Medusahead, an invasive annual grass, is poised to become a major rangeland menace. “It’s just starting its major advancement,” says Roger Sheley, an Agricultural Research Service ecologist in Oregon. Sheley believes most Western rangelands are vulnerable, especially those already plagued by invasives. “Medusahead represents another step in the decline of these systems.” Devilish and useless: […]
Wildlife
Posted inDecember 20, 2010: California Dreamin'
Infinite problems, small solutions
The Fate of Nature: Rediscovering Our Ability to Rescue the EarthCharles Wohlforth417 pages, hardcover: $25.99.St. Martin’s Press, 2010. In The Fate of Nature, Alaskan reporter and author Charles Wohlforth argues that the planet’s salvation depends upon our willingness to overcome our innate selfishness. Beginning with the basic question — what makes us human, anyway? — […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Ocelots in Arizona?
Recent appearance of the tropical cats spurs update of federal recovery plan
Posted inRange
Oh give us a home…
Sixty-three bison sit in limbo just outside Yellowstone National Park, waiting for a new place to call home. The Yellowstone bison are some of the only genetically pure bison remaining in the United States, a small remnant of the historic herds that thundered across the Great Plains by the millions just a few centuries ago. […]
Posted inGoat
“Warranted, but precluded”
Polar bears. Walrus. Ringed and bearded seals. And now wolverines have joined the list of northern animals threatened by warming winters and shrinking snow and ice packs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the bear in 2008 and is considering adding the walrus and the seals. This week, the agency announced that while listing […]
Posted inRange
Rediscovering the known
This may seem a “Shaggy Dog” story, and for that I apologize, but there’s no way to make my scholarly point without digressing into my past. The proximate reason is an announcement this week by the British Columbia Supreme Court requiring an investigative committee to release all information on sea lice infestations and disease outbreaks […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Cheaters and cheatgrass
THE WEST Everybody hates cheatgrass, though it must be admitted that the fluttery plant with the prickly seeds succeeds on sagebrush lands like nobody’s business. A Eurasian invader, it pops up in the spring before native plants do, spreads like wildfire — and burns like wildfire, too. As Wyoming Wildlife magazine put it, cheatgrass “simply […]
Posted inGoat
Goldilocks and the three bears
Once upon a time Goldilocks was hiking across northwest Wyoming and she met a big fierce grizzly bear. Grizzlies were once severely endangered throughout this part of the West, down to just over 100 bears in the 1970’s. But today more than 600 of these hostile bruins haunt the Yellowstone area. And this summer in […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2010: Toxic Past, Toxic Present
Reed between the lines
Regarding the commercialization of Arundo donax (giant reed) in Oregon: This is not an ideal approach to biomass production (HCN, 11/8/10). This huge invasive “grass” causes millions of dollars in damage to river systems here in California and elsewhere. Many conservationists and resource managers are extremely cautious about promoting the expansion of something that is […]
Posted inRange
HCN reader photo – Desert cathedral
From HCN Flickr group contributor John Mumaw of Cortez, Colo., who writes: “The only cottonwood tree for miles around is nurtured and protected from a harsh environment by the cool, moist soil found in this unique, teardrop shaped sandstone alcove on the Utah/Arizona border. The hours I spent in here waiting for the light were […]
Posted inWotr
The healthiest landscapes are hidden
The healthiest wild lands in the nation cannot be found on recreation maps. The bushes in these secret spots aren’t littered with old toilet paper or empty beer cans; there are no crowds, no loud music and no admission fees. No motels, camp sites, toilets, souvenirs or asphalt paths. No gas stations, no boat ramps, […]
Posted inRange
HCN reader photo – Elk in Yellowstone
This week’s reader photo is of a bull elk in Yellowstone. Enjoy! This week’s reader photo comes from HCN Flickr community member Daryl L. Hunter, who shoots beautiful wildlife photos. Submit your own photos to our Flickr group!
Posted inNovember 22, 2010: Hardrock Showdown
Forest Service tackles Idaho bighorn problem
Efforts to protect wild sheep from disease gain momentum
Posted inNovember 22, 2010: Hardrock Showdown
Not quite so SAD
Since at least 2004, sudden aspen decline, or SAD for short, has killed trees in five Western states in sweeping fashion. By 2008, in Colorado alone, more than a half million acres were afflicted. But after a few wet, cool years, the fatal phenomenon is finally relenting. “We’re pretty sure that the drought in 2002 […]
Posted inRange
Leave it to beaver?
By John Abbotts As we’ve noted before, scientists say that climate change could create quite a water supply problem east of the Cascades. Warmer winters are already melting mountain snows earlier in the spring, leaving streams and rivers short on water in mid-summer—just when the salmon, farms, and homes really need it. And many scientists […]
Posted inNovember 8, 2010: Dr. No
The windhover
Wildlife biologist Travis Booms tracks remote Alaska gyrfalcons
Posted inRange
Wolverine: Chasing the phantom
Rebecca Watters researches wolverines (gulos) and other large carnivores for the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative. She recently lent her expertise and tracking skills to the new PBS documentary Wolverine, Chasing the Phantom. Here, she presents a review and overview of the film, which airs on PBS November 14, 2010. When PBS Nature called Gianna Savoie […]
Posted inRange
Counting Fish
Bruce Barcott’s essay last week in the online magazine Yale e360 reveals an interesting environmental paradox, one in which Pacific salmon might be both endangered and, simultaneously, too populous. As Barcott writes, “How can numerous Pacific salmon runs be on the verge of extinction while total salmon numbers are straining the limits of the ocean’s […]
Posted inGoat
Sharing the (reduced) bounty
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hasn’t made a secret of its preference for catch shares as a management tool for the nation’s fisheries. And Friday, the agency, which is headed by marine biologist and fishing quota proponent Jane Lubchenco, released a formal policy that pushes catch shares as the primary management tool for America’s […]