Leslie Patten Books: Wild Places, Sacred Spaces

Yellowstone for mine eyes only

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Leslie

A friend came up late morning to help me plant more trees. A squall came in and with it a fierce cold wind. After several minutes the weather settled down, the sun shone through brilliant cumulus clouds but it was still hovering above freezing. This continued several times all morning until I’d had enough. Hungry and cold I suggested we quit for the day and head to the house for lunch.

Since I’m needing some poles to repair a gate, we decided to see if we could make it up to Beartooth Lake to cut some lodgepole poles. The road was clear and this typical May weather had brought new snow into the mountains. Pilot and Index Peaks were covered white in snow, the deep of the blue sky setting them off.

We got a little past the maintenance yard and then got stuck in the snow. I let the dogs out while my friend shoveled and I pushed the truck. The dogs, like 2 kids, went wildly romping around the deep snow pack.

That adventure foiled, my friend suggested we see how far we could get towards Cooke City. About 5 miles from Cooke, the road was full of snow, although a plow had gone over it. The sign said ‘Road Closed’ but we kept on. My friend said they run a plow now so that the heat of the sun will melt the rest off. That way there’ll be less work to do come May 7th when the NE entrance officially opens.

Once into Cooke, the road was clear and dry and we decided to head for the Lamar. By now it was about 6:30 pm and a perfect time to catch some wildlife watching. But as we drove into the park, a deep fog appeared and it started to snow…sleet really. My friend commented that he’d been coming here for 50 years and during that entire time the willows had never been able to grow.

“You’d have to have come here for that long to see the difference. The willows are growing now. They’ve never been this big. The elk used to use the Lamar like cattle. They’d be down in the river bottoms. Now the wolves keep them on the move and the brush is coming back.”

As we continued towards the Buffalo Ranch, the sky cleared. We kept commenting that we wished we’d brought our cameras. I thought about it as I walked out the door, but figured I was just going to cut poles. Instead, the air, the sky, the mountains, the weather was magnificent…a special day, a special light.

We watched a grizzly for a while nosing around for food. Three sand hill cranes hunted nearby. Elk grazed easily in the valley, while a Bison, beginning to shed, rubbed his back on a rock. No one was in the valley. It was left to the wildlife.

Coming a little north of Crandall on the way home, a grizzly bounded across the road in front of us. It was about 7:30 and I suppose he was headed out for his evening rounds. We stopped and watched him climb up the rocky cliffs on the other side of the highway, so close to the homes around there.

A spontaneous surprise, the day was full of typical May weather, my favorite time of the year. Snow, sleet, sun….dry, wet, foggy, brilliant need-your-sunglasses light. And lots of wildlife. Although we kept commenting how, of course, where’s your camera when you need it, I reminded my friend “This was a day just for our eyes only.”

Filed under: Yellowstone National Park | Tagged: Bears, Grizzly bears, Yellowstone National Park | 1 Comment »

Limber Pine and Doug Fir seedling trees–reforesting my property

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Leslie

I finally got my tree seedling order. I almost didn’t get my Limber Pines, but at the last minute the CCD found at least 1/2 my order. Today was a frigid day, hovering around 35 degrees with a chilling wind–perfect for planting. I gathered up my pick, several containers of left-over chippings from splitting wood last fall, a can of polymer crystals, and the plants and off I went to the back forty of the property.

What I used for mulch...leftovers from splitting wood

Since the trees were in tubes, just little things, I thought it would be no problem planting the 60 that I had. But the ground is all rock, so planting just 15 today was enough. I dug all the holes first, excavating about twice as wide as deep. The depth should be no more than the plant itself. Remove all the rocks, but save them for later.

For a long time now I’ve noticed and wondered why the limber pines seemed to congregate next to large boulders, sometimes even growing in a boulder pocket. Today I solved the mystery. Believe it or not, it was way easier to dig a hole next to a boulder—even next to one that had a tree by it that I had to cut down because of beetle kill (meaning there would be roots nearby). That was because between the wind and snow, over years and years soil tended to pile up against the rocks. Elsewhere, in the open, there was so little soil, mostly rock, that when I went to plant the tiny tree I had a hard time finding enough actual soil to refill the hole.

I learned fast and started digging next to rocks. I also know that Limber Pines regenerate nicely after fires. Although the pines themselves are not specifically fire adapted, after a fire when the birds cache their seeds, the seeds grow quickly in a newly burnt area. With that in mind, I planted in the areas where I burnt brush piles this winter. Those areas were also really easy to dig in. Why? Although there were still rocks there, there were NO roots to contend with from grasses. The soil was thick and loose there.

Mystery solved!

One interesting thing that happened…I saw a nice start for a hole by a rock and thought to put a tree there. I dug the hole around a bit deeper and uncovered a cache of meat! Some animal this winter (the meat smelled fresh still) had cached several fistfuls of what looked to me like deer meat. The meat was not chewed or regurgitated, but in slabs. Koda immediately grabbed the chunks and re-cached them elsewhere.

Where the cache was.

In planting each tree, I added a small amount of polymer crystals.

This stuff is a good moisure keeper

I used these before and highly recommend them where it will be difficult to water and in order to give plants a start. Since there is no irrigation nor water available where I’m planting, these crystals will absorb a great amount of water and expand about 5 times their size. Then they slowly release the moisture. Another but much more expensive alternative used on oaks in California is a product called Dri-Water. But watch out with the crystals. Newcomers to the product tend to think they’re not putting hardly enough in the hole. If you go over the recommended amount, the crystals ‘bubble’ out of the soil like an alien.

I filled the hole, being careful to keep the roots straight and deep, putting some crystals on the bottom of the hole, some in the middle after filling. Tamped the soil down around the tree, making sure I didn’t plant the tree too deeply. Never plant a tree deeper than its crown. In this case, with the seedling so small, basically don’t plant it lower than it is in the pot. Then I mulched the tree with my wood chips. If you use a tight mulch, like from a store bought bag, then you have to be careful again about smothering the crown. I’ve planted a lot of California natives and the one thing they are all sensitive to is crown rot. Its better to plant too high on a mound so moisture runs off. But in this case, in a state where it snows but rarely rains, planting on a mound seemed like overkill. The chips are natural and loose, allowing air to pass through.

Burn areas were easy to dig in

Remember we saved all the rocks. I took those rocks and placed them around the tree and over the mulch. I’ve found that rocks can be one of the best mulches as they keep the moisture in underneath.

Lastly, I put a seedling tree guard around each tree. Unfortunately they only had a few left of these at CCD from last year. I’m used to using these in California on native trees in outlying areas. They give the seedling a chance for protection against browsing. I cut these in half because I’m having a difficult time finding them for sale around Cody. None of the stores even know what I’m talking about.

Can you tell which are the Pines and which are the Douglas Firs?

The reason I like these is because they’re easy and also yellow, making it easy for me to find the seedlings to water them over the summer. Of course, I can use homemade chicken wire ones; or take coat hanger wire, make an umbrella and throw netting over it. Just make sure each year to raise the height to accommodate the tree growth. But I prefer these simple plastic tubes. I hope I can find more.

I’ll have to hand water these guys about every 2 weeks for the first year, even with the polymers. If I succeed in a 50% viability I’ll be happy. Natives are hard to start. Probably the 2nd year it would be good to water them 1 time/month. By the third year they should be on their own. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Filed under: Pines | Tagged: Douglas fir, Gardening, Homesteading, Limber pine, Pinus contorta, Planting natives, Pseudotsuga menzieisii, Reforestation | 1 Comment »

Bear tracking

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Leslie

According to an article I read, the GYE has 1.1 Grizzly Bears per 100 square kilometers (38.6 sq. miles). I’m not sure how many bears live in the Sunlight area of Cody, but I know its a drop-off place for problem bears. I was told by a Forest Service contract employee last summer that they collared 25 bears here last spring.

That same article estimated grizzly density during the time of Lewis and Clark at 3.1 bears per 100 square kilometers. Three times as many bears. I’d be curious to know the density around here.

What I do know is that although its common to see lots of fresh bear sign every spring, its not so common to run into bears. 1 bear per 40 square miles is a lot of miles. But I also know that bears like to use the same trails we do and precaution and care are important. I carry bear spray, watch the dog and stay alert, especially around blind corners and try to stay out of heavily wooded areas in the spring.

Grizzly in spring

That being said, I took a nice hike up Elk Creek the other day and spent about 1/2 hour investigating some wonderful bear tracks. After taking Jim Halfpenny’s tracking class last fall, I’ve become accustomed to looking at tracks from many different angles, including getting down on the ground and eyeballing them. Jim also urges his students to use all their senses. Feeling the imprints with your sensitive finger tips is just as important as the visuals.

By mapping out one track distance to the next, I was able to estimate where the next track might be even if I couldn’t detect it. Then by putting my face right down next to the ground I could make out the faint imprint of the track. After doing this for several non-discernible tracks, I was soon able to pick them out easily. I started noticing how, even if there was no visible track, the grass was flattened or there might be the slightest disturbance in the soil.

I spent a lot of time trying to understand this bears’ gait. Bears usually amble, where the back larger foot oversteps the front. For some reason I don’t yet understand, this bears’ hind foot hardly imprinted and it was mostly his front foot that was registering deeply in the mud.

Grizzly typical walk or amble

I backtracked the bear, who was headed towards Elk Creek valley not too far from my cabin. He’d come up a spur trail by the creek. I wondered what the bear was looking for, what he was eating, where he found food. I put my fingers in the track of his front foot and felt all the ridges. With my palm pressed against the large pad, I realized here I was ‘touching’ this bear’s foot. It held all the mystery and magic of bears themselves, all in a print.

Filed under: Tracking | Tagged: Bears, Grizzly bears, Tracking | 1 Comment »

Edible Low Water Landscapes

Posted on April 25, 2010 by Leslie

The no-brainer of edible landscapes are fruit trees and vegetable boxes. But there is more, much more, especially for gardeners in temperate climates. Those are the climates I know and here are some great landscape plants that have edible parts, usually fruits, for your garden design process.

One of my most all-time favorites is Ugni molinae, a Chilean plant that was imported to England in the 1800’s, grown ‘under glass’ and became a favorite food of Queen Victoria. Hardy to around 10 degrees, its a handsome small leafed evergreen shrub. Its fruit ripens in the late fall, tiny sweet berries that can be picked and eaten or made into jams.

Ugni molinae…yum yum

The fruit

I’ve already mentioned Ribes sp. in previous posts. These are edible, though kind of tasteless berries. Make them into pies, jams, and jellies.

The Genus Prunus, Cherry, has lots of landscape plants with edible fruits. They are considered landscape plants because the seeds are big, yielding less pulp, but edible they are still and birds love them. I’ll cover just one here, Prunus lyonii, a native to the Catalina Islands so technically this is a California native. Its a large shrub or small tree growing 15-20′, drought tolerant once established and hardy to around 15 degrees. Evergreen, large leaves, this is a very attractive functional shrub that can be used effectively as a screen. The fruits were an important source of food to California Indians.

Prunus lyonii fruit

Another great landscape shrub used for screening that has delicious fruit is the Pineapple guava or Feijoa sellowiana. My guatemalean crew is always collecting the tasty fruit that none of my clients seem to know is edible. Not only is the fruit edible, but frankly I like the taste of the flowers even more.

Arbutus unedo makes a fine shrub or smallish tree. It is evergreen with reddish peeling bark. The tasty fruit makes a nice snack.

Some other low water landscape plants to incorporate are Thornless Blackberries, Citrus of all types, Gingko biloba tree, Italian Stone Pine, Sambucus (Elderberry), Figs and other types of drought tolerant fruit trees that work for your climate.

And don’t forget many ‘weeds’ are edible such as Dandelions (when you pull them in the spring the young ones are delicious), miner’s lettuce, and nettle (must be cooked but better tasting than spinach and highly nutritious).

Veggie gardens are a great addition to gardens but they require water every day. Why not incorporate plants into your landscape that require little water yet give produce.

For more information on low water edibles as well as low water gardening tips, see my eBook Gardening for a Dry California Future available at Amazon.

Filed under: Gardening | Tagged: Edible landscapes, Gardening | 5 Comments »

What’s happening with the Moose in NW Wyoming

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Leslie

Moose track

Although I’d been hearing from local hands about moose visiting their properties all winter, I’d seen no sign. But just the other day, on a walk through the springs area of the nearby forest, 2 yearlings watched my neighbor and I casually as we approached on the trail. I held the dog, who didn’t even notice them, and we all had a few moments of moose/human communion. Ah, what bliss!

The yearlings went up the hill, we continued along the springs, when I looked down below into the newly logged private lands to catch a glimpse of Mama Moose, big and beautiful, running through the woods.

Yearling moose tracks next to Koda's track

I’d downloaded Scott Becker’s Master Thesis last fall and finally got around to reading it. He did a study on the moose around the Jackson area, including Dubois, south Yellowstone, and the Tetons. Here are some of the highlights from his study:

1. Few, if any, moose existed in Wyoming prior to 1850. Sporadic observations of moose occurred in NW Wyoming after 1850, but its believed the population didn’t begin to increase and expand until after the establishment of Yellowstone National Park.

2. Moose suffer heat stress in winter when temperatures are above -5 degrees celsius (23F); 14 degrees celsius in summer provokes heat stress (57F) and above 27C for extended periods of time is unsuitable for moose without refugia (80F)

3. Migrations between seasonal ranges follow traditional routes and that knowledge is passed from parent to offspring. Thus it may takes several generations for moose to adapt to habitat alterations that impact seasonal movements and ranges.

4. Some of the most important elements of habitat quality include coniferous forests, especially during spring when increasing ambient temperatures limit foraging activities of moose during the day. Moose movement is very concentrated in winter and dependent on coniferous forests. Moose population density and calf-cow ratios for the north Jackson herd began to decline shortly after the ’88 Yellowstone fires.

5. The north Jackson herd is in a steady decline. When female moose are healthy, they usually have twins. The results of Becker’s study indicate that nutritional quality, rather than the availability of habitat may be the most important determinant limiting population growth.

6. The impact of predators on calf survival appeared to be minimal. Although wolves did account for some adult female mortalities, the effect of wolf predation on this population appeared to be minimal. The apparent preference for elk by wolves in the GYE was likely due to the greater abundance of elk in the area. Also, because elk are in herds, its easier for wolves to follow and find them. While moose are solitary and the occasional predation is usually due to happenstance.

7. Management implications: Mature coniferous forests are an important component of Shiras moose habitat selection in winter and summer. Thus disturbances that reduce the amount of mature forests could negatively affect moose population performance.

8. Becker concludes that nutritional quality of habitat is the most important factor in the declining moose population in the northern Jackson herd. Habitat quality has been affected by large wildfires, insect outbreaks, widespread drought since the 1990’s, and global warming. Predators are playing a minor role in the decline of moose in northern Wyoming.

Here’s a video taken last fall of a male and female in the willows just down the road. You can turn the ridiculous narration off if you want.

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Filed under: Moose | Tagged: Moose, Moose around Yellowstone, Moose decline, Moose habitat, Shiras moose | 1 Comment »

The ancient footprints–Dinosaurs

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Leslie

Yesterday I went with some friends to see the Dinosaur footprints at Red Gulch/Alkali. Located on BLM land outside of Shell, WY, its about an hour from Cody towards Greybull. The turnoff is a good dirt road that goes about 35 miles and ends in Hyattville, where there’s an archeological site with petroglyphs.

Detail of sign at turn off showing map

Today we were just going about 5 miles down the road to some dinosaur tracks, discovered in only 1997 by hikers.

Its a beautiful spot--Badlands against the Big Horns

According to the signage, the discovery changed paleontologists view of the Wyoming landscape 160 million years ago. Just 15 years ago, it was thought that all of Wyoming was covered by ancient seas in the past. With the discovery of these footprints, it appears that parts of the landscape had beaches and mudflats. Of course, 160 million years ago Wyoming was located about the latitude of Cancun, and these dinosaurs were lounging around beaches, eating plants and each other with a nice view of the ocean.

Dinosaur footprint

Sunglasses show scale of footprint

The crazy thing about seeing the footprints was knowing these animals are now gone, long gone, extinct…yet the ghosts of their presence is imprinted in these rocks.

After lunch, a few of us hiked up into the nearby hills. The whole hillside seemed to made up of fossilized shells. The shells were in the sandstone cliffs, but also covering the gully and hillsides. We collected a few shells and some unusual ‘teeth-like’ fossils called Belemnites, ancient squid-like creatures.

Belemnites and Devils toes

As one of my friends’ said, Wyoming is so interesting. You could be out every day for the rest of your life seeing and doing something new and unique. This certainly was one of those days.

Filed under: Tracking | Tagged: Belemnites, Dinosaurs, Red Gulch/Alkali | Leave a comment »

A Grizzly story

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Leslie

Elk from the trail camera

I set up my trail camera for the last two weeks, hoping to catch some bears or wolves. Mostly I got a lot of elk. But I did capture 3 bighorn rams and a coyote.

The crazy part is that on the way up there I was following a grizzly’s perfect tracks in the snow. The tracks were actually solid ice and super clear. I was trying to figure out how they turned to ice. I thought “Maybe he went up in the early morning or evening over thin snow that melted under his heat and then iced over.” The ranch hand neighbor thought he just melted actual ice with his heat. But everywhere around the tracks was snow, except for his tracks. Any enlightening thoughts would be gladly accepted folks.

I chatted with J___ at the nearby ranch on my return. He told me that that same grizz had walked right through the cows, looking for their mineral lick that they used to keep every year. Its gone this year but probably its the same grizzly.

Then he told me a great grizzly story:

“You remember last year they were trapping and collaring. They caught 3 grizzlies on our property all in one morning. The traps are just 55 gallon barrels. The bear goes in for the meat and the door closes behind him. The doors on both ends are just metal grates.”

“Well Mark Bruscino was there (note: he’s the G&F Bear specialist in Wyoming) and asked if I wanted to come see as this was unusual. They’d never trapped 3 bears all at once and it was 2 sows and one cub, so it was going to be interesting which bear belonged to the cub. They trap the bears, then dart them with a light sedative. Mark said ‘look inside that barrel at that grizzly’, so I looked. And the bear, instead of looking out the grate, was looking sideways at the wall of the can. I looked from one end, then I looked from the other end. But each time I looked, the bear looked away, as if shy or something.

” ‘What’s going on?’ ” I asked Mark.

” ‘That bear is embarrassed. She’s been caught before and she’s embarrassed that she got caught again.’ ”

“Well Mark sedated her and looked at her ear tag. That bear, Mark said, was the first bear he’d ever caught and collared, 11 years back. She was 3 years old then.”

” ‘That bear has only been handled by people twice, both of them me. She remembers me. Bears are smart. Most people would be shocked to learn how smart bears are,’ Mark said”

“You know the bear can hear you when they’re sedated. And Mark was talking to that bear saying things like “Hi, you remember me.” She’d be sure to remember something like being caught in a trap.

“Mark said that that bear had been in Dubois, caught and transferred for cattle killing. She was put here and didn’t get into any trouble for all those years, until last year when she killed our pigs. A year later she was tracked, by her collar, down in Dubois, but since then the collar’s fallen off. When you think about it, how does a bear know, after being trapped in Dubois, then flown here by helicopter, not even driven here, but flown…how can they know how to get back to Dubois. They don’t go the same route, she had to cross 3 highways, and its really rugged country between here and there.”

“Mark said we had about 1/2 hour before those bears woke up. I helped them pull them out of the cans. I was trying to be really gentle so as not to twist her paw or whatever. Mark said there’s no handles on the bears, you just pull on their fur. ‘Don’t worry about hurting them. These are massive creatures. They’ve been over rock cliffs and in all kinds of situations.’

I told J___ that was a great story. Next time they’re trapping I hope to get a photo or maybe even ‘pet’ a sleeping bear. J___ got too and so did all their dudes that day.

Filed under: Grizzlies | Tagged: Bears, Bighorn Sheep, Coyotes, Elk, Grizzly bears | 1 Comment »

Patios hard and soft

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Leslie

I received a question from someone on using concrete pads underneath a DG patio, instead of prepping the subsurface with baserock material. That got me thinking about doing a post on patios in general and what, from a designer and installers perspective I know and understand.

First a few words in general regarding different types of patios. There are lots of different materials out there, some nice, some not, that can be used, and of course, different areas of the country will have different requirements. As far as drier climates goes, here are the basics:

1. Use materials like DG (decomposed granite) or concrete pavers (set in sand) when you need a permeable surface. Many counties are now requiring with new installations a minimum of permeable surfaces to prevent massive run-off problems. DG is useful as a patio some distance from the house in order to wipe off small bits of granite attached to shoes. Concrete pavers are set on a sand base and come in all types, from ugly to handsome.

Calstone pavers set in sand

2. For leisure patios with furniture lots of do-it-yourselfers or people on tight budgets like to put pavers and DG together. This works fine but keep in mind that high heels and furniture will get caught in the cracks of DG. There are ways to minimize this. Refer to my DG Patio book for spacing on pavers and proper installation. You will have to convince your contractor to use my methods because it is more time intensive, but it works.

A proper installation using Arizona flagstone with decomposed granite in between. You will rarely see it done properly like this.

3. For a long lasting patio that will have furniture on it, I prefer to pour a concrete base and put mortared pavers on. Another alternative is concrete. There have been lots of advances in concrete in the past few years. Meaning there are lots of types of decorative concrete looks, with stains and stamps and 2 or 3 dust on colors; finishes with broom, or salt pitting, or hard trowel. Just keep in mind that concrete is not a controllable substance and colors vary, fade, and cracks will develop no matter what.

This Decomposed Granite with flagstone patio is not done correctly. Spaces are too big and will catch high heels and chairs

Indian pavers with decorative rock set on concrete base

Interesting walkway that incorporates brick, stone and boulders

A WORD ABOUT PAVERS: If you decide to go for real stone pavers, I salute you. Although concrete is cheaper, stone is beautiful and will give you lasting pleasure. So how do you choose amongst all the choices at the yard. First, go to a large landscape supply yard and pick out the stones you like. Get samples and bring them home and live with the samples for a week or more.

Two types of concrete are in this walkway

You must map out your design exactly. Usually the stone yard will have some basic design patterns for you to work with, or simply obtain some grid paper and go to work. Indian pavers have flooded the market in recent times. There are some incredibly beautiful stone and colors amongst the choices, but the stones are not all exactly to size. You’ll have to work with this when you or your contractor lays it down, which means some of the spacing will be off.

No joints in the perfect paver

Next you must decide on the size of your joints. Be exact in your communications to your contractor. If you have uniform stone, you can lay them down with no mortar in between. If you want joints, or if your stone isn’t perfect as in the Indian pavers pictured below, you must have mortar showing in the joints.

Decomposed Granite patio under willow.

As far as flagstones go, there are many types, some of which I do NOT recommend because you will develop moss in the wet season and you MUST seal these types every year to prevent mold. I discuss this more in depth in my eBook.

In general choose flagstones that are hard with small pores. These would be stones that come from places like Montana. Flagstones come in many names, and what’s called one name in one yard will be named something else in another, even if its the same material. Just make sure the flagstone is dense.

Another thing you want to watch for in flagstone is how slick it is. Slate, though gorgeous, is really slippery when wet. I’ve heard that a little bit of sand in your sealer can help this problem. Better to avoid it from the start.

For a more in-depth discussion on these topics, see my DG patio book. In it I discuss all the pros and cons of different materials, as well as give exact instructions for the installation of the different mediums, whether your contractor installs it or you do.

I’ve tried to keep the price to a bare minimum and it includes all the tips I’ve learned from years of experience. Good luck and do it right from the beginning. Hardscape, unlike plant material, cannot be picked up and moved, and is expensive!

Also Read:-

Filed under: Gardening | Tagged: Calstone, Concrete patio, Decomposed Granite, Decomposed granite patios, DG Patios, Patios, Pavers | 10 Comments »

Our keystone species: Bison and their restoration

Posted on April 4, 2010 by Leslie

I’m reading a book that, for the first time for me, pops to life what it meant that there were 60 million Bison here before the white man arrived.

Bison bison, the survivor amongst many large mammals that became extinct in North America, were tough and well suited for this continent. Surviving -50 degree winters, summer droughts and waterless days where he could drink prickly pear juice if needed. They lived long and remained fertile into old age, were sure-footed and could swim if needed. They lived at sea level, on the high plains, and in the high mountains. A keystone species, their roaming and fertilizing of the soil conditioned it for native grasses as well as provided food for the bears and wolves that freely lived amongst them.

When the Spanish arrived, they found Buffalo north of the Rio Grande and inward into Florida. Bison covered the continent from Canada to Mexico north. Bison were in Georgia, along the Mississippi, in Pennsylvania and along the Niagara.

When spring ice floes began, Bison that had fallen through the cracks while crossing the river drowned and were carried downstream. Thousands of carcasses floated down western rivers. One trapper counted over 730 until he got tired and stopped counting. Rivers were a continuous brown flow and these carcasses formed complete dams. Bodies of Bison flowed day and night in the spring. Grizzlies waited for these spring ‘run-offs’.

Calf loss of Bison was set around 50%. With 15 million new calves born each year, that meant 7 1/2 million calf carcasses strewn across the country. Audubon’s party camped on a low island on the Missouri covered with dead Bison calves.

The Bison were so thick that people didn’t count them by individuals. Instead they counted them by how many days it took to pass one point. One trapper counted 5 days before the herd passed a point completely. One man wrote that while traveling up the Arkansas 15 miles a day and able to see for 15 miles on each side of the trail, in 3 days he’d seen about 1350 square miles of land entirely covered with Buffalo. The herds were “in such immense numbers as to defy computation.”

"Thick as gnats" was one expression used. Native Americans called the country "one robe".

When the buffalo were reduced to only bones covering the plains, people were making money collecting and selling them for fertilizer or glue or for sugar factories. Railroad cars filled to the brim operated day and night hauling bones.

A few Bison escaped the slaughter by holing up in Yellowstone National Park. In the early days of the Park, even these few animals were being poached. By 1902, only 25 or 30 Bison remained in the herd. An intensive protective breeding program brought these last genetically wild Bison back from the brink.

Controversy remains today. Bison leaving the Park are subject to slaughter over brucellosis. Only 3000 of the once 60 million of the wild herd remains, confined within Park boundaries. If this isn’t a definition of an American tragedy…

Bison footprint

Memory is short. I suppose it could be touted as a conservation success story, saving the Bison from extinction, running them through a very narrow genetic bottleneck to pop out with 3000 in the Park in 2010. But what of the other many millions?

An apology from the government is long overdue to the Bison. A presidential pardon. And then a place, a very large place in the mid-west they can call their home, should be granted to them, to let them live again and build their numbers as they please. This idea isn’t new. Its’ been floating around since the late 1980’s when Drs. Frank and Deborah Popper proposed The Buffalo Common, an area set aside where dying farming communities are. The Poppers were given a lot of grief over their ideas, but it seems that, with the shrinking of family farms and many towns in the Mid-West folding up, this idea is now being considered as not only realistic, but money making (the key to everything capitalistic!).

There is not one national park in the mid-west. Imagine herds of thousands of Bison roaming their old habitat. The short and tall grass prairies would be restored, the soil would sing again, and tourists would come from all over the world to see these magnificent animals, found no where else on earth, just as they now come to Yellowstone.

Filed under: Bison | Tagged: Bison, Buffalo, Buffalo commons, Drs. Poppers, Yellowstone National Park | Leave a comment »

Mountain Goats of the Clarks Fork

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Leslie

Mountain Goat from jasperjournal.com

Yesterday I took a walk along the plateau above the Clarks Fork ravine. The edge is a sheer 1000′ drop tot he river below. I sat and glassed for the mountain goats that I’d heard ‘hung’ around the cliff edges. Almost ready to give up, I suddenly saw a small white dot that looked like snow. I watched it a while and it moved like a white ant. Pretty soon there were a dozen of these small white dots coming in and out of the trees, hanging on cliff edges that you and I wouldn’t dream of going near. All I could think of was …”I wanna be a mountain goat!” Looked like lots of fun, especially to a person like me whose afraid of heights.

The mountain goat controversy remains strong. Like the fallow and axis deer in Point Reyes that the National Seashore wants to shoot and get rid of, Yellowstone wants to get rid of them. They are an ‘invasive’ around here, planted by sportsmen for the hunt. But unlike the Fallow deer which are not from this continent (from India), Rocky Mountain mountain goats do inhabit the high elevations of Montana, Idaho, Colorado, and further north. Very few prehistoric traces of mountain goats have been seen in these parts, and first hand accounts are few.

Personally, I like them and like seeing them around, especially considering that they are native to areas west of the Park. It is not inconceivable that they once were around the Absarokas and Beartooths. That is completely unlike the Fallow deer, which were bought from the San Francisco Zoo in the ’40’s and introduced. Apparently Rocky Mountain mountain goats were introduced into the Cascades, far out of their native range, with very detrimental effects.

I’m all for eliminating invasive species that ravage the ecosystem and compete with the resources of the natives. But as long as they are not competing too much with Bighorn forage, I wouldn’t mind keeping them around. They were a thrill to see. Gotta figure out a way to get a closer look.