tagged w/ Yellowstone National Park
-
Los Angeles Times...
.
PHOTO: Congress removed wolves in Montana and Idaho from the protection of the Endangered Species Act in April. (Associated Press)
.
The new war on wolves
As soon as federal protection ended, the slaughter began.
.
By J. William Gibson
December 8, 2011
.
Congress removed wolves in Montana and Idaho from the protection of the Endangered Species Act in April. And this fall, the killing began.
As of Wednesday, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game reported that 154 of its estimated 750 wolves had been "harvested" this year. Legal hunting and trapping — with both snares to strangle and leg traps to capture — will continue through the spring. And if hunting fails to reduce the wolf population sufficiently — to less than 150 wolves — the state says it will use airborne shooters to eliminate more.
In Montana, hunters will be allowed to kill up to 220 wolves this season (or about 40% of the state's roughly 550 wolves). To date, hunters have taken only about 100 wolves, prompting the state to extend the hunting season until the end of January. David Allen, president of the powerful Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, has said he thinks hunters can't do the job, and he is urging the state to follow Idaho's lead and "prepare for more aggressive wolf control methods, perhaps as early as summer 2012."
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead recently concluded an agreement with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to save 100 to 150 wolves in lands near Yellowstone National Park. But in the remaining 80% of the state, wolves can be killed year-round because they are considered vermin. Roughly 60% of Wyoming's 350 wolves will become targeted for elimination.
What is happening to wolves now, and what is planned for them, doesn't really qualify as hunting. It is an outright war.
In the mid-1990s, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 66 wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho, most of the U.S. celebrated. The magnificent wolf, an icon of wilderness that humans had driven to extinction in the United States, would now reoccupy part of its old range. But in the region where the wolves were introduced, the move was much more controversial.
Part of the reason was the increase, particularly in Idaho and Montana, in paramilitary militia advocates, with their masculine ideal of man as warrior who should fight the hated federal government, by armed force if necessary. They were outraged by what they saw as federal interference in the region spurred by environmentalists, and their ideas found a willing reception among ranchers, who view wolves as a threat to their livestock — even though they ranch on federal land — and hunters, who don't want the wolves reducing the big game population.
The factions have reinforced one another, and today a cultural mythology has emerged that demonizes the federal government, the environmental movement and the wolves themselves. Many false claims have been embraced as truth, including that the Fish and Wildlife Service stole $60 million from federal excise taxes on guns and ammunition to pay for bringing wolves back; that the introduced wolves carry horrible tapeworms that can be easily transmitted to dogs, and ultimately to humans; that the Canadian wolves that were brought in are an entirely different species from the gray wolves that once lived in the Rockies, and that these wolves will kill elk, deer, livestock — even humans — for sport.
The false claims may have had particular resonance because they built on a long tradition in Western culture. During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church ruled that wolves belonged to the devil: Demons could take the shape of wolves, as could witches. Puritans brought similar ideas to America. Cotton Mather called New England before it was settled a "howling wilderness." Asked to investigate Salem's alleged witches, Mather concluded in his book, "On Witchcraft" (1692): "Evening wolves" (werewolves and witches) were but another of the devil's tests as New England passed from "wilderness" to the "promised land."
And that attitude has persisted. Gary Marbut, president of the influential Montana Shooting Sports Assn., wrote in 2003 that "one might reasonably view man's entire development and creation of civilization as a process of fortifying against wolves."
Politicians from both parties in Western states have been eager to help with the fortifications. In Idaho, Republican Rep. Mike Simpson and the state's governor, Butch Otter, made removal of wolves from the Endangered Species Act a political priority. In Montana, Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg has made delisting wolves central to his 2012 Senate campaign against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. In April, Tester in turn persuaded fellow Democrats in the Senate to approve his inserting a rider in a budget bill that delisted wolves.
In early November, Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, made his own political contribution. Thrilled at the testing of a drone aircraft manufactured in Montana, Baucus declared: "Our troops rely on this type of technology every day, and there is an enormous future potential in border security, agriculture and wildlife and predator management." A manufacturer's representative claimed his company's drone "can tell the difference between a wolf and a coyote." Pilotless drone aircraft used by the CIA and the Air Force to target and kill alleged terrorists now appear to be real options to track and kill "enemy" wolves.
How far we have fallen since the mid-1990s, when we celebrated the wolves' reintroduction. During the 2008 presidential election, candidate Barack Obama declared: "Federal policy toward animals should respect the dignity of animals and their rightful place as cohabitants of the environment. We should strive to protect animals and their habitats and prevent animal cruelty, exploitation and neglect."
The president now should make good on that promise.
.
.
J. William Gibson is a sociology professor at Cal State Long Beach and the author of "A Reenchanted World." http://www.jameswilliamgibson.com
.Los Angeles Times...
.
PHOTO: Congress removed wolves in Montana and Idaho from... more
-
-
Ranger defends bears after man dies
CNN...
Yellowstone ranger says respect, don't fear, bears
By Patrick Oppmann, CNN
July 9, 2011 11:24 p.m. EDT
.
Yellowstone National Park usually has about 600 bears roaming its 3,500 square miles, Ranger Kerry Gunther said.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Hiker killed in front of his wife by grizzly this week
Grizzly bears considered normally tolerant of people
Different hiker has nerve-wracking meeting with a bear two days later
Ranger advises playing dead in emergency
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (CNN) --
Having spent an hour walking the trails in Yellowstone National Park, Erin Prophet suddenly heard the words that every hiker dreads.
"Bear! Twelve o'clock! He's heading towards you!" yelled a man paddling a kayak on the small lake behind her Friday.
Prophet, who lives in Boston, scanned the hill she had just begun to climb. She couldn't see anything, but then heard the thick brush in front of her begin to crackle.
A bear emerged from the forest. Prophet began slowly walking backwards. "I was pretty afraid," Prophet said. "Especially after what happened a couple of days ago."
"A couple of days ago" was Wednesday, when Brian Matayoshi, 57, and his wife Marylyn were hiking in a different part of the park and encountered a grizzly bear. The bear, a female with cubs, according to National Park Service rangers, charged the couple.
Brian Matayoshi was bitten and clawed by the bear repeatedly. Then the bear latched its mouth onto Marylyn Matayoshi's backpack, hoisting the woman up before throwing her onto to the ground. She lay still until the bear left.
By the time help arrived, Brian Matayoshi had died of his wounds. He was the first bear fatality in the park since 1986.
A ranger on the scene at the lake said he believed the bear to be a juvenile grizzly. But Ranger Kerry Gunther, who saw video footage of the bear, said he is certain it was a black bear. That species is smaller and typically less aggressive than grizzlies, but is known to occasionally attack humans.
Gunther, who has studied bears at Yellowstone for nearly 30 years, said the park usually has roughly 600 of both kinds of bears roaming its approximately 3,500 square miles. Typically, more than 3 million people will visit the park each year.
Despite the ample opportunity for humans to cross paths with bears, Gunther said there is usually only one bear-related injury each year. In the park's 140-year history, he said, six people are known to have been killed in bear attacks.
"Bears are really very tolerant of people," Gunther said. "I have had a few times where I was bluff charged but the bear always pulled up short. You don't really know if you are a 'runner' or a 'stander' until that happens."
Gunther said the park tries to keep visitors and bears a safe distance apart.
But more often than not it's the humans that don't follow that plan.
"We can have hundreds of visitors alongside the road filming and viewing bears," he said. "When the bears want to cross the roads you'd think to a big, 200 pounds-plus bear people would show a little bit more respect (and) get back to their cars or let the bear cross the road. Sometimes people are letting the bear walk just feet from them."
If a bear does show signs of aggression, Gunther said there are a series of steps people can take to survive the attack.
"That nanosecond before the bear hits you we recommend dropping to the ground and playing dead," he said. "Put your hands behind your neck so your elbows are protecting the sides of your face. Bears bite to the head and face a lot. By going passive usually they'll let you alone."
Gunther differentiates between defensive and predatory attacks by bears. If a bear shows signs of hunting and eating humans, Gunther said rangers will attempt to track down and euthanize the animal. But rangers don't typically kill a bear --like the grizzly that attacked the Matayoshis for defensive behavior.
That decision to let the bear live, Gunther said, has drawn both praise and criticism from the public. But, so far, Gunther said he is not aware of anyone canceling their stay at the park as a result of the mauling.
"People shouldn't fear bears," he said. "They should respect them." Respecting bears, Gunther said, means traveling in large hiking parties, leaving an area where bears are and carrying bear spray, a supersized can of pepper spray to ward off attacks.
As she watched the bear advance down the hill toward her, Prophet said she was all too aware that she was alone and had neglected to bring bear spray on her hike. She discarded the backpack she was carrying food in and retreated into the icy lake water while wondering what to do next.
"Grab on," said a voice behind her. The two men in the kayak who had first warned Prophet of the bear, now about 30 yards away from her, had reached the shore. Prophet grabbed onto the kayak as the two men pulled her through the water and away from the bear.
The bear appeared not to pay attention and took a quick swim around the lake before disappearing again into the woods.
Shaking from the cold lake water and adrenaline, Prophet was relieved to find herself on the far shore from the bear.
"There's a lot that runs through your head," she said. "What you've seen and heard about bear attacks. But I felt as long as I was not threatening him, he would go away."
.Ranger defends bears after man dies
CNN...
Yellowstone ranger says respect,... more
-
-
ExxonMobil told federal officials and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer that they had sealed the pipeline leaking oil into the Yellowstone River within 30 minutes. But federal documents show that sealing the pipe took 56 minutes -- almost twice as long as the company originally said.
The company told the AP that the error came about because the Exxon representative who briefed officials was providing information without the benefit of notes. In other words, not really intended to be a factual statement.
About 150 people, worried about health risks from the spill, came to an EPA meeting on the spill last night. One man said the fumes from oil on his neighbor's property were so strong he could only breathe with all the windows open. Though possibly closing the windows would be a better way to keep out fumes? That’s the EPA’s recommendation, as Grist noted yesterday. But if you’re living next to an open oil slick, what’s the difference, really?
http://www.grist.org/list/2011-07-07-documents-show-exxon-downplayed-time-it-took-to-seal-yellowstoneExxonMobil told federal officials and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer that they had... more
-
-
Well are Y.O.U.
Do Y.O.U. Even Know What Sovereign IS ???
Y.O.U. Should , because IF Y.O.U. Don't ..
FREEDOM,LIBERTY,JUSTICE 4 ALL Y.O.U. SHOUNT ...Well are Y.O.U.
Do Y.O.U. Even Know What Sovereign IS ???
Y.O.U. Should , because... more
-
-
Corporate profiteer-turned-green-goodie Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III has struck a deal with Montana state authorities to “shepherd” a roving Yellowstone bison herd in return for “a sizable portion of their offspring.” Interesting use of the word “portion” given Turner already owns 50,000 bison which which he happily serves up every day for lunch and dinner in his fifty-one nationwide Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants.
http://looncanada.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/montana-bison-get-buffaloed-by-ted-turner/Corporate profiteer-turned-green-goodie Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III has... more
-
-
Photo: Bison wander out of Yellowstone National Park in Montana to give birth or find fresh grazing.
May 21, 2010
Disputed Deal Puts Yellowstone Bison on Ted Turner’s Range
By KIRK JOHNSON
BOZEMAN, Mont. —
When dozens of wild American bison wandered out of Yellowstone National Park in search of greener grass and wound up five years later sheltered on a giant ranch owned by Ted Turner, media mogul and bison meat kingpin, the species reached what many believe could be a turning point.
Mr. Turner, under an unusual custodial contract with the state of Montana, offered to shepherd the animals for the next five years as part of an experimental program. It will grant him a sizable portion of their offspring in exchange, much to the chagrin of environmentalists who sued the state, saying the bison belong to the public. Mr. Turner is not restrained from using the bison for commercial breeding or sale.
The “Yellowstone 87” are a kind of Noah’s ark of their kind. Genetically, these bison still carry the shaggy swagger of their Ice Age forebears that lived alongside saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths.
Montana wildlife managers hope they will be the fount for establishing new free-roaming populations elsewhere in the state or around the West — if the animals prove, through the five years of testing, to be free of diseases that can infect cattle, especially brucellosis.
At the heart of the controversy is the human intervention that has shaped the animal’s history, from the brink of extinction around 1900 to their strange modern status. They are now raised for meat by the hundreds of thousands on private ranches, or left to roam free in Yellowstone.
On Friday, with the snow-capped Big Belt Mountains in the distance, the animals on Mr. Turner’s ranch looked straight out of Frederic Remington — calves frolicked and cows dozed while a giant bull stood his ground, staring down a group of would-be intruders on his realm.
A lawsuit by a coalition of environmentalists argues that the state, by facilitating the bison’s passage from wild to owned — and by the biggest purveyor of bison meat in the nation, no less, through Mr. Turner’s vast ranches and restaurant chain, Ted’s Montana Grill — violates its duty to manage wildlife, like water or air, for the good of all.
In court papers filed this month, state officials said that they were working for the benefit of the species, and that the plight of individual animals — by their calculation, about 188 bison will be born over the next five years and remain in Mr. Turner’s possession — did not cancel out the higher goal.
They also say that Mr. Turner filled an urgent need: The 87 animals spent more than four years in quarantine for a round of disease testing and needed a bigger home on the range, and Mr. Turner’s ranch and expertise were unmatched.
The cattle industry remains a powerful cultural force in Montana, and is generally no big fan of Mr. Turner’s, given his openly expressed disdain for cattle. It has opposed the establishment of free-roaming bison populations that could compete with cattle for grass on federal grazing lands or endanger herds with disease.
And so this week, as they do every spring in a process called hazing, state workers and livestock agents used helicopters, horses and trucks to chase back the wild bison that had wandered out of Yellowstone to give birth or find fresh grass.
About five miles from the park boundary, an odd dynamic was in play. In a residential area of vacation and retirement homes, a group of 15 animals sauntered and grazed. Frisky calves a week or two old gallumphed about, butting against their stolid mothers. But a few miles a way, a hazing operation, with helicopter overhead, was chasing another herd back in as volunteers from the Buffalo Field Campaign, a group that opposes the forced removal of the animals from lands on park borders, monitored and photographed on the ground. (“Buffalo” and “bison” are used interchangeably.)
“Every year is different, and the animals are always incredible, so I keep coming back,” said Cindy Rosin, 33, an elementary school art teacher from Queens, who was in her fifth season as a hazing monitor.
But the tangled web of bison life here, and the new chapter of its history beginning on Mr. Turner’s Flying D Ranch, raise major questions for environmentalists, ranchers and bison chefs, too — most notably perhaps, what does it mean to be wild?
Are bison like the 3,000 or so inside Yellowstone, confined and accustomed to gawking tourists, truly wilder than their ranch-raised cousins?
And should one group of animals have the right to roam free — with environmentalists and lawyers as allies, ready to file lawsuits — while the other group is just burgers on the hoof? About 70,000 ranch bison go to slaughter each year according to the National Bison Association, a ranchers’ trade group, about one-fifth of them from Mr. Turner’s herd of about 55,000 animals.
A biological wrinkle further compounds those questions. Most ranch-raised bison, unlike their Yellowstone cousins, carry a few cattle genes, wildlife biologists say, mostly from cross-breeding experiments early in the 20th century. But Yellowstone bison, marooned in the park during the decades of widespread slaughter elsewhere, are considered genetically pure.
Mr. Turner would not be interviewed, but in application documents with the state he said that the offspring he kept would be used to “increase the genetic diversity” in a bison herd on another Turner ranch in New Mexico. His company, Turner Enterprises, specifically said it could make no guarantees about the animals’ ultimate use or fate. In the past, bison from the New Mexico herd, which the filing said originated from Yellowstone breeding stock in the 1930s, have been sold to private parties.
On Friday, Turner Enterprises allowed journalists a first look at the Yellowstone 87 now roaming on 12,000 acres at the Flying D Ranch, about a half-hour from Bozeman. In the three months since their arrival, and the onset of calving season, their number has grown to 94, with eight new calves (one of the original herd died). Six, under the formula, will stay behind as Turner property.
“This may sound simplistic, but we are doing this to help,” said Russell Miller, the general manager of Turner Enterprises, explaining that the idea of giving the animals ample room and board without taking any cash for their services came from the Turner side. “We knew the state was cash-strapped and we thought it would be a palatable solution,” he said.
One expert on environmental law and the public trust, Prof. Mary C. Wood, said the Turner arrangement, whether proven illegal or not in court, had put the state in an awkward position. The potential trouble comes not from having a management deal to shelter and test the bison, she said, but from making it a cashless transaction, with payment in a sort of barter of live, presumably state-protected animals.
“Under public trust doctrine, the state has a 100 percent obligation to protect the species,” said Professor Wood, the director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law program at the University of Oregon Law School. “When it starts walking the line of contracting out its essential sovereign functions and bartering the yield that comes out of that, it raises very serious questions.”Photo: Bison wander out of Yellowstone National Park in Montana to give birth or find... more
-
-
Working in the field every day to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild free roaming buffalo.
Breaking News!
Press Release - 11/09/09
Conservationists File Suit Against Federal Agencies
To End Slaughter of Yellowstone Bison
Failed Management Endangering American Icon, Wasting Millions Annually
A coalition of conservation groups, Native Americans, and Montanans are suing
the National Park Service for their role in slaughtering over 3,000 wild American bison
that inhabitat Yellowstone National Park. This iconic species is the last population of wild American bison to continuously occupy their native range and retain
their identity as a wildlife species.Working in the field every day to stop the slaughter of Yellowstone's wild free... more
-
-
As we packed our snow mobiles with camera gear, food and water, the girls were nervous about their first time driving a snow mobile. We were a small group of 5, each on their own machine driving in a straight formation. I was traveling light this trip ….2 Video Cameras and 2 Still Cameras !
Our guide was first, Then myself and crew, as we started out of the lodge we immediately encountered a Bison Jam ! The Guide would Hand Signal Me, And I would pass them back to the crew as we needed to be in tight formation to safely pass the bison sharing little space between us. Watching their Big Eyes watching us several feet away within kicking distance was a bit concerning as I nervously throttled with one hand and took pictures with the other while trying not to crash into the guides ride in front of me! We encountered several fresh bird kills that our guide pointed out was a Lynx or BobCat… neither of which showed themselves to us. The Snow was nearing whiteout conditions at times, as we pressed on thru -10 to 18 degrees into the high country spotting trumpeter swans , Elk , Bison, Eagles , Coyotes, and Ravens which choose a single mate for life.
The wilderness was very harsh as we all wondered how life could even survive one day of a long winter to come. Our trek took us on Snow Coaches, Snow Mobiles, and SUV’s as we used every method to find the wildlife , but our target this trip were the wolves. I had many a trip with only glimpses of them at far distances, some not at all. A Blizzard was approaching and weather services were warning us of inevitable road and mountain pass closings, but we pressed on, and still no wolves.
Then we ran into a lonely Fox laying on a snow drift sleeping so deeply I could not wake it even with my most obnoxious noises. So I took pictures of the Sleeping fox, Video and Still, and as the storm blew in, the whiteout became very bad, winds topping 50 mph blew my Video Camera over and into a snow drift. I was tiring of the harsh conditions when over our personal radios our spotters yelled A Pack of wolves just got a kill !
We Packed up our gear and headed toward the pack, and very close were 16 wolves of the Druid Pack ripping something apart, as I nervously setup for HD video, A grey wolf and 2 black wolves were taking it apart . This Was my quest to find and see as the Harsh wintry background yielded a front row seat to the real deal unfolding before us. Some of the wolves were allowed to share in the spoils while others were not. And as quick as it began it was over, and getting dark when a ranger came and told us to leave the park immediately because they were closing the roads in preparation for the storm.
I took lead thru dangerous passes driving nearly blind the entire way as the excitement about the wolves subdued to the thought of surviving the journey back to tell about it ! The Russians were in a small vehicle behind us as we packed down the snow of wind drifts being blown in our face , obscuring the way forward. We were very concerned for the vehicles behind us, and each time their lights were not in view we waited nervously knowing that going back would be more terrifying than forward.
One tire off the road in spots meant thousand foot drops, I knew it was there and at times could not see it, while secretly wishing I did not know how close we were , Avalanches, rock slides ,high winds, I imagined my own Steven King Movie ,The Perfect SNOWSTORM !
Documentary, Film Maker, just releasing a sneak peak of "Portal To Nature" on DVD
Watch My Portal To NatureAs we packed our snow mobiles with camera gear, food and water, the girls were nervous... more
-
-
Author Joy Ibsen of Trout Creek, MI will sign her latest book "Unafraid" and host a presentation at 7 p.m. (CT) on Monday, August 24, 2009 in the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, Iowa.
A former resident of nearby Kimballton, IA, Ibsen will be singing and playing piano during a songfest that will include works from her first book "Songs of Denmark."
Co-authored by her late father, Rev. Harald Ibsen, "Unafraid" includes portions of sermons he delivered at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Kimballton, IA, followed by a fiction story about how his words impacted local parishioners.
The event is sponsored by the Danish Brotherhood Lodge 341 and the Danish Immigrant Museum.
It include songfest of Danish-American songs using a recently refurnished piano donated by the famous late Danish comedian Victor Borge.
Joy Ibsen is past president of the Danish Immigrant Museum board of directors.
Call Clayton Nielsen at 1-712-764-4343 or Annette Andersen at 1-712-773-2025.
Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, IA
http://www.danishmuseum.orgAuthor Joy Ibsen of Trout Creek, MI will sign her latest book "Unafraid" and... more
-
-
Two workers at Yellowstone National Park have been fired after being caught on a live webcam urinating into the Old Faithful geyser.
A 23-year-old man was fined $750 and placed on three years unsupervised probation for urinating, being off trail in a restricted area and taking items.
The man also was banned from Yellowstone for two years. The second employee's case is pending.
Park officials were called after someone watching a webcam on the geyser saw six employees leaving the trail and walking on Old Faithful.
Fortunately, the geyser was not erupting at the time, say reports.
Park management have today said such incidents were rare.Two workers at Yellowstone National Park have been fired after being caught on a live... more
-
-
The wild buffalo herd of Yellowstone National Park represent the only genetically pure buffalo left in the world. They need to survive and be safe. Unfortunately, the Governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer, has reinstituted a hunt, and in 2008 over 1,600 Yellowstone buffalo were killed. There are only about 2,000 of these wild buffalo remaining. This film, Hear The Buffalo, expresses the value of the Yellowstone wild buffalo herd, their critical importance to Native American culture, the abuses they currently undergo and is a heartfelt >plea for their protection.
Directed by Gene Bernofsky for Wold Wide Film Expedition.
Learn more here: http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.orgThe wild buffalo herd of Yellowstone National Park represent the only genetically pure... more
-
-
notv
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
The government is pursuing legal action against a Web site operator who has misrepresented the U.S. Geological Survey in a warning that Yellowstone National Park's supervolcano could erupt soon and that the area should be evacuated.
"We started to take action as soon as we found out about it," said Jessica Robertson of the USGS. She said the agency was notified of the problem late last week.
The matter has been referred to the solicitor's office of the USGS, which is pursuing charges of impersonating a federal official as well as violation of the agency's trademark.
"The main issue we have is we don't want people to believe it's coming from us," Robertson said.The government is pursuing legal action against a Web site operator who has... more
-
-
Hundreds of earthquakes rippled through Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, in late December and early January, prompting fears that the shaking might trigger dangerous steam explosions.
Magma and steam permeate the rock beneath Yellowstone, and the motion of these fluids is thought to be responsible for the thousands of small earthquakes recorded in and around the park each year.
Crater evidence - Yellowstone, which sits atop a supervolcano, is pockmarked with craters thought to have been produced this way, and geologists estimate an explosion big enough to make a 100-metre crater happens there about every 200 years.
At the time of writing, though, the swarm was subsiding with no reports of such an event. "It hasn't stopped, but it has reduced markedly in the last couple of days," said Robert Smith of the University of Utah on Monday.
There are no signs of any on the way, either, said Smith, who monitors Yellowstone's geologic activity.
The quakes appear to be concentrated along a fault beneath the park. Further analysis should reveal whether they were triggered by forces associated with the fault, activity of hot fluids beneath the surface, or some other cause, he says.Hundreds of earthquakes rippled through Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, in late... more
-
-
The recent earthquake swarm underneath Yellowstone National Park appears to be slowing down considerably.
It's good news for the people at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory who monitored close to 500 small earthquakes in the area during a six-day stretch. It had been the most intense swarm of earthquakes in Yellowstone since 1985.
"Everybody was mobilized," Jacob Lowenstern told 9NEWS on Monday.
Yellowstone National Park normally sees at least 1,000 earthquakes every year.
"We saw half of a year's earthquakes in less than a week," Lowenstern added.
Experts say it was the most intense swarm in 24 years.
Let's just hope this isn't the calm before the storm...The recent earthquake swarm underneath Yellowstone National Park appears to be slowing... more
-
-
The last full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano, the Lava Creek eruption, ejected approximately 240 cubic miles of rock and dust into the sky; obviously this didn't bode well for our planet causing the extinction of a great number of species.
You'll be pleased to know that 250 earthquakes have taken place at Yellowstone over the last two days, "They're certainly not normal," said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah. "We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years."
"This is an active volcanic and tectonic area, and these are the kinds of things we have to pay attention to," Smith said. "We might be seeing something precursory."
Watch live reports of the earthquakes at the link and if we are unlucky enough to have Yelllowstone blow its top, then I bid you all farewell.
http://www.seis.utah.edu/req2webdir/recenteqs/Maps/Yellowstone.html?The last full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano, the Lava Creek eruption,... more
-
-
Apparently a volcano which erupted at Yellowstone National Park (about 650,000 years ago) could still be active.
Bill McGuire, professor of geohazards at the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre at the University College of London says it could bring, "the bitter cold of volcanic winter to planet Earth. Mankind may become extinct."
(Make every minute count, people.)
Check out the Supervolcano link:
http://www.unmuseum.org/supervol.htm
And the disturbingly realistic video at The Agitator (above):
http://www.theagitator.com/2008/12/30/uh-oh-3/Apparently a volcano which erupted at Yellowstone National Park (about 650,000 years... more
-
-
Yellowstone has recently been rocked with unusual amounts of small quakes. For the third straight day Yellowstone park was jostled with little tremors which totaled to about more than 250 tremors altogether.
Scientists are baffled with these recent events, and even accepted this phenomenon as highly unusual.
The highest recorded earthquake was of a 3.8 magnitude.Yellowstone has recently been rocked with unusual amounts of small quakes. For the... more
-
-
By BRETT FRENCH
Of The Gazette Staff
Amphibian populations have crashed as isolated water sources have dried up in Yellowstone National Park's lower Lamar Valley, according to recently published research.
"This is strong evidence that climate change is altering one of the most protected areas in the United States," said Sarah McMenamin, a Stanford University biologist who co-authored the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"It's of course very depressing," said Liz Hadly, McMenamin's adviser and co-author, who started working in Yellowstone in 1982. "Even in this place that is so protected and enjoyed ... the kinds of temperature changes we're seeing on the planet are having a significant impact. Even this remote place is not immune from global change."
Amphibians are an indicator species, the proverbial canary in the coal mine, and their demise may predict problems to come for other species in the Yellowstone ecosystem, McMenamin said. By BRETT FRENCH
Of The Gazette Staff
Amphibian populations have crashed as isolated... more
-
-
Amphibian populations at Yellowstone - the world's oldest national park - are in steep decline, a major study shows.
The authors link this to the drying out of wetlands where the animals live and breed, which is in turn being driven by long-term climate change.
The results, reported in the journal PNAS, suggest that climate warming has already disrupted one of the best-protected ecosystems on Earth.
The park covers some 9,000 sq km (3,500 sq miles) in the western United States.
It lies mostly within the state of Wyoming, but spills over into Montana and Idaho. The area has been protected for more than a century; US congress granted Yellowstone national park status on 1 March 1872.
'There is a pretty substantial signal of climate change in this region.'
Sarah McMenamin, Stanford University
Visitors flock there to see its geysers, hot springs and bubbling mud pots, fuelled by ongoing volcanism. The park's vast forests and grasslands are also home to grizzly bears, wolves and bison.
But it is to much less conspicuous inhabitants - frogs, toads and salamanders - that scientists look for early indications of environment degradation.
Four amphibian species are native to the park: the blotched tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum melanostictum), the boreal chorus frog (Pseudacris triseriata maculata), the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) and the boreal toad (Bufo boreas boreas).
The lower Lamar Valley in northern Yellowstone harbours countless small, fishless ponds - ideal for amphibian breeding and larval development.
Downward trend
Between 1992 and 1993, researchers surveyed 46 of these "kettle" ponds, which are re-filled in spring by groundwater and snow melt running down from the hills.
The "kettle" ponds are ideal habitats for amphibians. When a team from Stanford University in California repeated this survey between 2006 and 2008, the number of permanently dry ponds had increased four-fold.
Of the ponds that remained, the proportion supporting amphibians had declined significantly.
In addition, three of the four native amphibian species had suffered major declines in numbers. The number of species found in each location - the "species richness" - had also dropped off markedly.
Amphibian populations at Yellowstone - the world's oldest national park - are in... more
-
-
On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took steps to revive a 2007 proposal to remove the gray wolf of the northern Rockies from the Endangered Species List. Environmentalists howled, calling it a last-gasp effort by the Bush administration to delist wolves.
The Fish and Wildlife Service had officially delisted the wolves in March, and afterward wildlife officials in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana developed management plans that included hunting seasons. In Wyoming, anyone could shoot a wolf at any time in most of the state.
A coalition of conservation groups sued in federal court. In July, Federal Judge Donald W. Molloy issued an injunction that put the wolves back on the endangered list.
Now Fish and Wildlife is reopening its plan for public comment, making clear that it believes the wolves have recovered sufficiently to allow the states to take over their management. Further litigation is a certainty.
"All wolf stuff will always be in court," says Ed Bangs, the agency's wolf recovery coordinator. Taking the long view, he says that for thousands of years, wolves have been both romanticized and demonized. "Wolf stuff has nothing to do with reality; it's all about symbolism." On Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took steps to revive a 2007 proposal to... more
-
