We drove into Bozeman to talk with Scott Christianson of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a non-profit that recently turned 30 years old. Their moto is, "protecting the lands, waters, and wildlife of the worlds' first National Park". There are only 24 people employed in three locations, but over 30,000 members/supporters who they rely on for donations and grants. The greater Yellowstone ecosystem they protect encompasses about 20 million acres, including 6 national forests, 3 wildlife refuges, 2 Indian reservations and 3 states: Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. They also cover 3 million acres of private land.
I thought it was very interesting that the park has the most intact thermal basin in the world (many have been developed for energy use). I also learned that the headwaters for the western states all originate from peaks at Yellowstone. We also spoke about wildlife, and I was particularly interested in learning about the Lynx because I love big cats. Yellowstone has protected sub-alpine habitat for the Lynx, and they are quite rare. One of my classmates asked the question, what's the difference between a Lynx and a Bobcat? I thought that was a good question. Scott went on to explain that the Bobcat is half the size of the Lynx, and Bobcats are very adaptable- they live everywhere. Lynx are not very adaptable and they are secretive, elusive, and vulnerable to disturbance. They have lots of hair and huge feet, which makes it easy for them to catch Snowshoe Hair. The Snowshoe Hair population determines the Lynx population, as they co-adapted together. I thought that was very interesting. I love learning about wildlife so I was very pleased that he went into so much detail about the animals in the park. I learned that the largest owl in the Northern United States lives in Yellowstone- the Great Grey Owl, and they are about 3 feet tall. I wish I could have seen one of those!
Scott also went into great detail about the problem they are having with the native Cutthroat Trout population. Their population size is down by 90%, which is much worse than I thought. They currently have a recovery project underway at Yellowstone Lake, but it is definitely a long term management issue. The Lake Trout that were introduced illegally are preying on the Cutthroat and they live for a very long time. They have been removing Lake Trout by gill netting in hopes to crash their population so that the Cutthroat can rebound. However, it seems no matter how many they remove, it is still a major problem and they're not sure if the Cutthroat will ever recover.
The most interesting thing I learned at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition was about the Pine Bark Beetle. Scott explained that the new models of climate change in the area showed an increase between 0.9 and 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This rise in temperature has allowed the Pine Bark Beetle to go up and down in elevation to new habitat. The higher elevations have different vegetation, such as White Bark Pine. These trees live in harsh, remote environments high in the mountains. The Pine Bark Beetles never used to go up that high in elevation, so the White Bark Pines did not co-adapt together with the beetles. Therefore, the trees have no natural defense mechanisms against the beetles, unlike the trees at lower elevations. Another factor is that the Pine Bark Beetle has historically been controlled by fire and cold weather. The winters haven't been cold enough to kill any beetles, and we haven't been allowing the forest to burn. The beetle population is now getting out of control as well as moving up in elevation. I was very interested in this topic, so I asked many questions. Scott explained that the beetles start at the bowl of the tree, girdle the tree upward and then burrow inside. Once they are inside the tree, their babies "go crazy". The tree dies within about two weeks, so there is not much they can do. He said that a group of graduate students actually went out and tried to wrap trees in plastic wrap to try to save them from infestation. I was really shocked by that- the desperation became clear to me at that point. They had been trying a few other things too like cutting host trees, allowing small scale fires, and creating barriers between stands, but nothing seems to be helping. This is a really big deal especially because the White Bark Pine provides food for Grizzlys and the canopy holds snow, which helps keep the snowpack longer and feed the rivers slowly. I was amazed at the impact this beetle had on the area. You could see all of the dead trees as we drove through the area. Most of the trees looked dead. It reminded me of the Dying of the Trees book. It was quite devastating to say the least, and it really sparked my interest to research more about the issue. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition was one of my favorite places that we visited, and I would love to go back and work with them in the future.
After our talk, we went to Ted's Montana Grill and got bison burgers!! It was amazing... way better than a regular beef burger. The food was great and we some good laughs.
We are still in Yellowstone, but today we came in through Roosevelt's Arch to go to Mammoth Hot Springs. Mammoth is at the NW corner of Yellowstone, and it is not on the caldera. Instead, it is formed by travertine and calcium carbonate deposits. The deposition by water is at a very low rate, and it deposits material along places where water is moving horizontally. The mineral precipitates out and you get the horizontal ledges.
We walked through the hot springs and then had a discussion. We talked about CRADA- the cooperative research and development agreement, which consists of 40 different entities doing research in the thermal features of the park. A lot of work that goes on here is bioprospecting, which is searching for useful living organisms within the park. One thing I found extremely interesting is that the research on extremeophiles led the replication of DNA, DNA testing, genetic profiling, forensic science and the treatment of diseases.
When these technologies were discovered, it was worth $300 million, and now it is worth $1.5 billion. Yellowstone got nothing because even though there was a rule that you can't profit from something at the park, they were using the enzyme, which was basically like a loophole. This initiated CRADA- any research you do at the National Parks that creates a profit, the park gets a certain amount. Bioprospecting is usually used for pharmaceutical purposes. I was shocked to learn that pharmaceutical companies sent scientists over to other countries to find out about natural remedies and then they make a drug from it, patent it, and tell the local people that they can't use/develop it anymore. That is kind of disturbing, I didn't realize that they could do that. After our walkthrough at Mammoth Hot Springs, we drove through Lamar Valley again and we ended up seeing a Grizzly! We were all so excited! We got to check him out through the binoculars and it was awesome. We camped in West Yellowstone that night at Rainbow Point Campground.
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