Idaho Fish and Game Feature

Lake Lowell in southwestern Idaho has been much in the news lately. The state government is fighting a federal proposal to limit longtime recreational uses on the huge reservoir, which was built for irrigation in the early 1900s.

Federal officials want to restrict water sports to about a third of the lake and ban dogs and horses, to protect wildlife in the Deer Park National Wildlife Refuge, which incorporates the lake. Idaho Gov. Butch Otter insists the state should manage the wildlife. Amidst this debate, Idaho Fish and Game announced this week it was considering how to reduce a carp infestation that has disrupted the reservoir’s aquatic systems.

New West Feature

An agreement reached last week between Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director Dan Ashe, and the State of Wyoming will allow treatment of the wolf as a predator that can be shot, trapped, or run over at any time throughout most of the state.

Interior has agreed to remove Wyoming wolves from the threatened and endangered species list, and give the state authority to manage wolves under a unique and widely criticized dual management plan.

New West Feature

A suite of habitat stressors appears to have caused a massive decline in mule deer and pronghorn herds around the border of Wyoming and Colorado, according to a recent National Wildlife Federation (NWF) report.

The herds, which tend to migrate back and forth over state lines, have encountered a number of pressures over the past 30 years, including fragmentation of habitat, disease, energy development, drought, and harsh winters.

New West Feature

The reinstatement on Saturday, Aug. 6, of protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for a mouse in Wyoming might seem a small move, but it encapsulates many of the special interest considerations that dominate land use decisions in the West.

The issue, which goes back several years, revolves around the familiar question of what “best science” means. Government agencies, the courts, the media, and biologists themselves have weighed into the debate, closely attended by conservationists, ranchers, and politicians.

New West Feature

Yesterday’s ruling by a federal judge in Montana that upheld the delisting of wolves under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) might seem like third time unlucky for protectors of the species, but is it?

Twice previously, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy had prevented attempts to escalate the hunting of wolves in the West, but this time he cited a 9th Circuit Court precedent that he decided required him to rule against a challenge of the so-called wolf rider to a federal budget bill passed in April.

National Park News

In a rare occurrence among grizzly bears, Grand Teton National Park biologists have reported that two sows—a mother and her five-year-old daughter—have exchanged a cub.

The two female grizzlies have occupied overlapping home ranges since both emerged from hibernation with newborn cubs this past spring. The adoption or fostering of cubs between two female bears is rare, but not unprecedented, according to a blogpost filed by public affairs officer Jackie Skaggs. This behavior was documented in an article written by Mark A. Haroldson, Kerry A. Gunther and Travis Wyman in a Yellowstone Science 2008 publication.

Adventure Journal Post

In Yellowstone National Park, the extirpation of wolves led to a flourishing elk population, which then overgrazed trees. Reductions in numbers of lions and leopards in parts of Africa has led to a rise of olive baboons, increasing contact with humans and the spread of intestinal parasites in humans and baboons. The decimation of sharks in the Chesapeake Bay has led to a proliferation of cow-nosed rays, which have over-consumed oysters.

“People who live in North America know it’s hard to grow a garden because deer will eat it,” said Ellen K. Pikitch, a co-author of the report and a professor at Stony Brook University in New York. “The lack of wolf populations throughout North America has led to an expansion of the deer population.

New West Feature

In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, grizzly bear management faces a major constraint – all the best habitat for grizzly bears is already occupied, even over-occupied.

Or is it?

“I call it the ‘too many fish in a bucket’ scenario,” said Mark Bruscino, the veteran bear manager for the Wyoming Game & Fish Department. Fish, meaning bears, keep jumping out of the best habitat, he said, landing in rural habitats where they can get in trouble with people.

It doesn’t always work to scoop up the fish and put it back in the bucket – not when the fish/bear becomes habituated to human food sources or gets pushed around by bigger, badder bears and keeps jumping out of the bucket, said Bruscino.

Wildlife Management

If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.
– Aldo Leopold

The wolves of the Rocky Mountains are under attack. Idaho recently released its proposal for the 2011 hunting season, which calls for no limit on the number of wolves that can be killed. Yes, you read that correctly. The state that professed it will not manage its wolves has followed through and issued a public plan expressing there will be no limits on wolf hunting for this year. Based on the fact that Idaho, Wyoming and Montana are required to maintain a specific number of wolves in the three-state region, an undue burden has been placed on the other two states. One hopes Wyoming and Montana will take heed; however, at this writing, Montana has announced it expects to issue 220 permits, permission to take out roughly one-third of the total Montana wolf population.

There are those who argue that all wolves should be protected, no matter what. This is not an acceptable management approach when even endangered grizzlies that cause harm to a rancher are being culled. The other end of the spectrum is represented by a vocal and polar-opposite. These individuals profess a vested interest in nature, albeit a nature of their own design. 

ESA News

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Department this week announced its conclusions from a 12-month study prompted by a petition to list the whitebark pine as endangered: The tree is threatened and deserves protection, but it won’t get that this time around.

The department’s announcement explained that “after review of all available scientific and commercial information, we find that listing P. albicaulis as threatened or endangered is warranted. However, currently listing [whitebark pine] is precluded by higher priority actions to amend the Lists of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants.”

Instead, the tree will be added as a candidate to the species list, with a “proposed rule” to revisit listing it as endangered “as our priorities and funding will allow.”