Foot of the Andes

In two weeks I’ll be embarking on a Nature Conservancy fellowship to Patagonia in Argentina. The Conservancy is doing groundbreaking work with sheep ranchers to conserve Patagonia’s expansive grasslands, and this fellowship is an opportunity to learn more about the work and lend a hand.

I’ve done a bunch of reading and imagining ahead of this journey. The reading has ranged from technical TNC stuff to Bruce Chatwin’s classic In Patagonia. I've constructed a mental collage, a patchwork of images, anecdotes, data, conjectures, and comparisons for a place I've never been.

My picture is of a place a lot like Idaho, but super-sized and untamed. Like Idaho's sagebrush steppe, the Patagonian grasslands comprise a vast high desert landscape bumping up against the foothills of big mountains. (Although Mt. Borah at 12,662 feet might be considered a rung on the ladder to Aconcagua at 23,841 feet.) The town where I'll be, Bariloche, is about halfway between the equator and the South Pole, a mirror to Boise's 43 degrees north latitude.

In Chatwin's book, he visits the house that Butch Cassidy built in Patagonia after leaving the U.S. with the Sundance Kid. Though I'm not on the run for bank heists -- like the one he pulled in Montpelier, Idaho in 1896 -- I wonder why Cassidy chose this place and what he thought he'd find. How far off were his imaginings? How far off are mine? I'll keep you posted.

-- Bas Hargrove

Extinction

There's a popular saying among conservationist: "Extinction is forever."

Which is true, of course. Usually.

I well remember reading about the "extinction" of black-footed ferrets. I could not have imagined that 30 years later I would be watching wild ferrets run around at my feet. You can read how this is possible in today's blog for Cool Green Science.

Naturalists have often approached extinction in curious ways. Even into the early 1800s, many astute observers (including Thomas Jefferson) considered extinction to be a biological impossibility.

Later, when extinction was established as fact, many naturalists did not consider conservation to be realistic. Instead, they rushed off to "collect" the last remaining specimens for museums and collections, as recounted in Mark V. Barrow Jr.'s excellent book Nature’s Ghosts: Confronting Extinction from the Age of Jefferson to the Age of Ecology.

William Hornaday traveled west to shoot some of the last remaining wild bison for museum exhibits. He unapologetically killed as many as he could. He considered their extinction inevitable, and as such believed that the public should at least be able to see them in museums.

In later years, Hornaday had a change of heart. He later became one of the key figures in saving the bison.

Fortunately, conservationists have come a long way. Or have they? Sure, they no longer rush off to shoot the last remaining individuals of a species in the name of science.

But read many environmental magazines or blogs, and you'll find a gloomy inevitability about extinction. It all seems so...hopeless.

Fortunately, there are many stories of hope, with the ferret being a prominent example. Consider also the history of many species we today take for granted--wild turkeys, peregrine falcons, elk.

And read the excellent tales on Jane Goodall's web site and in her book Hope for Animals and Their World--full of examples of people restoring nearly extinct species, often against very long odds.

The risk of constant pessimism among conservationists is that it leaves young people and the general public with the sense that there is nothing that can be done. And that's simply not true, as those wild ferrets prove.--Matt Miller

Photo: Black-footed ferret by Jon Hall, Mammalwatching.com

Public Lands Foundation Honors Upper Snake River Partnership

The Upper Snake River Land Conservation Partnership received the Public Lands Foundation’s (PLF) Landscape Stewardship Award and Citation during a ceremony at the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Idaho Falls District Office today.

Accepting the award were Mark Elsbree, vice president and northwest director of The Conservation Fund; Chet Work, executive director, and Babette Thorpe, land protection director, for the Teton Regional Land Trust; and Laura Hubbard state director of the The Nature Conservancy in Idaho.

Each was presented with a plaque and citation by Deane Zeller, PLF Idaho state representative.

The foundation grants this recognition to honor private citizens and organizations that work to advance and sustain community-based stewardship on landscapes that include, in whole or in part, public lands administered by the BLM.

In 1998, The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy and the Teton Regional Land Trust formed The Upper Snake River Land Conservation Partnership with BLM in response to imminent threats of subdivision and resort development, the great potential of many conservation projects across a large geographic scope, and the diversity of landowners along the Snake River corridors and Henry’s Lake.

Through the efforts of these organizations, approximately 91 privately owned properties, many of them working farms and ranches, have been protected through purchase of 10,300 acres of fee estate and 14,500 acres of conservation easement.

Thus far, the partnership has leveraged approximately $57 million from diverse funding sources including BLM LWCF appropriations and BLM Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act funds, the Bonneville Power Administration wildlife mitigation fund, the National Resource Conservation Service’s Wetland Reserve and Farm/Ranchland Protection Programs, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s North American Wetland Conservation Act funds, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and landowner donations.

Partial donations by land owners, nonprofit conservation partners, and charitable contributions totaling about $4.5 million have allowed the BLM to stretch LWCF appropriations.

Additionally, the partnership is using a combination of acquisition strategies to assist the BLM. The nonprofit partners also have augmented the BLM’s limited acquisition and legal staff.

And, they provide negotiation experience and skills to facilitate complex and sensitive acquisitions, ensure that the needs of landowners and the BLM are met, provide a qualified legal staff to craft conservation easements and fee-title acquisitions acceptable to landowners and the BLM, and assist the BLM with conservation easement stewardship issues.

The nonprofit organizations collaborate as a team with the BLM to acquire key properties from willing landowners to secure and preserve open space and public recreational access within Areas of Critical Environmental Concern.

They also participate in the long-term stewardship responsibilities of conservation easements, maintain landowner relations, cooperate in annual conservation easement compliance visits, and assist in preparing conservation easement stewardship reports.

According to Zeller, “The purpose of this program is to recognize and call public attention to individual and group efforts, to promote collaboration by a broad range of participants to achieve shared natural resource protection and enhancement goals, and to call attention to the many values and management needs of the Nation’s National System of Public Lands.”

The Public Lands Foundation is a national non-profit organization, which is made up predominately of retired Bureau of Land Management employees, that advocates and works for the retention of the National System of Public Lands in public hands, professionally and sustainably managed for the responsible common use and enjoyment of the American people.

Photo: Laura Hubbard, state director for The Nature Conservancy in Idaho, and Chet Work, executive director of the Teton Regional Land Trust, with their award plaques.

Out of Yellowstone

Here's a new film on the Conservancy's conservation efforts in the Greater Yellowstone region. We hope you enjoy it.

Winter Wildlife Chronicles: Bear Underground

Over the past four years, I've run two marathons and nine half marathons. That involves a pretty significant amount of training time. But even with all this running, if I take a few weeks off, my stamina decreases. My legs aren't as strong. In some ways, I have to start building up my endurance all over again.

Most of us know this and understand this. If someone is confined to a bed, their muscles atrophy and bones weaken. When it comes to the human body, it really is "use it or lose it."

Not so for black bears.

As Bernd Heinrich describes in his excellent book Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, black bears can spend five months in a den, without eating and almost entirely immobile--and not lose muscle mass or bone strength.

Heinrich is fascinated by the bear's adaptations. He's an accomplished scientist and writer, who is also that rarity among biologists today: a skilled field naturalist. He also happens to be a record-setting ultra-marathoner, so he understands the physiology of exercise.

Bear hibernation is not easy to categorize. Bears are immobile, but they can awaken easily--a fact that makes studying bear hibernation quite difficult.

Heinrich writes that bears, unlike most hibernating mammals, don't lower their body temperature. They maintain a high metabolic rate. And despite this, they do not need to drink or urinate all winter.

Biologists have found that black bears metabolize their urea into nontoxic creatine, and nitrogen wastes are recycled back into protein.

But that still doesn't explain how bears remain, as Heinrich calls them, the "ultimate couch potatoes." How can bears lie inactive all winter long, and spring out of their dens in fine physical shape? It does not seem like it should be possible. The fact is, much about their physiology remains unknown.

Biologists are refining ways to work with black bears in winter (above, Conservancy staffer Justin Petty participates with an Idaho Department of Fish and Game winter bear survey). But even with these high-profile mammals, there is still much to be learned.

What we do know is that in dens around Idaho, right now, bears are lying--not quite asleep, not quite awake, not eating or drinking but not suffering from starvation or thirst, not moving but able to move quite well. --Matt Miller

Silver Creek Intern's Report, Part 3

Note: This is the final part of Silver Creek Preserve intern Dominique Lucio's report on his summer internship with The Nature Conservancy (read part 1 and 2). We appreciate all the assistance that Dominique and other interns provide on the preserve. They're helping to ensure that it remains one of the great spring creeks of the West.

Maintenance
As I mentioned previously, it takes a lot of work to keep the Preserve running smoothly. As temperatures rose and constant spring showers soaked the valley, the Preserve’s trails quickly became overgrown with grasses and branches.

Though the work was thankfully divided between the four interns, there was plenty of grass to weed whack and branches to trim. Some trails were no longer even visible, and had to be repeatedly cleared over the summer.

As I became acquainted with the flora of the Preserve, it became increasingly obvious that several invasive species such as Canadian thistle, houndstongue, and yellow iris were outcompeting native species, and needed to be stopped. Luckily the Preserve hosted several volunteer spray days where people on foot and ATVs covered the nasty invaders with herbicides targeting the specific species.

Though these days were certainly invaluable, weed spraying was a constant. Fishermen frequently reported new patches of thistle to spray, and interns would respond in Tyvec suits and three gallon backpacks of herbicide.

Other summer-long projects included pulling up and disassembling (think sledgehammer) old wooden and barbed wire fences on the Preserve and at other Nature Conservancy properties such as the Flat Ranch and Soldier preserves. For two days I designed a stencil and painted The Nature Conservancy logo on the side of the Preserve’s several canoes.

Other routine maintenance duties included cleaning the office and other facilities. Once a week interns cleaned the three preserve outhouses, which generally weren’t as bad as expected. Daily responsibilities included cleaning and refilling snail wash stations with natural citrus soap to keep invasive New Zealand mud snails out of Silver Creek.

One of the messiest and most hilarious projects I have ever worked on took place over the course of three days, in which three other interns and I dug up underwater patches of reeds and marsh grasses and transplanted them by the truckload to edges of the creek where the channel widens and heats up. By the end of each day we were completely drenched in mud and exhausted beyond caring about appearances, but we felt proud to have helped narrow the stream and hopefully better conditions for the wildlife.

Public Relations
The aspect of the internship I most dreaded at the beginning of the summer, public relations, turned out to be one of the most fun.

I greatly enjoyed accompanying different groups on canoe floats down the creek, from children with disabilities to Nature Conservancy employees from across the country.

I was also able to help with staff retreat work days and a ladies’ appreciation day held at Stalker Cabin. It was at the visitor center that I met the most fishermen, learned the most about the local wildlife, and heard wild stories of moose sightings, midnight fishing, and canoe mishaps.

These interactions really gave me a sense of the Preserve’s importance to several diverse groups throughout the state.

Conclusion
This summer was one of the best and most educational of my life. Working with Dayna Gross and the interns, as well as the volunteers and in-town office members, was the best work experience I have encountered thus far in my developing environmental science career.

Though I regret to say I never got around to fly fishing, I feel like I more than made up for it with bird watching enthusiasm. Never before have I seen such numbers and variety of birds as I did at Silver Creek, from tiny sora and hummingbirds to massive great horned owls, harriers, and Swainson’s hawks.

Most of all I would like to thank Jack and Sara Blumenstein for setting up and continuing to support the internship.

The opportunity to spend a summer so imbedded in nature is the perfect way to introduce people to Charlie’s passion. I am extremely grateful to the Blumenstein family for funding this amazing opportunity, and would strongly recommend the internship to anyone interested in working on the beautiful preserve and meeting so many great people.

Silver Creek Intern's Report, Part 2

This is the second part of Silver Creek Preserve intern Dominique Lucio's report on his summer at the preserve. Today, he explains ecological monitoring, including electro-shocking fish.

Monitoring
The majority of the work I helped with this summer falls under the category of monitoring. The first type of monitoring was the Preserve’s bi-monthly transect water monitoring. This full-day job consists of visiting five points on the Preserve, two in the main current, and three in tributary creeks just before they meet Silver Creek.

At each point channel width and flow readings are taken. In addition to flow measurements, we took water temperature, and dissolved oxygen and pH levels. It was truly amazing watching the water levels rise and flow speeds increase as the spring turned to summer, especially since Silver Creek is entirely spring fed.

This means there is no snow melt to raise water levels; instead aquatic vegetation grows so dense and high that it literally pushes the water up and out. This plant life is also partially responsible for the booming fish population, since the trout feed primarily on insects that hatch in droves from the vegetation all spring and rise to the surface to mate, after which they fall into waiting mouths.

I also was introduced to temperature logger collection, downloading, and replacement. Essentially a small plastic device records temperature every few hours while submerged. On a monthly basis, I would collect these loggers, download the data they had collected to the Preserve’s computer, restart them, and place them back in the stream.

This data gives not only a sense of temperature change with the seasons, but also on a larger time scale, showing yearly trends and fluctuations. These loggers are also useful in showing whether or not projects such as water cooling through streamside willow planting are truly effective.

This summer a local group known as Idaho Water Engineering (IWE) began a project to map the entire aquifer system for the area in order to revise water rights as debate rises between groups with agricultural, residential, and conservation interests. I was able to help install anchor stations for their monitors on and off the Preserve. In my last two weeks on the Preserve, I was lucky to help a graduate student from Denmark check these stations and install a few more of her own. I also helped Maria gather several more transects to better understand the exchange between tributaries and Silver Creek itself.

The next type of monitoring was by far my favorite: electroshocking. When I first heard the term, I admit I pictured sticking electrified probes in the stream and counting the fish that floated up unconscious, but realistically I knew The Nature Conservancy would not allow anything of the sort.

Nonetheless, my expectations weren’t too far off. Daytime shocking took place in sections where the water was shallow enough to walk through. It consisted of several people with nets walking alongside a Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) raft that carried a generator which sent a current between chains it dragged and probes two FWS interns kept underwater ahead of the raft.

Fish are naturally drawn to the current they can feel in the water, and when they enter the current between the probes and the chain, they briefly stop swimming. It is in these few short seconds that we would scoop up the fish and drop them in large collection bins to be counted. This collection gives the Preserve and the FWS the best estimate of overall fish populations in the stream.

I was also able to help another intern map local stream sediment and vegetation types and levels. Because there is no springtime snowmelt to wash sediments downstream, silt and vegetation can build up, slowing the water’s flow, and in turn warming the stream.

Since Silver Creek’s trout prefer the constant cold temperatures of the spring fed system, increasing temperature can be a serious threat since it allows better suited brown trout to take over rainbow trout habitat.

For the entire month of June, Matt spent each day measuring bank vegetation type, stream width, depth, sediment depth, and sediment type. I was happy to help by heading out across the valley following creeks and measuring preset GPS points. This monitoring allowed me some of the best time to explore the region and its plethora of beautiful and complex habitats. Some days the deep water and sticky mud turned out to be quite adventurous as well.

Tomorrow: Read the final installment of Dominique's report.

Photo: Brown trout measured during electro-shocking surveys, by Matt Miller.

Silver Creek: An Intern's Experience

Each year, interns at The Nature Conservancy's Silver Creek Preserve play an important role in monitoring, maintenance and other tasks at the preserve. The interns gain practical experience in conservation, and get to spend a summer on one of the most spectacular spring creeks in the West. Intern Dominique Lucio (above, with orange gloves) was this year's Charlie Blumenstein Water and Wildlife Conservation Intern, a program with Colorado College. Over the next week, we'll share his reports of his summer at Silver Creek and the work completed.

As my third year at Colorado College came to a close, I realized I had no summer plans. Having decided to major in environmental science only months before, I started looking for a related job or internship. Beginning my search on the CC Career Center website, I immediately stumbled across The Charlie Blumenstein Water and Wildlife Conservation Internship.

The more I read, the more excited I became as I realized how well my background fit the position: I had just taken several classes on gathering and analyzing different aspects of the environment; here was a chance to apply this knowledge and develop a real world feel for it.

Still, the internship description was only a page long; I had no idea what “habitat restoration” and “participating in scientific research and monitoring” entailed. Looking back now, I am so glad I applied and was allowed the amazing opportunity to experience and participate in the front lines of nature conservation.

As I began the twenty four hour drive from my home in Fort Worth, Texas, my mind raced with anticipation and curiosity. When I arrived at the preserve the next evening, my expectations proved completely wrong. Being a Texan, I assumed anything as far north as Idaho must be cold until late summer. Instead I was greeted with a lush green valley between beautiful purple and blue mountains. Just past the Preserve was the town of Picabo, even smaller than I had expected.

The Preserve manager, Dayna Gross, told me to come to the office to get acquainted with the place before the fly fishing season began in two days and the place was overrun. Though I didn’t understand at the time how 883 acres of preserve could be overrun, I soon learned. More than eighty fishermen showed up that Sunday for the annual barbeque celebrating the opening of fishing season. For the next three months, the quiet preserve was filled with men and women of all ages and from across the world focused intently on figuring out exactly what fly each famously picky trout was or wasn’t interested in.

Though I hadn’t realized it beforehand, Silver Creek is a sort of fly fishing Mecca, world renowned for its unbelievable amounts of huge brown and rainbow trout. Because of this reputation, as well as the vibrant range of wildlife present, the Preserve draws flocks of fishermen, birders and nature enthusiasts alike, all summer long.

With all this foot traffic on the preserve, it takes some serious behind the scenes work to keep the preserve as undisturbed and pristine as it is.

Preserve staff work tirelessly year round to keep invasive weeds at bay, harmful snails out of the creek, water conditions just right for the famous fish, and habitats inviting to migratory and year round birds, deer, bats, insects, and many other plants and animals. Preserve responsibilities can be broken down into several categories: monitoring, maintenance, and public relations.

Tomorrow: Dominique's experiences electro-shocking and monitoring at the preserve.

Holiday Links

The weather outside is frightful--or turning that way--across much of Idaho. We'll be taking a blogging break for the holidays. Join us for more stories, news and nature notes resuming on January 3. In the meantime, here are some links for the season.

Great news in the Wood River Valley: Read about a great new purchase for conservation south of Bellevue.

Real or Fake Christmas tree? This Cool Green Science post explores which one is better for the environment.

Best and Worst Environmental Stories of 2010: Another Cool Green Science post, by Conservancy staffer Nicole Levins.

Year in Review: Ten great projects around the globe funded by Nature Conservancy members.

Grolar bears: What happens when you cross a grizzly with a polar bear? It's happened. And this Treehugger story suggests it might be happening more often in a warming future.

On behalf of the staff of The Nature Conservancy in Idaho, we wish you a joyous holiday season, and a new year filled with adventures in Idaho's great outdoors!

Review: Hope for Animals & Their World

Hope for Animals and Their World, Jane Goodall with Thane Maynard and Gail Hudson

Are you a “Debbie Downer” at your holiday gatherings, depressing family and friends with factoids about mass extinction events?

If so, maybe you need to sit by the fireplace with this collection. Primatologist Jane Goodall and others share inspirational stories of a long list of species brought back from the very edge of extinction by ingenuity, passion and hard work.

This is pretty light reading, but it’s a nice antidote to all the doom and gloom that dominates environmental news. The stories presented here show that it’s almost never too late to turn things around for wildlife, if we have the will and determination. The tales are well told and contain plenty of nuggets of good advice for conservation practitioners and naturalists.

We need to be telling the hopeful stories, too. This book offers a nice selection of those stories—perfect if you need a little holiday conservation cheer.

Deer Diet Redux

In my previous post, I wrote how eagerly deer feed on sagebrush, bitterbrush and other shrubs during the winter. Apparently, they also enjoy munching on a pumpkin or two.

This deer visited my backyard today (and stayed much of the morning). It's always amazing to see how adaptable wildlife can be.

Winter Wildlife Chronicles: Deer Diet

With the holidays approaching, many of us start to worry about running the gauntlet of tempting treats and massive meals that characterize so many celebrations. Come January, the gyms will be packed with those of us trying to shed those extra pounds we gained.

Let's be honest, though: Cookies, a full turkey dinner, or mug of hot chocolate are awfully comforting on a cold winter day.

And for good reason. Not so long ago in our evolutionary past, winter was a tough time. Losing weight was not a desirable outcome. Calorie-rich foods ensured survival.

It's still that way for mule deer. They need enough energy to make it through the long, cold winter.

At this time of year, mule deer move into valleys and low elevations (and even backyards, in the case of the one pictured above) to escape the heavy snow.

But to survive the winter, deer need nutritious plants. Cheatgrass, the non-native weed so common in foothills, has low nutrition value in the spring, when it is green. In the winter, it is worthless to wildlife, particulary when it's buried by a foot of snow.

Sagebrush, on the other hand, pokes out of the snow and is highly important to deer, elk, pronghorn, sage grouse and other wildlife.

Dr. Carl Wambolt of Montana State University reports that many big game species prefer sagebrush in the winter. One Montana study showed that sagebrush consisted of more than 50% of a mule deer's winter diet. A similar study for pronghorns found that sagebrush comprised 84% of their diet.

Other shrubs like bitterbrush, winterfat and salt brushes complement a mule deer's winter diet. Some biologists call bitterbrush "deer candy" because the animals go out of their way to eat it. (It can be very hard to establish these in an xeriscaped yard for this reason; the deer mow the plants down as soon as they're planted).

According to Bureau of Land Management botanist Roger Rosentreter, sagebrush is like the “meat and potatoes” of a mule deer’s diet in winter. Just as with human diets, a variety of foods helps deer stay healthier. Bitterbrush and other shrubs provide different nutrients to help the deer make it through winter.

“A mule deer diet of sagebrush and a little bit of bitterbrush is high quality winter forage,” says Rosentreter. “The deer prefer the bitterbrush but they will do very well if you have both. They compliment each other with proteins and nutrients. It also aids in deer digestion to have both.”

Protecting and restoring native plants ensures that deer can bulk up. This in turn makes it easier to survive heavy snowfall, parasites, predators and encounters with humans.--Matt Miller

McArthur Lake Forest Land Protected

McArthur Lake is where the wild things cross.

Each year, North Idaho elk, moose and other wildlife roam from the Selkirk and the Cabinet-Yaak Mountains. In between these large tracts of forest is McArthur Lake, located between Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry in the Idaho Panhandle.

For animals that need room to roam, McArthur Lake is a life line.

These lands are largely private forest land. They not only provide this vital wildlife habitat, they also contribute to the local economy. If these lands are developed, their values to wildlife would be lost forever.

That's why The Nature Conservancy is excited to announce with our partners the Idaho Department of Lands, U.S. Forest Service and Forest Capital Partners the protection of 3900 acres of private forest lands at McArthur Lake.

Forest Capital Partners will continue to manage the working forest for timber production, and the Idaho Department of Lands will hold the conservation easements. The Nature Conservancy participated in the negotiations and is the sponsoring land trust for the project.

Read more.

2010 Fishing Season

Photo courtesy of Nick Price

November 30 was the last day of fishing on the preserve!

What a season we had. It was an unusual weather year-- summer did not seem to come until late September. The hatches were all over the place with their timing and intensity-- I only saw a few mahongany duns in September but did see some trico hatches!! Then winter came with a bang. On the last day of fishing season, I am usually cruising the preserve, taking down signs, cleaning the outhouses and saying hi to people. This year, I spent the morning helping two of our local guides, Nick Price and Hunter Chruchill dig their suburban out of the snow. They made it out to fish, finally, and enjoyed an unusual winter day on Silver Creek.

Thanks to all of you for another great fishing season!

Green Gift Monday

Last year on Cyber Monday consumers spent nearly $890 million dollars online.

Imagine the difference we could make if just a fraction of that money was spent on responsible, meaningful holiday gifts.

That's the goal of Green Gift Monday. The Nature Conservancy and partners have come up with a variety of great gift ideas that also benefit the planet.

You can help: Green Gift Monday is being promoted by social media. If you blog, tweet or use Facebook, promote the idea of sustainable gifts. Throughout the holiday season, share your "green gift" ideas.

There are many resources on the official Green Gift Monday web site.

From all of us at The Nature Conservancy in Idaho, have a happy Thanksgiving!

Winter Wildlife Chronicles: Grouse

With snow covering most of Idaho today, we begin a new regular blog feature, chronicling "where wildlife goes when it snows."

Winter is a tough time for wildlife, as they struggle to save energy while often living in close proximity with humans. For conservationists, saving suitable winter habitat is one of the most important priorities.

In this feature, we'll look at the different needs--and often strange habits--of wildlife coping in the winter, and how conservationists can help.

This week, we focus on the interesting winter behavior of three Idaho grouse species. Many wildlife species move to escape the snow, often moving from snowy high elevations to the milder conditions found at low elevations. The dusky (or blue) grouse is unique: It actually spends the summer at lower elevations, and then migrates in the winter to the high, snowy mountains.

In the summer, these birds feed on forbs, insects and a variety of other foods. In the winter, though, there's no variety: They exclusively eat pine and fir needles (and only the outer two-thirds of the needle).

By moving to the high snowy mountains in the winter, the grouse avoid competition with the many species found in foothills and valleys. In short, they have their dinners all to themselves.

Another forest grouse species, ruffed grouse, also thrive in snow. As is the case for skiers, it's all about powder for these birds. Researchers have found that ruffed grouse actually burrow under the powder to escape cold temperatures.

Powdery snow has excellent insulating qualities; the grouse need at least eight inches to make a suitable burrow. The grouse create burrows in dramatic fashion--by diving into the snow from the air. The grouse can also escape quickly, flushing from the snow in an explosion of powder.

Sage grouse need sagebrush. It's as simple as that. In the winter, sage grouse eat sagebrush leaves almost exclusively. They also use big sagebrush as a shelter from snow and inclement weather.

Without adequate sagebrush cover, these grouse cannot survive the rigors of winter. That's why The Nature Conservancy has focused a lot of effort in protecting the high-quality sagebrush habitat that still exists in places like the Owyhees, Crooked Creek and the Pioneer Mountains.

Unlike many birds, grouse thrive in snow--provided they have the necessary food and cover provided by healthy, native plant communities.

Easement Protects Henry's Lake Ranch

Island Park -- Island Park, Idaho – A 700-acre working ranch vital for wildlife at Henry’s Lake will be protected through a permanent conservation easement. The 2-Lazy-2 Ranch, owned by the Steinke family since the 1970s, lies north and west of Henry’s Lake along Highway 87.

The Bureau of Land Management and The Nature Conservancy worked closely to purchase a conservation easement on the 2-Lazy-2 Ranch from the Steinke family.
Conservation easements are permanent legal agreements that protect important habitat from development, while ensuring that traditional ownership and land uses like ranching continue.

The property protects two major wildlife migration routes in the Yellowstone area. The ranch is used by elk, moose, pronghorn and a wide variety of other wildlife species.

Read more.

Photo by Sus Danner/TNC.

Video on Upper Salmon Project

"Life on the Range" is a new web site telling stories of Idaho's ranchers. The videos tell interesting stories and have high production values. The site is produced by well-known guidebook author Steve Stuebner and the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission.

The most recent piece features ranchers working for water conservation on the Lemhi River. The video includes information on the Conservancy's work in the valley, particularly the recent conservation efforts with long-time rancher Merrill Beyeler.

Turkey Time

It's that time of year again: when many of us turn our attention to a turkey dinner. It's also a good time to remember the conservation story of the wild turkey. It's hard to believe, but in the early 1900s, many believed turkeys would be gone forever. There were fewer turkeys in 1910 than there are polar bears or orangutans in 2010.

It's easy to become pessimistic about endangered species, but it's also important to remember that humans have achieved incredible conservation successes.

Our column this month on Down to Earth Northwest celebrates the turkey conservation story, and the hope that it provides for other endangered species.

Silver Creek in Fall: Moose & Elk

Fall is a great time to visit Silver Creek Preserve. This season, the large, hoofed critters are particularly visible.

Silver Creek neighbor Rick Buckley took these photos last week and graciously allowed us to use them here.

Moose are often easily seen on the preserve and surround fields. Please give them plenty of space: They can run much faster than you think. Many experienced outdoor enthusiasts consider them more dangerous from bears. Enjoy them, but from a distance.

There are still large herds of elk around, too. As always, the preserve is open and free for visitors; just sign in at the visitor center and then explore. It is private property, but a place that the Conservancy protects to that people like you can explore and enjoy. Don't forget your camera!

Review: The Tiger by John Vaillant

How do humans live in the presence of large predators?

Too often, overly simplistic sound bites from both sides of the debate obscure the answers. For a telling example, consider the level of dialogue around “wolf politics” in our state.

Lost amongst the overblown rhetoric are some excellent, thoughtful books on the topic: David Quammen’s Monster of God, Will Stolzenburg’s Where the Wild Things Were, Joel Berger’s The Better To Eat You With.

And now: John Vaillant’s The Tiger, a masterful story of people and a very fearsome predator coexisting—with great tension—in the 21st century.

The residents of the remote Russian Far East (it’s closer to Australia than Moscow) still live in and from the forest—logging, collecting herbs, hunting, fishing. These activities place them in close proximity with the Amur tiger, arguably the most fearsome beast still roaming the earth. Weighing in at more than 500 pounds, this is an animal that causes grizzly bears to run in terror.

That’s right. The boreal jungle (as Vaillant calls it) is a region where tigers compete with grizzlies, a place where “timber wolves and reindeer share terrain with spoonbills and poisonous snakes.”

Vaillant writes that “the bizarre assemblage of flora and fauna leaves one with the impression that Noah’s ark had only recently made landfall, and that, rather than dispersing to their proper places around the globe, many of its passengers had simply decided to stay, including some we never knew existed.”

I suspect I’m not alone, after reading such passages, in feeling the urge to head off to the Russian Far East and search for tigers and musk deer and the other strange creatures of the forest.

And yet: This is far, far from a dream destination for the region’s inhabitants. Life here is lived on the edge, for people and for tigers.

The story begins with a tiger killing a poacher, ostensibly out of vengeance. This very personal tragedy alone makes for a worthwhile book. But Vaillant tells it against a backdrop of larger forces that shape the destinies of local people and tigers: the still looming and often-violent political history, a desperate economy and the current mind-boggling pressures of globalization.

In a place where people work hard year after year for pitiful wages, is it any wonder that some turn to killing tigers? And is it any wonder that an animal as large and intelligent as a tiger might retaliate?

It’s a compelling book of death and survival in one of the most fascinating and difficult regions on earth. There are no easy answers here. But as conservationists--if we truly want a world where large predators still thrive in the wild--we need stories like this. Only when we deny the the seductive but too-easy world of talking points and sound bites can we really hope to save tigers--and the people who must live with them.

Count Aquatic Birds on the Boise River

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game Bird Program is looking for dedicated individuals interested in spending 1 morning a month from November through March counting aquatic birds (ducks, geese, herons) along the Boise River greenbelt.

Each month, the survey will take between 1.5 and 2.5 hours and are usually less than 2 miles in length. The Boise River has been identified as an “Important Bird Area” in Idaho, as it is home to thousands of wintering waterfowl every year.

Monitoring birds on this stretch of river is crucial in ensuring that it continues to be an important resource for birds. Unfortunately, no surveys were completed last year due to staff shortages and budget cuts. Join the quest to make sure that doesn’t happen again!

For those interested in joining this effort, IDFG will be hosting a special training session at the MK Nature Center in November.

When: Saturday November 13, 2010
Time: 8am – noon
Where: MK Nature Center
What: Training for surveying aquatic birds along the Boise River
1-2 hours of indoor training on aquatic bird ID and survey protocol
2 hours of outdoor training along the Boise greenbelt where you will put your indoor training to work! We’ll practice identifying birds and counting flocks.

Please Bring: Binoculars, comfortable shoes for walking on the greenbelt, warm clothes. ,

Note: You don’t have to be a excellent birder! We will teach you what you need to know! We will provide refreshments, coffee and tea.

Please indicate to Deniz Aygen if you will be attending the training or if you have questions. If we do not get enough people to sign up, we will cancel the training. Bring friends, spouses and neighbors!

RSVP to: deniz.aygen@idfg.idaho.gov and let her know you heard about this from Idaho Nature Notes.

Photo: Shoveler by Nature Conservancy volunteer Ken Miracle.

Kestrels & Dragonflies

This past weekend, two dragonflies flew into me in my front yard--a clear sign that these insects are migrating.

Migrating birds are easy to see at this time of year. They're recorded at "hotspots" like the Idaho Bird Observatory at Lucky Peak in the Boise Foothills. At the same time, dragonflies are also migrating through Idaho, particularly green darners.

These insects will migrate to the Southwest, where they will lay eggs and, most likely, die. The eggs will hatch and live underwater as nymphs. Eventually, these nymphs will pupate, and fly to Idaho as winged adults. How they know where to go remains a mystery.

Dragonflies migrate around the world; in fact, one of the longest migrations of any species is the 11,000-mile, round-trip migration of dragonflies from the Maldives to India.

Often dragonflies follow very similar routes to birds. It makes sense that they follow the same air currents and geographic features that make for easier flying. But is there more to these similar routes?

One researcher recently found that, around Lake Superior, there is a strong correlation between the American kestrel migration and the dragonfly migration. On days when few dragonflies migrate, few kestrels do.

It turns out that kestrels migrate high overhead in the morning, and then dip down to catch a few dragonflies as fuel during the afternoon.

What other birds follow the dragonflies? Do the kestrels that are common around southern Idaho at this time of year feed on them?

At times, it can seem that the world is fully explored, that there is little mystery remaining. But this is simply not true. As National Geographic begins its celebration of "Great Migrations" this month, it's obvious that there is still much about this phenomenon that we don't understand.

We're still finding new migration routes, even of large mammals like pronghorns. And the migrations of most dragonfly populations remain poorly understood.

Keep an eye out for dragonflies this month. And let us know if you see some kestrels following behind.

Photo: American kestrel at the Bureau of Land Management's Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. Photo by BLM.

Creepy-Crawly Things

It's Halloween, a perfect week to celebrate all those critters that make us shake, squirm and scream...

The Nature Conservancy has a special web feature, Spooky Science, on conservation projects that benefit things that go bump in the night. Check out a snake-sniffing dog, bats galore, spiders, the aptly named hellbender and even Idaho's very own terrifying trout.

I've also written a Cool Green Science post about the scary creatures that inhabit our world--and how much more scary it would be without them.

Have a happy Halloweeen week, and enjoy our cast of real-life creepy-crawlies. --Matt Miller

Roadkill

An unpleasant fact of life, a safety hazard, a good topic for humor? When it comes to dead wildlife on the road, we often don't know how to respond.

Consider the long list of tacky roadkill products--from cookbooks to theme restaurants to t-shirts.

And yet, most of us know that hitting a deer or moose is not a joke. More than 200 people each year are killed in such collisions.

Roadkill also represents another major threat: the threat to wildlife populations. Roads cut off migration routes, and kill large numbers of large mammals each year.

There is hope. The Nature Conservancy is working to protect wildlife habitat--keeping large mammals in the forest and off the highway--in places like the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem and North Idaho.

Other efforts, like the Freedom to Roam campaign, seek to protect vital migration corridors and to install wildlife-friendly road devices.

Read the latest installment of our column, A Natural Perspective, to learn what you can do to protect people and nature from the very real--and very unfunny--risks posed by wildlife-vehicle collisions.

Elk at Silver Creek

One of the interesting trends at Silver Creek is the increasing number of elk using the preserve throughout the year.

On a recent visit, I saw more than 200 elk on the preserve and on private lands adjacent to Silver Creek.

Drive slowly along Stocker Creek Road at dawn or dusk, and you have a good chance of seeing similar scenes.

As night falls, the preserve becomes an even more dramatic place, as the sounds of bull elk bugling echoes across the valley--from the aspens, from the meadows, from the Picabo Hills.

While the peak of the elk rut is past, you still have a decent chance of hearing some bugles if you visit the preserve soon. To my mind, it's one of the most dramatic sounds in nature.

As Wyoming resident Audrey Hagan says in this National Public Radio piece on natural sounds: "When I moved to Jackson Hole about twenty years ago and first heard an elk bugle, all of a sudden the fall was defined by the sound of an elk instead of the color of an elm tree."

Accompanied by the calls of cranes, ducks, geese, coyotes and owls, it creates what I call the Silver Creek fall symphony.

Big bulls like the one in the photo above jealously guard their harems. Their bugles advertise their dominance, and they continue throughout the night. There's little time for rest for a bull elk in autumn.

I watched and photographed this herd on the preserve for a while, but then something disturbed the elk--and they were off in a cloud of dust.

They didn't go far. Their bugling soon resumed across the preserve--yet another natural spectacle to enjoy at the preserve.--Matt Miller

Lemhi River: Agreements Protect Salmon Habitat, Ranchland

Leadore, Idaho – Two conservation easements along the Lemhi River near Leadore will protect nearly 2400 acres of salmon and wildlife habitat, tributary streams and working ranchland, The Nature Conservancy announced yesterday.

The conservation easements protect two ranches, and include some of the most important salmon habitat in the Lemhi valley. Both ranches will continue to be operated as working ranchland, with conservation plans in place to restore tributary streams, protect streamside vegetation and increase water flow to the Lemhi River.

Read more.

Silver Creek Video

Enjoy this short video about the Conservancy's partnership with MillerCoors at Silver Creek, aimed at improving water conservation on neighboring barley farms.

Bobcat

Nature Conservancy volunteer and photographer Ken Miracle sent these photos of a great wildlife sighting he had on the Boise River on Friday: a bobcat.

(Click on the photos to see larger versions).

Writes Ken: "I only had about an hour to fish today. Just as I finished loosing a fish I had hooked, ever so lightly, on a bullet head hopper there was a commotion on the other side of the river. This hunter had leapt in the river chasing a couple of ducks. Unfortunately the ducks got away and all he got was wet.

"He then proceeded to walk out on this log and sharpen his claws and dry himself off with his tongue and the sun. I spent my last 20 minutes of fishing time watching this bobcat. I only had our little pocket camera with me and it does not have a view finder so it was hard to get a good focus with the sun on the back screen Even though the catching was not the best I had a great hour on the Boise shared with one of my neighbors."
Bobcats are probably more common around Idaho than we think. They're secretive animals, spending most daylight hours resting in caves or hollow logs.

They're found widely in the state, from sagebrush to forests--and, obviously, even near our largest cities.

Biological Storm

Naturalists have long been fascinated by massive herds, flocks and swarms--the Serengeti wildebeest, the long-gone bison on the plains, incomprehensible bird flocks overhead.

However, much of the information we know about such phenomena appear to not bear much scientific scrutiny. A lot of recent thinking fits within in a "balance of nature," when in reality, perhaps, we should be speaking of the "chaos of nature."

I've recently read several pieces that capture the real complexity of super-abudant wildlife, what could be called "biological storms."

The first, by my friend and writer Stephen Bodio in Cornell's Living Bird journal, concerns the fate of the passenger pigeon. We all know that humans caused the extinction of the passenger pigeon, but did we also create its abundance?

This an excellent essay, one that raises many questions about our notions of the natural world, about change and inter-connectedness.

Bodio raises the possibility that burning by pre-European tribes may have helped create the super-abundance of the passenger pigeon--undoubtedly one of the greatest biological storms the Earth has ever seen, one that makes hurricanes and tsunamis seem mild by comparison.

Bodio writes of one flock that occupied the entire southern two-thirds of Wisconsin, a flock that consumed an estimated 210 million liters of food per day.

The composition of trees in forests and the fate of other birds like ivory-billed woodpeckers were both likely shaped by passenger pigeon flocks. Indeed, it's no exaggeration that these pigeons significantly shaped the ecological history of our continent.

This Living Bird piece led me to entomologist's Jeffrey Lockwood's celebration of cicadas from The New York Times.

Here is a species that still thrives alongside us in the eastern United States, in inconceivable numbers: Their waste alone would fill 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools a day. This cicada species remains dormant for 17 years, to noisily reemerge in a frenzy of feeding and breeding. When they die, they leave behind some 500 trillion eggs--and begin the cycle anew.

(By the way, Lockwood has also written one of my favorite books, Locust, which concerns another once super-abundant animal now gone from the plains).

Finally, salmon may not exist in such staggering numbers as passenger pigeons did and cicadas do.

But wild salmon from fisheries like Bristol Bay still provide an incredible amount of healthful food. Despite a thriving commercial fishery, we can still eat Bristol Bay's salmon without guilt--and indeed, we can eat them knowing we are helping to ensure their continued survival.

My counterpart in Alaska, Dustin Solberg, recently took a month off work to spend as a commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay. His essays on Cool Green Science offer a look into that life, and into the incredible abundance still swimming in Alaska--feeding not only humans but bears, eagles, belugas and an entire ecosystem.

That this incredible resource is under threat by a gigantic mine should concern us all. Let's not repeat the mistakes of the past. Read Solberg's posts and learn more about what you can do to help.--Matt Miller

Photo: Commercial salmon fishing by Dustin Solberg.

Red-Naped Sapsucker

Aspen groves are well-known for their value to wildlife. One of the many birds that use them extensively is the red-naped sapsucker.

My wife, Jennifer Miller, photographed these sapsuckers on a trip earlier in the summer to City of Rocks National Reserve. Throughout the aspens, the birds were feeding their young nesting in holes in aspen trees.

As their name suggests, sapsuckers do feed on sap--predominantly from willow trees. However, they don't suck sap, they peck the tree and then sip it. The tip of the sapsucker's tongue has small, hair-like projectiles that help it better lap the sap.

As with many birds, young sapsuckers need protein in the form of insects and other invertebrates. The adult sapsuckers we watched at City of Rocks brought plenty of insects to the constantly begging youngsters.

It was a great experience to watch these birds, from just a few feet away, squeeze into the hole and then reappear.

Hopefully, it's an experience future generations can enjoy. Aspen groves have been in steep decline, which appears to be related to climate change. Aspens provide habitat for not only sapsuckers, but also mule deer, elk and a large variety of birds.

Aspen trees are actually a community of clones--the grove is actually one organism growing from roots. As such, many consider the aspen grove to be the largest and oldest organism on earth. The "Pando" aspen colony in Utah is estimated to be 80,000 years old and weighs 6600 tons--making it the largest and oldest thing on earth.

Hopefully climate change actions can help save the aspen groves--and the species like red-naped sapsuckers that depend on them for their survival.

Another Big Brown

There have been some monstrous trout caught at Silver Creek Preserve this summer. Our Central Idaho conservation manager, Mark Davidson, shows a picture of one he recently caught--a 28.5 inch fish that he estimates could weigh 10 pounds.

It's not exactly a secret what prey these large, predatory fish are gobbling...

We've mentioned the vole population explosion several times already on this blog. It's really become a feeding frenzy at Silver Creek, and not just for the trout gobbling up rodents that fall into the water. There are huge numbers of raptors at the preserve. It's not unusual to see eight or more redtails overhead, with many more feeding or resting on fence posts and dead trees.

Voles populations are cyclical, and this year's wet spring seems to have created ideal conditions. Visit the preserve soon to see all the predatory birds. And if you fish, you may want to pack along a few mouse patterns!

Owyhee Land Acquisitions Announced

The Wilderness Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy have announced the acquisition of two properties in Owyhee County both in newly designated wilderness located adjacent to the Owyhee Backcountry Byway. Both property acquisitions will offer scenic desert canyons to public access and recreation.

The acquisitions are part of the on-going implementation of the Owyhee Initiative, a historic collaboration by local ranchers, Owyhee County, the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes, conservation groups and recreationists.

Today, the Wilderness Land Trust acquired a 611-acre property located on the North Fork of the Owyhee River, owned by long-time Owyhee rancher Mike Hanley.

The property will be transferred to the Bureau of Land Management to become part of the North Fork Owyhee Wilderness. It is located along the largest canyon that intersects the Owyhee Backcountry Byway, on Juniper Mountain Road.

It is also adjacent to the only developed campground on the byway. The property offers spectacular rugged canyon scenery in the heart of the Owyhees and over a mile of the North Fork Owyhee River for fishing, hiking and habitat protection.

Read more about these properties that will offer access to wilderness directly off the Owyhee Backcountry Byway.

Dusky Grouse

Mention Idaho wildlife migrations, and most think of animals "escaping winter": the southern flights of birds in the fall, mule deer and elk moving out of the high country into the mild valleys, bald eagles abandoning frozen lakes for open rivers.

This isn't the case for the dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) : This large bird spends the summers in low-elevation foothills, and then migrates into the deep snow of coniferous forests in the winter.

In the summer and early fall, it feeds on seeds, berries and small insects. In the winter, its diet is almost exclusively pine needles.

Now is obviously an easier time to see these birds, the third largest grouse in North America (after the two sage grouse species). They can be seen in low-elevation foothills like the Boise Front and the Bennett Mountains near Mountain Home (where this one was photographed), or in valley areas in Idaho's national forests.

There is some anecdotal evidence that dusky grouse are in decline in some regions. But more research is needed. Now is the time to determine if there are long-term declines. Once a population becomes endangered, recovery is much more difficult.

By the way, the name "dusky grouse" may be unfamiliar, as most know this bird as the "blue grouse." Recently, the blue grouse was split into two species--the "sooty grouse" of coastal regions and the "dusky grouse" that is found in the Intermountain West, including Idaho.