Yellowstone Quarterly - Winter 2017-18

Quarterly Y ellowstone

WINTER 2017

Finding a Future for Yellowstone’s Bison Winter Wildlife Photography Interview with Pat Kenney, Deputy Superintendent

Dear Yellowstone Forever supporters, This October marked the first full year of Yellowstone Forever—and what a year it’s been! I couldn’t be happier as I reflect upon all that we’ve been able to accomplish on behalf of the park over the past year.

Over the summer, crews of young people helped with park projects like installing campground bear boxes as part of the Youth Conservation Corps program, and park rangers were able to educate thousands of visitors through the Visitor and Wildlife Safety Education project. The Yellowstone Forever Institute provided 183,204 contact hours connecting visitors to the wonders of Yellowstone’s natural resources, while our dedicated volunteers contributed more than 25,000 hours in support of education and preservation. I encourage you to learn more about what we’ve been able to accomplish—thanks to your dedicated support—in our Annual Report, available at Yellowstone.org/annual-report.

We’re already looking forward to the future, and to Yellowstone’s 150th anniversary in 2022. Our Young Patrons Advisory Council, led by board member Jackie Rooney, will be instrumental in our efforts not only to raise funds for the park, but to directly engage the next generation of stewards. They’ve already held several extremely successful events this year, including an event hosted jointly by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Senator Jon Tester in Washington, D.C. As the crowds of summer fade and the snow begins to fall, now is the time of year when we pause to reflect on the things that truly matter. Yellowstone is the crown jewel of the National Park system—and the world’s first national park. As this year draws to a close, I hope you will consider making an additional gift to this place we love, so that future generations are able to have the same incredible, life-changing experiences only Yellowstone can offer.

Thank you for being the foundation of our new legacy for Yellowstone National Park!

I look forward to another successful year supporting the park, and I hope to meet more of you when I take the Yellowstone experience out on the road.

Heather White President & CEO Yellowstone Forever

CONTENTS

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12

02

02 No Room to Roam 08 yf family Debbie Collins

09 experience Winter Wildlife Photography

12 Cougar Project Uses Cutting-Edge Technology to Follow Elusive Predator 14 LiDAR and the Fight to Save Yellowstone’s Cutthroat Trout 16 nps interview Pat Kenney 17 naturalist notes Winter Adaptations 18 flora & fauna Subalpine Fir | Great Gray Owl 19 Supporters

Contributors writers Megan Boyle Wendie Carr Owen Carroll Neala Fugere Jenny Golding Barbara Lee Ruffin Prevost

images / pages Lisa Culpepper Wes Binder Maria Bisso Jenny Golding Doug Loneman Montana State University Tom Murphy NPS Ann Skelton

publication staff

cover, 9 12 17, back cover 4, 6, 7 ii 14, 15 2, 5 5, 12, 15, 16, 18, 21 ii, 10

Maria Bisso Megan Boyle Wendie Carr Paula Degen Neala Fugere

Executive Team & Board Members Executive Team

Heather White President & CEO

Thomas Cluderay General Counsel

J.D. Davis

Ken Voorhis

Senior Director of Campaign & Special Projects

Kelly Herman

Vice President of Information Technology

Chief Operations & Education Officer Chief Development Officer

Terry “J.R.” Hunt Roger Keaton

Jeff Augustin

Vice President of Finance

Wendie Carr

Vice President of Employee & Volunteer Engagement

Senior Director of Park Projects Vice President of Marketing & Communications

Kathy Nichols

Board Members

Edna Johnson

Kay Yeager

Charles Kaufmann

Chairman

John Walda

Dan Manning

Secretary

Joe Marushack

Kevin Butt

Robert Mathias

Michael Campbell

Bryan Morgan

John Costello

Jacqueline Rooney

Tom Detmer

Bob Rowe

Annie Graham

Doug Spencer

Carolyn Heppel

Heather White

No

By Jenny Golding

Room to

F i n di n g a F utu r e for Ye llowston e ’ s B i son

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Standing on a grassy hillside above Lamar Valley in early August, you watch as a sea of black dots shifts and morphs across the golden landscape.

Bison!

The air smells of sage and crackles with dryness.

Bison are gathered by the thousands in Hayden and Lamar valleys for their mating season—the rut.

Hulking bulls, weighing 2,000 pounds or more, thunder their way across the valley floor, bellowing furiously at one another as they compete for receptive females.

Towering clouds of dust rise from the ground as the bulls wallow and strut. What you see before you is unique in the world: a wild population of bison roaming freely across the 2.2 million acres of Yellowstone National Park. “This is the last genetically pure population that lives as their ancestors did: unfenced, unprotected from harsh winters, drought, or predators,” says Yellowstone National Park Chief of Strategic Communications Jody Lyle.

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Conflicting Wildlife Values

Fast forward seven months from the rut, to March. Winter for bison is bleak; snow blankets the landscape, making forage scarce.

As the snow deepens, bison follow an ancient instinct: migrate to winter range where food is more readily available. For most of the 20th century, until the 1980s, bison didn’t seasonally migrate out of the park due to relatively low numbers and management actions. Today, however, some bison are migrating out of Yellowstone—and into the crosshairs of a heated debate about their right to roam.

Once they leave the park, bison enter a world that no longer has room for them. The broad valleys that once provided refuge during colder months are now a patchwork of houses, fences, grazing allotments, and cattle ranches. Bison are migratory wildlife, which brings them into conflict with people living in these areas.

On the surface, it appears this conflict stems from concerns over a bacterial disease called brucellosis, which wild bison and elk contracted from domestic cattle brought to the surrounding area in the late 1800s and into the park in the early 1900s. About 60 percent of the park’s bison have been exposed to the organism, although only about 15 percent of females are infectious.

Transmitted between bison, elk, and cattle through infected birth tissue, brucellosis can cause these animals to abort their calves.

A Long Journey Home

Standing on the same hillside in Lamar Valley in 1900, you would have seen…nothing. Approximately 30–60 million bison once roamed the continent from the Appalachians to the Pacific. Traveling a 2–3 millionyear journey from Southeast Asia across the Bering Land Bridge to North America, bison outlasted mammoths, mastodons, dire wolves, and other Pleistocene-era peers. But by 1901, only about 23 wild bison remained in the Yellowstone area, taking refuge in the Pelican Valley in Yellowstone National Park. It’s a staggering statistic, as if all the people from the 50 largest cities in America today simply vanished.

Only bison didn’t vanish—they were exterminated. Casualties of westward expansion, millions of bison were slaughtered over a period of just 200 years. In 1872—the year Yellowstone National Park was established—the slaughter averaged 5,000 animals a day, every day.

To save them from extinction, the U.S. Army relocated 18 pregnant cow bison from the Pablo-Allard herd in northwestern Montana and three bulls from the Goodnight herd in Texas to Yellowstone in 1902. Through husbandry and protection, the population grew to 1,500 animals by 1954.

Today, about 4,900 bison roam wild and free in Yellowstone—a triumph of conservation.

That success has not been without controversy.

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The period of significant transmission risk occurs during the late winter and spring, when elk and bison are calving. Although the risk of transmission from elk to cattle is greater than from bison—elk roam freely during this time whereas bison do not— concern that cattle will contract brucellosis from wild bison still raises serious fears in those who raise livestock for a living.

“When an animal in a livestock herd is infected, that herd is immediately quarantined; the owner can’t sell anything except to slaughter, even if pregnant. The quarantine lasts until all animals are removed…or animal health officials are sure that the disease is no longer in the herd. That can have a significant impact on those ranching families,” says Montana state veterinarian Marty Zaluski.

Fears that bison might transmit brucellosis back to cattle, as well as concerns for human

safety, property damage, and competition with cattle for grass, resulted in Montana legislation prohibiting the movement of wild bison beyond the park and a few adjacent areas, except to slaughter. This conflicts with the park’s mission to preserve wildlife and the ecological processes (such as migration, grassland interactions, and predator-prey dynamics) they sustain.

It took a court-mediated settlement agreement in 2000, known as the Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP), to help sort out differences in management approach. Today, eight federal, state, and tribal partners work together to minimize the risk of brucellosis transmission to cattle, lower brucellosis prevalence, and prevent dispersal beyond the designated conservation area, while supporting a wild, free-ranging population that maintains its genetic integrity and ecological functions. If these actions sound conflicting, they often are. “What we do on the boundary is not about bison ecology,” says Yellowstone National Park biologist Rick Wallen.

“It’s strictly conflict resolution.”

It’s difficult to make sense of this complicated socio-political story on a good day. Watching how the IBMP plays out on the ground in winter can be heartbreaking.

As bison herds flow out of the mountains above Mammoth Hot Springs to the Gardiner Basin, they have 6 miles of winter range before they encounter the park border. While there is some tolerance for bison beyond the border, their path is filled with obstacles. Some are met by tribal and public hunters. Others meander into fences that funnel them into the Stephens Creek bison handling facility, where they are corralled and shipped to slaughter—their meat given to Native American tribes.

Those that make it through can roam only as far as Yankee Jim Canyon, 6 miles from the park border, where a cattle guard, tall fences, cliffs, and the Yellowstone River pen them in.

At the Stephens Creek facility, National Park Service (NPS) workers place a metal catwalk above a narrow chute lined with plywood, as 20–30 bison are herded into the passageway. One at a time the bison are released into the “squeeze chute,” a giant hydraulic metal basket that lifts and squeezes the animal to hold it still. The biologists quickly collect a blood sample and record the weight, a process that takes under 2 minutes. Afterwards, small groups of animals are ushered into the back of livestock trailers, hooves thundering on metal as they barrel into the trucks. In sharp contrast to the image of the powerful bull strutting Lamar Valley in August is a brief glimpse of a wild eye peering out through the metal slats in the side of the trailer—confused, defiant, afraid. The doors are locked and off they go, accompanied by armed guards. It’s hard to watch. There’s not much to say.

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The objective to kill wild bison was a request by the state of Montana to limit the number of bison that leave Yellowstone National Park. The settlement agreement established a target abundance of 3,000 bison and established management areas adjacent to the park boundary where removal actions would occur. Over 1,200 bison were removed from the population in 2017, primarily through hunter harvest and slaughter. More than 8,000 bison have been culled since 1985.

A common misconception is that park staff are comfortable with their role in this intensive management of the Yellowstone bison herd. NPS operates this facility on behalf of the IBMP partnership, doing their best under challenging circumstances.

“All of the operations here are structured around how to reduce stress for the bison,” says park spokesperson Morgan Warthin.

From the custom-designed squeeze chute and the plywood on the walls, to the way bison are loaded in the trailers, “the goal is to make the operation as efficient as possible and to reduce injury and stress.”

Still, it’s hard to witness.

The state and tribal hunt can be equally wrenching. While hunting is one of the management tools set forth in the IBMP for controlling the bison population, the hunt as it happens today is less than ideal.

Because hunting is not allowed in the park (as some have proposed), and year-round tolerance for bison outside the park has been very limited in the past, the animals are harvested only in winter when they migrate out. It’s the time when bison are in the poorest condition, and cows are in late pregnancy. Hunters congregate close to the park border, sometimes killing bison in large groups. As ravens and eagles circle

eagerly over the remains, it can be hard to understand how this is part of a positive future.

Although the way the hunt happens now needs improvement, says Tom McDonald with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), the tribes are committed to participating in the process of bison conservation. They envision a future where bison roam all federal lands in Montana. It’s a big dream, and working towards a successful tribal treaty hunt is an important part of demonstrating that bison can be managed on public lands. “Rounding up wild bison and putting them in cargo trailers and hauling them hundreds of miles and putting them in the slaughterhouse is not an ideal situation by anyone’s standards,” says McDonald. “They have to be…taken in the field, given the respect they should have.”

Hope for the Future

Despite these challenges, the park remains focused on moving forward.

“Doing nothing is not an option,” says Jody Lyle. “Our goals are clear.

We want to maintain the healthy population in the park; we want to reduce the number of animals that we have to send to slaughter each year; and we want to populate new conservation herds around the West with Yellowstone bison.”

The park has proposed sending Yellowstone bison to a quarantine facility specifically built for the purpose on the Fort Peck Reservation, in collaboration with the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. From quarantine, animals that repeatedly test negative for brucellosis could be sent to other public, private, or tribal lands. This approach would reduce the number of animals sent to slaughter, and foster other populations of Yellowstone bison across the country.

Yet it’s impossible to move forward without something changing at the state level, and Montana’s stance is firm: transporting animals—in a

“Doing nothing is not an option.”

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locked trailer—that have not completed the quarantine process is too big a risk to livestock producers. “The country has been engaged in a brucellosis eradication campaign…since the 1930s,” says veterinarian Zaluski. “We have concerns that sending animals to quarantine out of an area where we have brucellosis to an area where we don’t…is contrary to the spirit of the…campaign,” adding that Montana state law prohibits this movement.

It’s a literal roadblock.

The park disagrees about the level of risk.

Biologists have learned a lot about bison ecology and disease transmission in the years since the 2000 IBMP, and recent public opinion polls show that 76 percent of Montana voters support restoring wild bison to public lands. While the existing plan has been successful in preventing the transmission of brucellosis from bison to cattle, the park believes that it’s time to write a new plan that reflects recent science and public opinion, and which recognizes bison as wildlife. The beginning stages of a new IBMP are underway.

Following the trauma of winter, it can be hard to see a positive story here. Yet with the emergence of green grass in the spring and the birth of little red bison calves comes a new hope for the future. “It may

seem slow, but we have accomplished a lot,” says Lyle. “If anything, the conservation success over the past century is so amazing that now…we are having conflicts outside our borders as they migrate out. That didn’t happen for the past 100 years because there weren’t enough bison to do it.”

Bison are a public resource; they belong to all Americans. Until politics catch up with science and public opinion, there are few options to control a population that could outgrow available habitat. Finding a home for Yellowstone bison in the future is ultimately about tolerance and working together. “We’re trying to find solutions other than capture and ship to slaughter,” says Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk. “We’re working with our partners to find what those solutions can be.” It’s not an easy task. Zaluski elaborates: “If there was an easy way to solve this problem, we would have done it already.”

Note Author Jenny Golding interviewed Jody Lyle, Tom McDonald, Rick Wallen, Morgan Warthin, Dan Wenk, and Marty Zaluksi for this article in the fall of 2017.

Jenny Golding is a former director of education for Yellowstone Forever. She currently runs the website A Yellowstone Life, and writes from her home in Gardiner, Montana, on the border of Yellowstone National Park.

To learn more Visit the bison fact page on our website at Yellowstone.org/bison. View photos, listen to an informative podcast, and read more about management in Yellowstone National Park. Comprehensive bison management information is also available at NPS.gov/yell.

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Y F FA M I LY

Debbie Collins

RETAIL PRODUCT MANAGER every product is educational long before it can hit the shelves. “The focus is on education,” she explains.

To understand how Yellowstone Forever has grown and evolved over time, just ask Debbie Collins, the organization’s retail product manager and longeststanding employee. Since she was first hired in 1990, Debbie has watched the nonprofit grow from a staff of three to a national brand with more than 80 year-round employees. A firm believer in the organization’s mission, Debbie says, “I never felt like this change was unexpected.

It just seemed like a natural progression.”

Today, Debbie is responsible for product development and selection as the retail product manager, which requires her to keep in contact with dozens of vendors and stay on top of the latest trends. She enjoys brainstorming new product ideas with the retail team and ensuring Yellowstone Forever’s inventory stays relevant. “It’s really interesting to get a new product in and watch how it performs,” she says. “There’s something satisfying about making a good choice.”

Still, a lot has changed since the software distributer from Los Angeles moved to Montana in 1980, seeking a different lifestyle and a greater connection to the outdoors. At the time she first began working at the Yellowstone Association (now Yellowstone Forever), the modest nonprofit operated out of a small space in what is now the Gardiner, Montana, laundromat.

Some of Debbie’s favorite Park Store products include the Junior Ranger collection, “Yellowstone Monopoly,” and the Yellowstone Forever rock kit—which she and the retail team created in partnership with a park geologist.

Her favorite books examine the early days of Yellowstone National Park. “Guidebooks are guidebooks and maps are maps, but our books on Yellowstone’s history give a sense of the human experience,” she explains. “They’re more relatable.”

“I did a lot of different things,” Debbie recalls of those early days. “I processed mail orders and wholesales, and was even assistant to the executive director for awhile.”

As the organization grew, however, so did the demand for a larger space and more staff. Eventually Debbie moved from general administrative duties to her current role in the retail department—an operation now made up of 11 Park Stores and an online shop offering educational books, maps, and collectibles to park visitors.

Despite 27 years on the job, the reward Debbie finds in her work has not changed. “Our relationship with the National Park Service makes our products over and above what you’d find at gift shops,” she says. “Yellowstone is a special place and I love knowing what we do can make a difference.”

Explore Yellowstone Forever’s online Park Store at shop.yellowstone.org

“I like to think of us as Yellowstone’s museum store,” Debbie says. As the park’s official nonprofit partner, she explains, the National Park Service must determine that

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EXPERIENCE

Winter Wildlife Photography

By Neala Fugere

Your breath freezes in the frigid January air; last you checked, the thermometer in your vehicle read –25°F. Your hand instinctively wraps around the camera battery you’ve placed in your pocket as you wait patiently next to your tripod.

Through binoculars, you notice an anticipated movement against the snowy landscape. Action! You rush to ready your camera, and within seconds you are capturing a pair of wolves— wild wolves— silhouetted perfectly against the blanket of white.

It’s a rare scene that motivates many wildlife photographers to come to Yellowstone, according to Meg Sommers, professional photographer and Yellowstone Forever Institute instructor. The longtime resident of Cody, Wyoming, has been helping Institute students photograph Yellowstone since 2010.

For Sommers, winter is an exceptional time to tell stories of the natural world through photography. Wildlife are easier to spot against the snow. Even the landscape offers something new and spectacular, she says, where “frost can turn a blade of grass into something extraordinary.”

But capturing these winter images comes with challenges.

Sommers explains that photographers should be prepared to keep warm in sub-zero temperatures—knowing they may have to stay in one place for hours waiting for that perfect moment.

She recommends wearing layers and bringing along hand warmers, as well as becoming familiar with the area they’ll be photographing. In terms of equipment, Sommers advises all serious photographers to have a good camera body, a sturdy tripod, and a selection of lenses (both shorter and longer for landscapes and wildlife, respectively), as well as a solid understanding of their camera’s settings.

The equipment itself can present its own set of difficulties in winter, Sommers warns. Prolonged exposure to frigid temperatures can quickly zap the life out of batteries; she recommends keeping them in your pocket for warmth.

Photographers should take care when they head back indoors, as the humidity in the warmer air will condense on the equipment. To prevent this, she suggests placing everything in a sealable bag—like a large Ziploc—before moving indoors.

Wildlife photographers should also come prepared with ample patience and respect for the wildlife they’re hoping to photograph. Learning to wait for that magic moment will get easier the more times you’re rewarded with a special image, Sommers says. The park requires all visitors to maintain a distance of at least 25 yards from wildlife and 100 yards from bears and wolves, both for the safety of the photographer and the wildlife.

With these tips in mind, Yellowstone’s winter world is wide open for those yearning to capture its unique beauty and the wildlife that call it home. For Sommers, photographing the wonders of the park in the winter is the perfect way to connect to the landscape, and well worth the inherent challenges. “The lucky photographer will find animal behavior to photograph that helps to convey a story,” she says— “giving us some small insight into what life is like in that moment in time.”

Neala Fugere is Yellowstone Forever’s communications coordinator.

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E XPERIENCE | PRE SERVE

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Cougar Project Uses Cutting-Edge Technology to Follow Elusive Predator

By Ruffin Prevost

The young male wasn’t an Olympic athlete in training, but his daily movements were tracked and recorded with amazing precision. He wasn’t on a crash diet, but what he ate was well known, along with where and when he ate it. He wasn’t a patient with a rare or fatal disease, but his entire genome was sequenced. And he wasn’t a crime victim, although his violent death at a young age was determined by lab work and an arduous field investigation.

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Wildlife biologist Dan Stahler examines a tranquilized cougar.

Left

The young male was M198, one of the first cougars fitted with a special tracking collar that is a cornerstone of the Yellowstone Cougar Project.

Begun in 2014, the planned five-year study is using a range of high-tech, non-invasive methods to better understand how many cougars live in Yellowstone National Park— particularly in the northern range.

The project also studies how the big cats fit into the larger ecosystem of major predators in the park that includes grizzly bears and gray wolves.

Yellowstone wildlife biologist Dan Stahler leads the Cougar Project, which uses a combination of tracking collars, genetic analysis, camera traps, and field work to “reveal the fascinating ecology of how cougars are connected to this wild landscape.”

Also known as pumas, mountain lions, and panthers, cougars are elusive and solitary. Their range runs from Canada to South America, but cougars were eliminated from Yellowstone early in the 20th century. By the 1980s, they were returning to the park on their own.

Even as wolves and grizzlies have rebounded, and elk numbers have declined over the past two decades, cougars appear to be holding their own. Yellowstone remains an important reservoir for regional cougar populations, as the younger males disperse to surrounding areas to avoid clashes with established toms, which are fiercely territorial. It was a larger tom that killed M198, as Stahler details in Episode 3 of the Yellowstone National Park science podcast, Telemetry.

Wolves and cougars use the same habitat, Stahler said, but “cougars are drawn to steep terrain like river canyons or thicker forest,” allowing them to exploit “a niche in the landscape while surrounded by competing predators.”

But that also makes the secretive cats tough to track and study, which is where the cutting-edge collars used by the Cougar Project come into play.

The GPS tracking collars have batteries that can last up to two years. They’re also equipped with accelerometers, similar to a FitBit or iPhone, which can yield fine-scale data about movement, and even head posture.

Researchers can track where a cougar hunts, feeds, rests, and sleeps. They can compare that data to a library of calibrated benchmarks measured from captive cougars—including oxygen and calorie usage from cougars running on treadmills—to gain amazing insights into the habits of Yellowstone cougars.

Using GPS location data, researchers visit kill sites after a cougar moves on.

They examine the remains of its prey and collect cougar hair, scat, and even blood for DNA sampling. Field technicians gather similar samples each winter from un-collared cougars by following their tracks in the snow.

They also use snow tracks to find and record signs of bears, wolves, and ungulates in the same area.

Genetic analysis has identified 22 individual cougars in Yellowstone, Stahler said, and statistical models indicate the northern range is home to 25–35 cougars, about the same as a decade ago.

Researchers have also fitted Yellowstone wolves with the same kind of collars and plan to combine and compare data to learn more about how cougars and wolves use their shared habitat. Wolves hunt in packs and chase their prey, while cougars hunt alone and ambush their quarry. Cougars hunt mainly elk, but also feed on deer, marmots, grouse, and even porcupines, Stahler said.

“That’s an exciting part of the science,” Stahler said of the wolf and cougar projects, both funded in part

by Yellowstone Forever and other YQ | 13

partners. “I’m unaware of any other place in the world that has those kind of collars on multiple predators.”

For frequent park visitors like Maureen Noland of Staten Island, New York, the Cougar Project will offer new insights about an animal she’s seen only once, despite making regular trips to Yellowstone for decades.

Noland recalled a trip 15 years ago when she stopped in the Lamar Valley to watch two mule deer standing frozen, like statues. “We followed their gaze and there was a cougar just casually walking toward them,” she said. As she fumbled to change camera lenses, the cougar moved off into the woods. Though Noland missed the shot, “I still have the ‘photo’ engraved in my brain,” she said.

Billings, Montana, photographer Dave Shumway has visited Yellowstone at least 150 times since 2005, and has seen cougars during just a half-dozen of those trips.

Only once was he able to photograph one. “Most of the encounters are distant and brief. Other than seeing a lynx, wolverine, or a Yeti,” he joked, “the mountain lion is one of those incredibly rare things that, if you pay close attention and visit Yellowstone frequently, you might get to see once or twice in a lifetime.”

That’s why the Cougar Project is a key part of the predator research being done in Yellowstone, Stahler said.

“Because they’re rarely seen or heard, they’re often kind of forgotten,” he said. “It’s important to remind people about this other carnivore playing an important role in Yellowstone.”

Ruffin Prevost is founding editor of Yellowstone Gate, an online publication offering community news and inside views about Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Grad student Nathan Seldomridge and Professor Joseph Shaw board the first LiDAR flight in 2004.

Right Yellowstone Lake views from the first flight.

Right middle A lake trout is cut open, showing many juvenile cutthroat.

Above

By Barbara Lee

LiDAR and the Fight to Save Yellowstone’s Cutthroat Trout

Self-driving cars and police who ticket speeders depend on it. Mapping has been revolutionized by it. And thanks to the innovative work of scientists at Montana State University (MSU), Yellowstone’s native cutthroat trout are more likely to survive because of it.

disastrous decline in Yellowstone’s native cutthroat during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The iconic cutthroat is an important food source for many animals, and juvenile cutthroat were being devoured by the much larger lake trout at a dizzying pace.

Bigelow, whose work focuses on cutthroat restoration, points out that LiDAR mapping of lake trout must be completed within their three-week fall breeding season.

During that time, these deep-water dwellers congregate in spawning areas and are easier to see because they are in shallower water. With the lake trout spawn in mind, Shaw planned LiDAR flights for late September 2004 and received a Montana Space Consortium grant. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) loaned LiDAR to support the experiment.

LiDAR, which stands for “light detection and ranging,” is a remote sensing method designed to detect and identify objects. Just as bats “see” by bouncing sound off objects, LiDAR “sees” by sending out millions of light pulses and measuring the time it takes each pulse to return.

More than a decade ago, MSU professor Joseph Shaw spearheaded an experiment involving LiDAR flights over Yellowstone Lake. The purpose, Shaw wrote at the time, “was to examine the capability of airborne LiDAR in depth-profiling and imaging modes for locating lake trout spawning locations.” Yellowstone Lake was chosen for the experiment because it contained a huge number of invasive trout, and its immense size and remoteness made for a good match with a flyover project.

Shaw and his group ended up with a window of only three days to carry out the flights. Fall snowstorms prevented flyovers on the first two days, leaving just one day— September 21, 2004. Despite uncertain weather, Shaw, graduate student Nathan Seldomridge, and their pilot boarded a rented King Air 90 turboprop plane and completed history-making LiDAR flights over Yellowstone Lake.

According to Yellowstone National Park fisheries biologist Pat Bigelow, nonnative lake trout were a major cause of the

“Nobody had ever done this kind of thing before, and we didn’t know what we would see,” says Shaw. “It was exciting 14

because we were in a place that means a lot to us, working on a problem that was very interesting.”

The plane circled the lake’s periphery and West Thumb area repeatedly, sometimes flying at the white-knuckle altitude of 150 meters above the water. “I spent most of the day kneeling by the LiDAR, which was mounted over a hole in the plane’s floor,” Shaw comments. “To communicate with park staff on the ground, I stuck my hand through the hole and held the radio antenna outside, below the plane.”

LiDAR images from that day—some showing flecks of snow and ice—confirmed the known lake trout spawning locations and revealed an area in Yellowstone Lake’s remote southeast corner where invasive trout gathered to feed on juvenile cutthroat. The flights highlighted the effectiveness of airborne LiDAR mapping compared to mapping by boat. “Flyovers cover an area much faster and reach places that are extremely hard to reach by other means,” says former MSU graduate student Michael Roddewig.

Yellowstone LiDAR flights have continued from 2004 to the present. Roddewig participated from 2012 on; he reports that LiDAR instruments are more compact now, and a smaller Cessna 185 plane can be used. Last year’s flyovers led to a significant discovery, something the group had never seen before. “When I looked at the images,

I got pretty excited,” says Roddewig. “For the first time, we were able to report LiDAR detection of thermal vents in Yellowstone Lake.”

Today, nonnative trout continue to be removed from the lake and elsewhere by gill netting and conventional fishing, and it appears that native Yellowstone cutthroat trout may be starting to rebuild. Shaw hopes to receive funding to support future LiDAR flights.

Shaw and his colleagues are magnets for creative projects, one example being the development of an optics-based mathematical model to explain color changes in Yellowstone’s thermal pools. “We’re always looking for ways to spend time in the park,” Shaw notes. He now heads Montana State’s Optical Technology Center, and the Bozeman area has become home to a growing number of optics-related companies.

Biologist Pat Bigelow has worked with Shaw and his group from the beginning, and is as adept at gill netting as she is at delivering a scholarly paper. When asked if there’s a new direction or project that she’s considering, Bigelow didn’t hesitate for a moment. “You know, if I could do anything I wanted, I would do exactly what I’m doing.”

Barbara Lee’s stories have appeared in publications such as Montana Outdoors, Timberline Review, and Outside Bozeman. She spends each fall as a Yellowstone Forever volunteer near Gardiner, Montana.

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NPS INTERVIE W

Pat Kenney

Deputy Superintendent Unlike a lot of Yellowstone employees who came to the park as kids, Pat Kenney says, “I didn’t do the station wagon trip to the western national parks.” Though he visited a few times as an adult, the new deputy superintendent brings a fresh perspective to the world’s oldest national park. We caught up with Kenney during his first summer in the park.

What is your role like at Yellowstone?

When did your passion for the outdoors begin?

Coming from a smaller park, how did you get up to speed in Yellowstone?

Since the superintendent works mostly on the overall big picture, the deputy’s job is managing the day-to-day operations of the park. I supervise the division chiefs and help balance the protection of resources with quality visitor experiences.

I loved the outdoors and wildlife as a kid and originally went to college with the goal of being a veterinarian, but found I was more interested in ecology, so I changed my focus.

That decision also changed my life, because I met my wife Dyanne in ornithology class; we were lab partners. On our first date we collected insects for my entomology class that semester. When I graduated, we headed to Florida and I worked for an environmental nonprofit and the state environmental agency. Because there is something special to me in the idea that we, the public, can go visit our lands, I really wanted to work for a land management agency.

Through those early nonprofit and state jobs, I was able to create relationships that led me to the National Park Service and Big Cypress National Preserve.

I was lucky that I arrived in January, so I had some quiet time to get adjusted. But I found the best way to see the issues was to go out into the park during work and on my personal time. It was really important to go as a visitor, not in uniform, so that I can see Yellowstone as the public sees it. There are a lot of challenges that come with 4.2 million visits, and seeing them firsthand helps you understand the impacts on the near- and long-term preservation of the park. Also, I have been getting out in the park and meeting with the employees.

It is really good for me to hear directly from them about their jobs and the issues they face.

Is this your first time working with a partner like Yellowstone Forever?

How have your previous roles set you up to succeed in Yellowstone?

Yellowstone is fortunate to have a professional partnership with Yellowstone Forever. At the previous parks I have worked with partner organizations, but not at this scale. So to see the resources Yellowstone Forever provides, both through financial and in-kind support, is quite astounding. Being able to deliver at such a high level, they play a critical part in allowing us to enhance the visitor experience and improve resource preservation. We are very fortunate.

I’ve been in the National Park Service for almost 27 years.

At Big Cypress I was a natural resources specialist working on habitat restoration and also overseeing non-federal oil and gas projects—a great balance of preservation and regulation. From there I went to the Denver Service Center, where I got the chance to work on planning efforts at many different parks and see the issues facing our public lands.

Most recently, I was the superintendent of Cape Lookout National Seashore. While there, I awarded a concession contract for a new ferry service and developed the infrastructure to support it; created an off-road vehicle management plan; and partnered with the town of Beaufort, North Carolina, to create a new visitor center and gateway to the park. I feel very honored and fortunate to bring my experience to Yellowstone, which is truly on the world stage.

What do you like to do in the park?

I love to hike and have gone for a few hikes, but I haven’t been out as much as I had hoped. Of course I enjoy driving around spending time seeing the wildlife and visiting the geyser basins.

These are the typical things that visitors do in Yellowstone.

However, I have always enjoyed finding the subtler things that make our park special. At Yellowstone it is great to spend an evening up on Swan Lake Flats, listening to the snipe and watching the Milky Way appear. So I am looking forward to continuing to explore and get to know Yellowstone better.

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N AT U R A L I S T N OT E S

Winter Adaptations

By Owen Carroll, Resident Instructor

It is one of those days when I wonder why I am even outside; it is cold, about –10°F with a steady chill breeze. The snow squeaks as I walk across it and the puny insulation in my ski boots is all too apparent. Animals have evolved some impressive adaptations to survive these kinds of conditions. While the image of a frost-coated bison cratering through the snow may first come to mind as an example of winter adaptation, there are fascinating things going on below the surface of the snow as well.

Once snow reaches a depth of only 6–8 inches, it is possible for a microclimate to exist that insulates against sub-zero air and maintains temperatures right around freezing. While this is still a level of cold most of us would rather avoid, it is a veritable boon for small animals. This space is called the subnivean zone, and a whole host of organisms has evolved to take advantage of this phenomenon.

Voles and shrews tunnel through the faceted, grainy snow close to the ground while relying on constant feeding to burn enough calories to offset the rapid heat loss that results from having a tiny body. The shrews feed on arthropods that produce alcohol or sugars that serve as antifreeze, while other creatures like some beetle, fly, and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) may actually produce compounds that encourage ice to form in the space outside of their cells. Both strategies allow, in ideal conditions, these organisms to survive freezing conditions. While shrews and rodents scurry about looking for food, a white-coated ermine may in turn pursue them. It, too, must eat voraciously to offset heat loss.

The extreme cold of winter in Yellowstone is daunting, to say the least. That such small creatures are so better equipped to this task than my boot-clad feet is truly amazing!

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F L O R A & FAU N A

Great Gray

Subalpine

Fir

By Barbara Lee Art Maria Bisso

Naturalist John Muir wrote that everything in nature is connected, and you couldn’t find a better winter season connection than the one between Yellowstone’s animals and a life-giving tree called “subalpine fir.”

Adapted to altitude and extreme cold, this tree provides shelter to numerous creatures, and species from moose to chickadee escape starvation by feeding on its seeds, needles, or inner bark. Spot subalpine fir by its erect cones, spire-like crown, and ground-sweeping lower branches.

Owl

By Barbara Lee Art Maria Bisso

Register for Summer Field Seminars

In the Harry Potter series, Errol is a great gray owl known for his crash landings.

In real life, the great gray is a highly skilled predator with nearly silent flight and ultra-acute hearing, famous for diving head-first into snow to nail rodents with pinpoint accuracy. Look for this huge owl—North America’s largest—with the whitish mustache in Yellowstone’s mixed forests bordering meadows or open spaces, especially at dawn and dusk.

Next summer, see the park you love through the eyes of the experts!

Supporter registration for Yellowstone Forever Institute Field Seminars begins January 31, 2018, and includes $15 off tuition. From wildlife biology to photography and hiking excursions, we have a program to suit every interest. Look for our 2018 summer catalog on Yellowstone.org soon!

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SUPPORTERS

MANY THANKS! We wish to acknowledge those who contributed to Yellowstone Forever between July 1, 2017, and August 31, 2017. Because of space constraints, the following list includes contributions of $1,000 or more and Special Tribute gifts. Your support — regardless of size — plays a critical role in connecting people to Yellowstone.

YELLOWSTONE SOCIETY $10,000 – $24,999 Gale and Shelby Davis Jacqueline and Jay Lauderdale Kim and Dennis Worsencroft $5,000 – $9,999 Sue and Bill Bettman Claire Campbell and Brian Makare Chris and John Cavanaugh* Elizabeth and Greg Gerhard Elizabeth and Daniel Hennessy

Virginia and C.R. Belknap

Frederick Fox

Natalie and Warren Bergholz*

Janet and Churchill Franklin

Brock Binford*

Helga Gaffron

Sherry Black

Janet Gardner

Victoria and Iain Bonner*

Vicki Marx and Warren L. Garner

Barbara and Philip Brandhuber

Tanya and Jerry Gee*

Karen and Kenneth Buchi

Donald Gibe*

Jill and William Carlberg*

Erin Gibson and Matthew Wallace*

Debbie and Raymond Carlin*

Sharon and Edward Gillum

Jennifer and Chad Carlson

Margaret and William Gleghorn*

Susan and Ronald Carney

Linda and Marshall Glenn

Patricia Carocci

Eugene Gordon

Erna Smeets and Bill Simkins*

Deborah Caruso and J.D. Davis*

Peter Graef

$2,500 – $4,999 Aida Araissi and David Phillips

George Cero*

Maurie and William Gray*

Meryl Charles

Kathleen and William Grubbs*

David Burday

Aimee Christian

Anita and James Guyette

Joy Carlough

Barbara and Stephen Claiborn

Julie Haight-Curran*

Katherine Cattanach and David Charles

Grace and John Cogan*

Madeline Hall*

Jeanne and Dave Collins*

Julie and John Hamre

Lucy and Harold Fredrickson

Leslie and Thomas Croyle*

Deborah and Phillip Harwood

Judith and Robert Hoy

Lisa and Jim Cummings*

Laura Hastings

Barbara and John Nau

Kristin and Jeff Dahl*

Debbie and Albon Head*

Mary Steinberg

Edward D’Alelio

Jean and Joseph Hedrick*

Hazel and Jay Stevens*

Jack Daniels*

Kelly and James Herman*

Sandra Carrell Tremblay and Dale Tremblay

Betsy De Leiris

Michelle Hillery*

Jill and Lewis Wilks

Rebecca Ditch and Donald Penn

John Hoppe*

Theresa and Richard Dixon

Gail and Robert Jacobs

$1,000 – $2,499 Margaret and Melvin Andrews

Muriel Drewitz

Ann Jochens

Patty and Tom Durham

Carolyn and Steven Jones

William Andrews* Tracy Arthur* Janice and Travis Atterberry Catherine Aves Eric Bagelmann Marcia Bartlett* Robin Bateman Joan Baxter

Michal Dusza

Elizabeth Jones*

Debbie Eddlemon

Julie and Roger Keaton*

Jennifer and Tim Edwards*

Elizabeth and Ronald Kellogg

Margaret and Randall Ellenz*

Suzanne King

Nancy and Pete Etheridge*

Susan and Peter Klock*

Lynn Evans*

Katherine Korba and Ray Laible*

Sharlene and Michael Evans

Karrie and Christopher Lang*

Julie and Robert Flaschenriem*

Sue and Roger Lang

Walter Fock

Pamela Little and Howard Anderson*

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Nancy and Paul Limbach*

Sharon and Richard Schaefer

Ben Lunsky*

Mary and Brett Schat-Beimers*

Carolyn and Bill Dempsey

Jerome Mage*

Roberta and William Scherer

In honor of Wally and Clara Henrickson

Shirley and Robert Mahoney*

Patsy and Bob Schlieter*

Bonita and John Antrim

Timothy and Brandon Manka-Clemons

Susan Sewell*

Donna and Ivan Marcotte

David Shimp

Kathleen and Bryan Marsal

Emily and Paul Singer

Maryanne and Timothy Mayeda

Harnek Singh and Ishinder Kaur*

Laura and Robert McCoy Paul Mensch* Julia Merry* Kathy and Roy Meyer Robyn Meyer* Linda and Mathew Millenbach* David C. Miller* David R. Miller* Kathy and Robert Millwee Yvette Montiel and Richard Schafer* Cristina Moody* Dick Moore* William Morris Sylvia Morrison Ken Mutell* Jeanne and Jonathan Nauman* Sandy and Terry Netzley* Margaret and John Neverka Maureen and Ronald Nichols* Andrew Nicklawsky* K.E. Niedner* Elizabeth and Robert Noble Jeanette and Michael Norte* Carolyn and Jerry O’Connell Holly and Carlos Ortiz* Doreen and Lee Packila* Biba and Jonathan Parker* Anne Pendergast* Norma and Robert Placensia* Deborah and Dale Pope* Daria and Tony Pori Wendi and Terry Proffitt* Anne and David Radke Peggy Ray* Esperanza Rebollar* Mary and William Redmond Darren Rhinehart* Peggy and Chris Rice* Reuben Rich Evelyn Rose and Sharon Nadeau* Lisa Rosenfield Carolyn Rosin* William Savage Andrea Sayles

In honor of Stella DiPasqua

In honor of Carolyn and Scott Heppel

Aimee Christian In honor of Ben Howland

Rosa Crocker In honor of Geoff and Carolyn Krone

Trent Sizemore*

Jim Krone

Tamara Smith Lynette and Mark Sodja Susan and Edward Steiner Amy Stephan and Mike Mohan* Marie and Frank Stephens Susan Sterchi and David Moore* Janet and Daniel Stone* Nancy Stovall*

In honor of Melanie Partow and Laith Al Mawsawi

Lynne Annis In honor of Genevieve Miner

Linda Miner In honor of Bob Lee and Evelyn Roberts Parker

Norman Roberts In honor of Charlie Pyle

Rebecca Ditch

Curtis Tamkin Christopher Tan*

In honor of Kathy Shoesmith

Cindy and James Thompson

Merlin Shoesmith

Martha Thompson*

In honor of Dan Wenk

Dottie and Mike Tilotson* Carol Tolan

Rosa Crocker In memory of Bella

Judith Tor

Lisa Lloyd

Edwina Trout* Catherine and Stan Uchiyama Emily and Jonas Van Aken* Nissa and Stephen Van Riper* Margaret Good and Thomas Von Lehman Jennifer and Ken Voorhis* Dee and Jay Welch* Nancy and Richard Welch* Norma and Kirk Westervelt* Heather White and David Diamond* Shirley and Richard Wilson Jesslyn Witte

In memory of Sylvia Bell

Lynne Annis In memory of Jamis “Jim” Bente

Nancy Eiff In memory of Thomas Bertetti

Yorhany Ortiz In memory of Leonard E. Bergman

Connie and Alan Bergman In memory of C. Richard Brown

Lynette and Calvin Johnston, Colleen and Des Coghlan, Marlene and Patrick Foard In memory of Hugh Campbell

Virginia Wolfe* Suzanne and David Worley*

Mary Campbell

Janet Wrestler and Randall Eckhoff*

The families of Girl Scout Troop 76114

In memory of Peggy Carlson

Ann Wright Catherine and John Zammito *Yellowstone Guardian—our sustainable monthly giving program

In memory of Ruby Clara and Alan Gardner

Janet Gardner In memory of Jerald Fletcher

The following donors made a contribution as a tribute to someone or something special in their lives.

SPECIAL TRIBUTE DONORS

Mary Brandt, Dolores Curry, Trina Wafle, Kathy Boyde, Vicki Auch, Lou McCord, Cornelia Petritz, Rosalyn Claret, Tom Witt, Barbara Jones, Ellen Goldman, Michael Mills

In honor of The Chicas

In memory of Elaine L. Grulke

Nance Torrence, Gaye Miller, Jeff Curtin

Glenda Johnson In honor of Alfonso DiPasqua

Carolyn and Bill Dempsey

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In memory of Oskar and Eleanor Henke

Russ Henke In memory of Nathaniel “Nate” David Herrington

Winfred Tan, Maria Essig, Elaine and James Hild In memory of David Boyd Howard, Jr.

Sharon Brown; Sally Miles; William Baldauf; Charles, Sherry, and Mary Van Beke; Joe Howard; John Booth; Carol DeCicco In memory of Donald McKenney

Laura Avit In memory of Margaret Neverka

John Neverka In memory of Bunny Nuss

Bethel and Orlynn Halladay, Sally Sellers In memory of Bernard “Bernie” Patriacca

Chris Eardley, Patrick Keffer, Audrey Holmes, Stephen Dmohowski, Thomas Hannon, Heather Rogers, Jim Brown, Patricia Nolan, Edward D’Alelio, Michelle Skidmore, Lawrence Gennari, Rick Braccia In memory of Steven Plon

Hal Friedman In memory of Betty Rohrbach

Kathy and Ed Fronheiser In memory of Barbara “Bobbie” Seaquist

David Marshall, Bethel and Orlynn Halladay In memory of Ed Stilwill

Toni Gannon In memory of Tim

Edward Burks In memory of Jack Wallgren

Anne Wallgren In memory of Sherrie Lynn Weinstein

Walter Weinstein In memory of Anne Whitbeck

Helen Whitbeck, Randy Paulson In memory of Jonathan Ryon Witte

Jesslyn Witte

Every effort has been made to ensure that this list is accurate and complete. We apologize if your name has been omitted or otherwise improperly reported. Please contact us at 406.848.2400 if you feel this is the case so we can correct our records.

Join the Yellowstone Society The Yellowstone Society is our community of loyal philanthropic supporters who give $1,000 or more annually (or $84 per month) in support of park education and preservation. Society supporters enjoy a suite of special premiums, including invitations to exclusive in-park events and name recognition on the digital Honor Wall at the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center (for a period of one year).

To join, call Shelly Siedlaczek, director of Yellowstone Society, at 406.848.2853.

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PO Box 117, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190 406 | 848 | 2400 Yellowstone.org

Yellowstone.org

Join the Yellowstone Community!

Whether you’re in Yellowstone or at home, we can help you stay connected to the park you love! Check out our website for park updates, tips for planning your next trip, or shop our online Park Store. Subscribe to our email list for the latest park news and ways to get involved, or follow us on social media at @YNPForever.