to the resident whitetail that frequented this dense Georgia jungle of a woodlot. I had been sitting motionless for more than an hour listening and watching as three does casually mingled, browsing and on occasion suspiciously looking my way.  The woods were full of bird song, the deer were very close and the pale blooms of ghostly dogwood were peeking through dense greenery on the forest floor.  All in concert  this dawn chorus was a moment of pure perfection. The whistling “peter-peter-peter” of the tufted titmouse, the crimson Northern Cardinals, the raucous Carolina Wren, the cute Carolina Chickadee, the Redtail imitating blue jays, and the echoed caws of a murder of crows all transfixed my senses.

Suddenly, a really heavy leaf landed on my hatless head.  No wait, this was no leaf for it was now ripping at my 1970s length hair. For several minutes this little bird would not give up.  I cold feel his needle sharp claws digging in as he ripped and pulled on my hair in a spring hormone driven frenzy to gather nesting material.  I slowly raised my hand twice to attempt a swift capture.  But this coil of energy and feathers was too quick, flying to the nearest tree a few feet away, it scolded me ferociously.  Only to return for another tug-o-war with my youthful locks. I finally got a look at it, inches from my face this tiny tufted titmouse scolded me once more before flitting away to change my relationship with nature forever.

From that day forward I began my own journey, driven by a voracious appetite to quench this need to experience another intimate encounters with wild creatures of every shape and size. This path of exploration of nature and it’s residents has lead me to want to defend these creatures and their habitat’s which have so enriched my life through many close encounters with natures gifts.  That’s really what it comes down to for me as an advocate for keeping it wild.  Yellowstone offers these gifts to all that visit her bounty, mystery and opportunity of sharing a once in a lifetime experience.  Countless families and visitors to Yellowstone can recount similar experiences as mine, and Yellowstone has been their catalyst to advocacy.  For many those experiences never stop growing and the need for more can only be quenched when they return to Yellowstone country.

Please join us in our efforts to explore and protect, not just the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but your own backyards.  There are a few links that explain the growing understanding of Yellowstone’s birds and how the reintroduction of wolves is helping restore the bird populations again.

http://wyoming.sierraclub.org/ECOLOGICAL%20BENEFITS%20OF%20WOLVES.pdf

http://www.greateryellowstonescience.org/sites/default/files/references/YS_17_3_Baril_et_al_sm.pdf

http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/passerines.htm

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=predators-create-landscape-of-fear

Guest column by Richard Rusnak, rarusnak62@gmail.com.  Rich serves on the the Sierra Club’s Greater Yellowstone Campaign steering committee. 

My experiences with nature’s master engineers has been wide, and varied. I vaguely understand the importance of beavers presence on the landscape, providing waters for numerous species, yes. But they also have a long history of misplaced villainy. Old stories of damage to farmlands, urban parks are being looked at with new scrutiny.  Today I can think back on many experiences exploring the wilds of America, from the swamps of the deep South to Alaska and the quiet beaver was ever present. The startling sound of their warning tail slaps have always accompanied my canoe and the presence of their distinctive teeth marks have amazed me in desert environs. Anywhere there is flowing waters the scheming mind of a beaver will be motivated to do battle with its riffles and cascades. The meditative effects of a babbling brook that we so enjoy must be like a chalkboard screech to the mind of a beaver, its DNA having been influenced by eons of flowing waters across the continent. It is amazing to ponder on thoughts of what is held within this unassuming creature’s genetic memory, arming it with the skills to engineer an ecosystem. An ability only surpassed by another mammal, human kind.

By the 1872 establishment of YNP the fur trade had decimated the beaver population. The park itself has never been considered prime beaver habitat, due mainly to its lack of abundant aspen. However, there are historic 1800‘s journals indicating beavers existed in YNP, where today they are no longer found. The opening of the American West was built on the economy of beaver pelts, from the earliest multinational corporations to the solitary mountain men beaver fever was the catalyst of decades of exploration, adventure and wealth. The continents precolonial wildlands were resplendent with beaver dams, surely our young nation could not have progressed so quickly without the unassuming beavers ability to build, thus providing a healthy and resilient ecosystem for many species including us.

There is hope and today a need for restoring beavers to their rightful place on the ecosystem. Today science recognizes the possibilities beavers provide as one strategy in turning around an ailing planet. As Aldo Leopold surmised, “keeping every cog in the wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering”.

As any Yellowstone advocate knows, the influence of wolves on the landscape is working wonders to repair riparian habitat across the GYE. Many historically abundant Yellowstone aspen stands, denuded by 80 plus years of overly abundant elk herds are regrowing and strongly on the rebound. In the case of the beaver, build it and they will come. And by build it, I am referring to Aspen stands, courtesy of Canis lupus. This is my hope for beavers across the wider ecosystem where wolves are driving the ecology of fear.  As far as the need for beavers, here is where we must consider the runaway effects of climate change. Insert the weather extremes of climate change across the planet, the spine of the continent and the GYE and the advocate can see the utility of rehabbing natures other master builder. Science recognizes the dire effects of accelerating cycles of droughts and floods, which require an urgent solution for stabilizing headwaters, via the beaver’s readily available and frugal engineering of America’s watershed storage and distribution.

Here’s a brief list of the positive effects of a healthy beaver population on the landscape:

1. Increases the water table, and water storage
2. Redistributes and invigorates riparian growth through seed redistribution from the mud/soils beavers move.
3. Lowers water temperatures downstream of dams via groundwater seepage
4. Buffers against flash flooding events
5. Filters and decreases sediment loads
6. Increases late season water supply and stream flows
7. Provides habitat for many species, migratory and resident birds and their predators
8. Improves spawning and rearing of fish stocks

For More Info:http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/upload/ys16(3)_part1.pdf

http://www.landscouncil.org/beaversolution/

Great news! Thanks to many supporters like you, the Wyoming Range’s spectacular Upper Hoback basin has been permanently protected from destructive fracking! Just days ago, The Trust for Public Lands secured the final portion of the $8.75 million needed by December 31st to buy out drilling leases owned by a Houston-based oil and gas company. Over the past several years Sierra Club and our conservation partners have fought to protect the Upper Hoback from development of 136 natural gas wells, 17 well pads and miles of new roads, which would have destroyed this important wildlife migration corridor in the Bridger-Teton National Forest just 35 miles from Jackson. The leases will be permanently retired under the provisions of the 2009 Wyoming Range Legacy Act and can never be sold again.  

While we celebrate this huge victory for the Upper Hoback, we must be vigilant in protecting another critical piece of the Wyoming Range. Just south of the Upper Hoback, an area known as the “44K” is threatened by another highly controversial drilling project. The “44K” is designated critical habitat for the threatened Canada lynx and an important migration corridor for mule deer and other species, and it provides outstanding recreational opportunities on its 44,700 acres.

Like the Hoback, the 44K is one of the few remaining unprotected areas left in the Wyoming Range that was authorized for drilling before passage in 2009 of the Legacy Act, which protects 1.2 million acres from oil and gas drilling. But unlike the Hoback, in which a private drilling company owned valid leases that were grandfathered in when the Legacy Act was passed, the Forest Service has the authority to decide whether or not to cancel the leases in the 44K. The 44K leases were either suspended or not issued as a result of an appeal to the Interior Board of Land Appeals several years ago, so no one holds a current valid lease.

Largely because of the sensitivity of this area for wildlife, in 2011 Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) Supervisor Jacque Buchanan canceled all drilling leases on the 44K, noting “After considering all the alternatives, and the environmental impacts associated with each, I have determined this is the best course of action.”  However, subsequent outcry from industry and politicians resulted in withdrawal of that decision, and agreement by the BTNF to undertake further analysis of the project.  The analysis will include impacts of the proposed project on air quality and wildlife, including lynx. Sierra Club believes that this additional analysis will provide even more justification that drilling should not be allowed.

Later this year, Forest Supervisor Buchanan will again decide whether or not to allow drilling, and will take public comment on her decision. Please stay tuned  –  we’ll need your voice to help ensure that the 44K remains off-limits to drilling forever!

Bonnie Rice, Greater Yellowstone Campaign

Sunshine on the ridge atop Garnet Mountain. Photo by Zack Waterman

The wind ripped across the summit of Garnet Mountain with such intensity that the single-pane glass windows in the fire lookout tower were humming in vibration.  I pulled on my boots and stepped onto the balcony, gripping the icy railing of the fire lookout tower with my mittens as I leaned into the single digit temperatures and windswept snow.  Peering into the Gallatin Canyon bottom thousands of feet below, I could see tiny dots of light moving along highway 191.  While the cars were traveling at 60 mph, from my vantage point they appeared to barely be moving at all.

Photo by Zack Waterman

At 8,245 feet, it no longer felt as if the stars and crescent moon were suspended in the night sky.  Rather, they seemed to swirl endlessly before my level gaze as if they were bobbing in dark ocean—one more daunting and mysterious than those ever traversed by human ships.

Old Man Winter was in one of his fierce moods, again.  He seemed intent on seeing my lookout tower tumble to the bottom of the icy canyon.

Feeling alive once again, I stepped back into the toasty lookout tower warmed by the glow of a wood fire.  Thanks to the National Forest Service cabin rental system, I knew I had a safe place to spend the night, and plenty of wood to keep the cast iron stove roaring.

Dusk sets in above Garnet Mountain Lookout. Photo by Zack Waterman

While most have visited a National Forest campground, few have taken full advantage of the vast array of Forest Service recreation cabin rentals offered to the public at unbelievable prices.  (My lookout costs $30 per night and comes with all the seasoned wood you can possibly stuff into the stove).

The Gallatin National Forest alone has 24 different rental cabins.  Some are accessible by car and have running water and electricity.  Others (such as my lookout) are located in remote wilderness areas that take some serious dedication to access.  Recreation cabins are fun any time of year, but they’re a particularly awesome amenity during the harsh winter months where tent camping can be miserable and downright dangerous.

I was in need of a winter wilderness adventure, so when I saw that the lookout was available for Saturday night, I gave a ring to the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center to chat about snow conditions.

“Avalanche risk is moderate,” the ranger said.  “But if you stay near the trees most of the time you should be fine.  Wouldn’t stop me from going.”

“Thanks”, I said as I hung up the phone.

Less than 24 hours later, I was several hundred feet below the summit of Garnet Mountain.  Struggling just to lift one foot in front of the other, I

Garnet Mountain Lookout. Photo by Zack Waterman

trudged uphill through deep snow. While it’s only 4 miles from the trailhead to the summit, the trail gains nearly 3,000 feet of elevation.  Add December in Montana to the equation and this would-be strenuous summertime hike turns into a serious winter expedition.

After a full day of travel, I finally stumbled into the lookout, dropped my snow crusted backpack on the floor with a thud, and collapsed onto a

wooden chair.  Recognizing that I had less than an hour of daylight left, I took in the sweeping 360 degree view of mountain wilderness.  From inside the lookout I could see three different major mountain ranges of the Northern Rockies including the Bridger, Madison, and Gallatin Ranges.   As I took in the enormous scale of the landscape around me, I wondered where the wolves that had survived Montana’s hunting and trapping season were denning.

As dusk crept over the 45^th parallel, the Rockies disappeared beneath a sea of stars.  I sat next to the crackling fire and recognized I was living a childhood dream.  As kid who learned to love nature from rambling around old tobacco irrigation ponds in eastern North Carolina, I dreamed of one day having adventures in great western mountain ranges.   Here I was, on top of the world, and living in the browning pages of the Jack London novels that captured my imagination as a child.

Ascent of Garnet Mountain on snowshoes. Photo by Zack Waterman

We need places like this to exist, even if we’re never fortunate or adventurous enough to set foot into them.  The fact that there are still places that echo with the hoof beats of great bison and elk herds (where you can escape the chatter of our wired, fast paced, suburban lives) remind us of an Old World— a time when our survival was more intimately interwoven with the lands around us.  Untamed wilderness reminds us of our place in this world and our dependence upon her sustenance.   The wild awakens our spirits and imaginations, and it encourages us to dream like children.

Looking south over the Gallatin Range, I hoped that my grandkids would one day have the opportunity to stand on top of Garnet Mountain and look out over the wild Rockies, and wonder where the  last grizzly bears chose to hibernate through the dark Montana winter .  I recognized, though, that there is much work to be done to make sure this opportunity exists for future generations.

The Gallatin Range before me, extending from Yellowstone National Park to the foothills of Bozeman, serves as a key wildlife corridor for some of the healthiest wildlife populations of any temperate ecosystem on Earth.  The Gallatin Range helps connect Greater Yellowstone with the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, and this connectivity between large swaths of undeveloped land is why Greater Yellowstone is one of the last places in the United States where all of the top predator species present before European exploration still roam free.

However, the future of this wild artery and the ecosystem that depends upon it remains tenuous.   Gallatin County, home to Bozeman, Big Sky, and West Yellowstone is one of the fastest growing counties in the United States.  Booming development and ever increasing recreational pressure present serious threats to the Gallatin Range.  Meanwhile, rapidly changing national politics threaten to undo current but inadequate protections.

Standing on top of Garnet Mountain, I felt thankful that conservation groups like the Sierra Club are working to secure permanent Wilderness protection for the Gallatin Range.  We must recognize, though, that conservation groups cannot do it alone.  If we are to be successful, we need the help of passionate and engaged citizens who are willing to step up to the plate.

With your help we can make sure that the Gallatin Range remains forever wild.  To find out more about volunteering with Sierra Club’s Greater Yellowstone Campaign, contact Zack Waterman (zack.waterman@sierraclub.org) or Bonnie Rice (bonnie.rice@sierraclub.org).

Post by Zack Waterman

The Lamar Canyon wolf pack are seen on a hillside in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., Aug. 2012. (Wolves of the Rockies/AP Photo)

ABC News– December 10th, 2012

The killing of the “most famous wolf in the world” at Yellowstone National Park is coinciding with wildlife officials discussing potential new restrictions for hunting near the park.

A collared female alpha wolf known as 832F to researchers and ’06 — for the year she was born — to fans, was legally killed Thursday in Wyoming outside the park’s protected area. She was part of the renowned Lamar Canyon pack.

“She was without a doubt the most famous wolf in the world, hands down,” Kim Bean, vice president of Wolves of the Rockies, told ABCNews.com. “I watched her since her birth, basically. She was an amazing wolf to watch. She was definitely the most researched in the park. … She’s gone.”

Wolves, which were listed as endangered species in 1973, were reintroduced into the northern Rocky Mountains in the 1990s, setting off a years-long battle between Wyoming, Idaho and Montana on one side and the federal government and environmental groups on the other about how to manage the population.

Read More About the Environmental Impact of the Wolf in the Northern Rockies

As the wolf was removed from the endangered species list in each state, the federal government has turned over control to the local authorities.

In Montana and Idaho, the gray wolf was removed from the federal endangered list in May 2011, and it lost its protected status in Wyoming on Oct. 1.

By the end of 2011, the wolf population in the region had risen to an estimated 1,774, and the states now say they need to trim the packs because of attacks on livestock and the decline in elk populations.

Mike Jimenez, the wolf management and science coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told ABCNews.com that wolf recovery has been “very successful.

“Public hunting is by no means a threat to wolves,” he said. “It’s not a threat to the population or to successful recovery, but that doesn’t by any means diminish the passion and feelings people have about individual wolves.”

“Wolves evolve strong, passionate feeling for people and this creates management problems,” he said. “The issue is between states and national parks. States are doing a very good job managing wolves. They’re caught in a very tough balancing act.”

Though wolf trapping season does not kick off in Montana until Dec. 15, hunting season is already open in bordering Wyoming and Idaho.

“[The wolves] don’t recognize these arbitrary political boundaries that we humans implement so there are certain packs that mainly stay in the park, while others come out of the park,” Bonnie Rice, a senior representative for the Sierra Club’s Greater Yellowstone Campaign, told ABCNews.com. “The minute they step over that park boundary, they’re fair game.”

Of the 88 wolves in the park, eight have been killed in the past few weeks, according to Rice.

She said that the Sierra Club is not anti-hunting, but they are not satisfied with Wyoming’s current regulations.

Since gray wolves were removed from the Endangered Species List and classified as predators in Wyoming, hunters there have been allowed to shoot the animals on sight at any time, for any reason, in about 85 percent of the state.

In parts of the state where hunters do not have the right to kill wolves on sight, wolves are designated “trophy game” and subject to hunting during seasons regulated by the state.

“Our primary goal, and that of the states, is to ensure that gray wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains remain healthy, giving future generations of Americans the chance to hear its howl echo across the area,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe in a prepared statement, at the time of the decision.

Officials are meeting on Montana today to discuss what has happened so far in the season and to assess whether regulation changes are necessary.

“We don’t want to close any area off if we don’t have to. But if we keep losing collared wolves … management becomes difficult,” Montana wildlife commissioner Shane Colton told The Associated Press. “We want to do this first trapping seaons right.”

“We’re not looking for a buffer. We’re looking for quotas,” Bean said. “We want to find balance.”

Despite the loss of a beloved alpha wolf, advocates are optimistic about the future of the pack.

“She leave a good line of pups that she taught well,” Bean said. “Her legacy will go on. We will have great wolves. We’ve had great wolves before her and we’ll have great wolves that will follow her.”

ABC News’ Russell Goldman contributed to this report.

I was scrambling across sharp granite scree high above tree line in Idaho’s Whitecloud Peaks, when this powerful scent slapped me in the face. Musky, sweet, not quite offensive but fulminating enough to make me take pause and blink off the irritation watering my eyes. I followed the scent a short distance to a boulder pile overlooking a muddy shored tarn. My gaze traced an imaginary path downslope to where the scree ended and silty mudded plain began. I froze as my gaze locked onto blemishes in the smooth wet shoreline.  I was looking at a distinctive diagonally imprinted pattern of clawed tracks that undulated across a muddy flat, disappearing at the next scree laden moraine of this glacial basin. The tracks were laid on a slight diagonal in a 1-2-1 paw print pattern, very freshly imprinted with 5 clawed toes and a flatly arched pad. Large enough for a young wolf, yet this was no 4 clawed wolf track. I muttered to myself, shit I just missed-em.

“The Gulo” or wolverine

Adrenaline surging, I stood in the mud alongside the fresh sign left by my nemesis predator. My gaze turned towards the once proud spires of granite that now lye in spent piles around me. Slowly and with abated breath I glassed the moraine debris for further tracks. A joy grew in my heart as I searched with binocs and wondered, was it watching me? I smiled and relished the privilege of sharing this glacial basin with the rarest carnivore on the continent. Sadly,  getting rarer if we are to recognize the havoc of climate changes effects grinding down on the wolverines ability to spread it’s genes across the shrinking refrigeration zone of our continents spine.

Recent progress by researchers is opening a window into this amazing mammals lifecycle. The GYE and Glacier ecosystems are possibly the last stand for this ghost of the alpine zone. Gulo’s are extremely vulnerable to basically one major component of climate change, May snowpack. Globally the Northern hemisphere ranges that climatically sustain snow packs well into the month of May are almost without exception where researchers find wolverines reproducing and dispersing in viable numbers. But these ranges must be contiguous with comparably carrying snow pack ranges. The availability of cold beckons the dispersal of male juveniles and provides safety to the females raising the tiny white wolverine kits. Across these “refrigeration zones”, the Absorka Beartooth, the Thorofare, and The Winds the gulo’s of the GYE move freely. Whether scrambling up and down avalanche shoots or searching high passes they gallop with little effort across a massive expanses of habitat. The males requiring a home range larger than grizzlies at a documented 600+ square miles.

Wolverine track

For as yet unknown reasons the GYE’s wolverine population have lower reproductive rates than other gulo populations in the US. Even in suitable habitat with similar juvenile to adult survival rates, the fecundity of Yellowstone’s wolverines is in decline. They also have larger home ranges than other studied populations. In a GYE study done from 2005-09, which logged 5248 trap nights, the data equated to capturing only 1 gulo every 2 years and one unique gulo every 3.5 years. Shockingly rare, given the vast suitable wilderness in the region. Maddeningly cavalier attitudes abound as Montana continues to allow fur trapping while the USFWS delays ESA status, go figure. So with such a large area of habitat and adequate snowpacks, why are the magnificent creatures not reproducing. This question warrants more study on the GYE and continent wide, especially given the speed at which climate change is occurring.

These are dire days for the wolverine, but it is in their very nature to thrive on dire conditions. Two mind boggling examples of Gulo’s athletic prowess come to mind: Not since the 1930‘s has a Gulo been seen in California, but the recent wolverines documented in the Sierra Nevada are genetically related to a female wolverine studied by Jeff Copeland (preeminent gulo researcher) in Idaho’s Sawtooth Range. It traveled more than 900 miles across the great basin desert!  Another was documented via satellite GPS collar climbing 5700 feet almost straight up an avalanche chute, thus summiting Mt. Cleveland the highest peak in Glacier NP. Basically he crossed the continental divide, on into Canada in 90 minutes during a 40 below January blizzard.

I cannot stress enough the importance of protecting and connecting these high alpine ecosystems. Allowing gulo’s to spread their genes and perpetuate their indomitable life forces under the auspices of natural selection and not blink out by the hand of man’s folly.  A paramount consideration to all lovers of wilderness. I am cautiously hopeful that these 30+ pounds of steel muscled mystery of nature can adapt to anything the melting mountain can throw at them. If not, well then what a shameful legacy to carry for this and future generations, as another universe will have to come to pass before this superlative creature claws its way back into the lore of another race of compassionate beings.

Please remember to photograph any suspect tracks with something in the photo for scale, document GPS coordinates and contact Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative for more info. Here are some helpful resources, if you want to help the Gulo. nrcc@nrccooperative.org, for a laminated pocket track guide, or for more info the wolverinefoundation.org

Guest column by Richard Rusnak, rarusnak62@gmail.com.  Rich serves on the the Sierra Club’s Greater Yellowstone Campaign steering committee.