tagged w/ Yellowstone National Park
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The Bush administration's authorization of increased snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park violates the fundamental legal responsibility of the National Park Service to protect the clean air, wildlife, and natural quiet of national parks for the benefit of all visitors, a federal court ruled today.The Bush administration's authorization of increased snowmobile use in... more
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"The National Park Service wanted to close a section of Yellowstone Park in the wintertime because of the risk of avalanche. No way, protested businesses in Cody, Wyo., that wanted to promote more tourism.
The spat did not stay local for long. It ended up in Washington, where the Bush White House intervened late last year and sided with the businesses, according to officials familiar with the fight.
A final decision, announced Monday by Park Service regional director Mike Snyder, will keep the park's eastern entrance open to snow-going vehicles throughout the winter. The cost to taxpayers could run into the millions of dollars for a decision to accommodate a small number of tourists.
"This clearly falls into the basket of politics and the administration trumping science and what's best for the national park system," says Tim Stevens, who manages Yellowstone issues for the National Parks Conservation Association, a private watchdog group. "It clearly shows political manipulation.""The National Park Service wanted to close a section of Yellowstone Park in the... more
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More than half of Yellowstone National Park's bison herd has died since last fall, forcing the government to suspend its annual slaughter program.
More than 700 of the iconic animals starved or otherwise died on the mountainsides during an unusually harsh winter, and more than 1,600 were shot by hunters or sent to slaughterhouses in a disease-control effort, according to National Park Service figures.
Government officials say the slaughter prevents the spread of the disease brucellosis from the Yellowstone bison to cattle on land near the park. Brucellosis can cause miscarriages, infertility and reduced milk production in domestic cattle.
But critics call the culling an overreaction. There is no documented case of the disease passing from bison to cattle, they said.
"I mean, it's hype, it's a hysteria," Mease said. "And it's not a fatal disease."More than half of Yellowstone National Park's bison herd has died since last... more
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Rick stands knee-deep in snow, the freezing air steaming around him during a blizzard. He chooses to spend his retirement observing wolf packs, surrounded by the breathtaking backdrop of Yellowstone National Park. He has worked his way up and down the same valley everyday for the last 7 years and is one of a new breed of (obsessed?) nature enthusiasts, the wolf watchers……… The modern era, capitalism and industrialization, saw the American relationship with nature and animals change at a never before seen rate. Our relationship with animals is now idealized and distorted, and we constantly mourn their loss from our everyday lives. Although we keep the animal in a state of perpetual dying by representations in mass media globally, zoos, parks and pets, these actions are more to further enforce their marginalization and subjugation to human authority. The Yellowstone wolf watchers seek out their contact in the more authentic setting of Yellowstone National Park, even though this is not the definition of wilderness they believe it to be. The wolf watchers are under the same cultural influences that occur throughout society and result in their scopophilic fascination with wolves, but this voyeurism also facilitates a contribution to a unique scientific study of this historically mythologized and only recently reintroduced animal.
Rick stands knee-deep in snow, the freezing air steaming around him during a blizzard.... more
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Bees, birds, rabbits... A pattern?/////////excerpt////////A new study by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society found that jack rabbits living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have apparently hopped into oblivion. The study, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Oryx, also speculates that the disappearance of jack rabbits may be having region-wide impacts on a variety of other prey species and their predators.
According to the study, historical records from more than 130 years ago indicate that white-tailed jack rabbits were once locally abundant in Greater Yellowstone, a 60,000 square kilometer (23,166 square mile) ecosystem that contains both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. However, the WCS study found that no jack rabbit sightings could be confirmed in Yellowstone since 1991 and only three in Grand Teton since 1978.
No one knows what caused the rabbits to disappear, according to the study's lead author, Dr. Joel Berger, a Wildlife Conservation Society conservationist, and professor at the University of Montana. "It could be disease, extreme weather, predation or other factors," Dr. Berger said. "Since the rabbits blipped off without knowledge, there has simply been no way to get at the underlying cause."/////////end of excerpt.
Bees, birds, rabbits... A pattern?/////////excerpt////////A new study by the Bronx... more
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Explosive new video, now in a short, 4+ minute version, blasts the justification for Alaskas current aerial wolf hunting program and rallies voters to end it. Using testimony from a Board of Game member, this video exposes the fallacy behind Governor Sarah Palins claim that predator control is based on sound science. Declarations that the program is for the benefit of subsistence hunters are shattered with documentation showing that sport and trophy hunters take up to 73% of prey in areas where aerial wolf hunting has taken place. End Aerial Wolf Hunting - Short Version rallies support for H.R. 3663, legislation now being considered in the U.S. Congress which will close the loophole in the Federal Airborne Hunting Act that has been exploited to allow this practice to continue. Five years in the making, this video exposes the truth about the stranglehold the hunting lobby has on wildlife management in Alaska. Explosive new video, now in a short, 4+ minute version, blasts the justification for... more
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Explosive new video, now in a short, 4+ minute version, blasts the justification for Alaskas current aerial wolf hunting program and rallies voters to end it. Using testimony from a Board of Game member, this video exposes the fallacy behind Governor Sarah Palins claim that predator control is based on sound science. Declarations that the program is for the benefit of subsistence hunters are shattered with documentation showing that sport and trophy hunters take up to 73% of prey in areas where aerial wolf hunting has taken place. End Aerial Wolf Hunting - Short Version rallies support for H.R. 3663, legislation now being considered in the U.S. Congress which will close the loophole in the Federal Airborne Hunting Act that has been exploited to allow this practice to continue. Five years in the making, this video exposes the truth about the stranglehold the hunting lobby has on wildlife management in Alaska. Explosive new video, now in a short, 4+ minute version, blasts the justification for... more
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Explosive new video blasts the justification for Alaskas current aerial wolf hunting program and rallies voters to end it. Using testimony from Alaska Department of Fish & Game staff, a master hunting guide, and Board of Game members, this video exposes the fallacy behind Governor Sarah Palins claim that predator control is based on sound science. Declarations that the program is for the benefit of subsistence hunters are shattered with documentation showing that sport and trophy hunters take up to 73% of prey in areas where aerial wolf hunting has taken place. End Aerial Wolf Hunting rallies support for H.R. 3663, legislation now being considered in the U.S. Congress which will close the loophole in the Federal Airborne Hunting Act that has been exploited to allow this practice to continue. Five years in the making, this video exposes the truth about the stranglehold the hunting lobby has on wildlife management in Alaska.Explosive new video blasts the justification for Alaskas current aerial wolf hunting... more
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Yellowstone National Park, once the site of a giant volcano, has begun swelling up, possibly because molten rock is accumulating beneath the surface, scientists report.
Yikes! Yellowstone National Park, once the site of a giant volcano, has begun swelling up,... more
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Saving the world isn't always easy or fun. In this Bluelist pod Lonely Planet contributor Andrew Nystrom shows us three great ways to save the world.Saving the world isn't always easy or fun. In this Bluelist pod Lonely Planet... more
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