Some people try to make a killing on killer bees
Wildlife
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Can green-certified lumber make it?
Some foresters say environmental management doesn’t reap extra profit
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
2,997 … 2,998 … 2,999
Note: This is a sidebar to a feature story about the killer-bee invasion of the West, headlined: The Buzz Business. Counting killer bee stings is a tedious chore. Usually the total is estimated, but one person gets exact counts – Justin Schmidt, a research entomologist who’s spent 22 years at the Carl Hayden Bee Research […]
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
In the lion’s eye
I like to work alone, far from other people, in the deserts and mountains of southeastern Idaho. These are the forgotten lands, rarely seen by the public and only occasionally by agency personnel. On one job I will always remember, I am in the Black Pine Range, working as an independent biologist for the Black […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Hatching reform
SEATTLE, Wash. – From 80 feet above downtown, the throngs of people wrapped in raincoats on the sidewalk below look like a spilled package of multicolored candies. The view is less colorful looking outward from the eighth floor window of the historic Cobb building, but no less busy; glass and steel high-rises thrust upward in […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
No magic bullet for wasting disease
Critics assail slaughter of elk, deer as strategy against CWD
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Exotic-killing herbicide is ousted from the range
BLM’s most promising tool for fighting cheatgrass backfires in Idaho
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
The wild (and not-so-wild) sex life of salmon
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. A quick trip through the life cycle of a salmon, be it hatchery or wild, makes human development appear quite simple. In late summer or early fall, the female salmon deposits several thousand eggs in a shallow river bottom nest called a redd. In […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
The garden of good and evil
Follow the simple steps listed on the back of any of the popular wildflower seed mixes for sale, and voila! A thick carpet of kaleidoscopic blooms will grace your garden. Problem is, you probably just broke the law. At least, that’s what researchers with the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture discovered when they […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Spreading seeds of knowledge
When Greek scholar turned cattle rancher Claude A. Barr died in 1982, he left behind a lifetime of discoveries and observations about South Dakota flora. He was “a self-taught wizard of Great Plains native plants,” says Cindy Reed, a South Dakota native and protege of Barr’s. To preserve Barr’s legacy, Reed founded the Great Plains […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Woody leviathans
Robert Van Pelt, a forest ecology researcher at the University of Washington and Evergreen State College, has two lifelong obsessions: trees and curious facts. So it seems inevitable that he would hunt out the woody leviathans showcased in his book Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast. Measuring trees is a science, and Van Pelt takes […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
We’d like 2,387 salmon and a Pepsi, please
A new federal report enumerates, for the first time, exactly how many wild salmon and steelhead need to survive for them to be removed from the endangered species list. The report, produced by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), suggests specific annual fish populations in more than 60 tributaries of the Columbia River. The figures […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Raptors won’t fry away
Since the 1970s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has monitored the electrocution of hawks and eagles, whose large wing spans can easily bridge the gap between live wires on power lines (HCN, 12/7/98: Power poles make deadly perches). Though the agency has the authority to prosecute electric companies under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Expatriate fish could return a hero
The cure for the exotic whirling disease, a fatal malady in trout, could – ironically – lie in a foreign fish. Researchers recently found that Hofer rainbow trout, the offspring of Pacific rainbow trout taken to Germany in 1880, are 10 to 100 times less susceptible to whirling disease than native U.S. rainbow trout, thanks […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
‘I respect wolves. I still don’t like them killing our sheep.’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Margaret Soulen Hinson helps run her family’s ranch near Weiser, Idaho, northwest of Boise. Wolves have killed 105 of the ranch’s sheep since 1995, but Soulen Hinson says: “In comparison to other predator problems, the wolves have been pretty minimal. We lose way more […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
‘There isn’t much room for more wolves’
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Ralph Maughan is a professor of political science at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho, and president-elect of the Wolf Recovery Foundation. He believes there are still reasons to worry: “There was no need to kill off all of the Whitehawk Pack. That […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Wolves still struggle in the Southwest
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The effort to restore Mexican gray wolves to the Southwest started later and smaller than the restoration of wolves to the Northern Rockies, and it has run into stiffer local resistance. But “we’re on track,” says Colleen Buchanan, assistant Mexican wolf recovery coordinator for […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Wolf at the door
Now that the West’s top predator has reached civilization’s back porch, managers face some agonizing decisions
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Where there’s smoke wood, there’s less fire
An Arizona entrepreneur makes good on juniper slash
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Bison under the gun – again
MONTANA It was a hard winter for the bison of Yellowstone National Park. Increased herd size and harsh weather prompted many animals to head beyond the park for better feeding grounds in Montana. There, federal and state officials have so far killed 170 bison in an attempt to prevent the spread of brucellosis to cattle […]