National Parks
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Yellowstone Park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis is reportedly very happy about the unexpected increase in the proposed budget. Maybe there are no strings attached, but I’m still looking for the privatization angle — will result be “Yellowstone brought to you by Haliburton?” Park officials thrilled about Bush’s proposed budget. By Mike Stark. Billings Gazette. Park plan…
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I know it’s hard to believe, but here it is in USA Today. President pushes boost in funding for national parks. $100 million a year would help restore services. By Richard Wolf
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This is a good column (published in New West). It doesn’t give any side of the issue a free pass, and is one of the first I have seen that looks carefully at Governor Freudenthal’s contradictory statements about wolves and big game. Freudenthal’s fundamental view of wolves: “This raises the interesting question of whether any…
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Various pine beetles are attacking pines all over North America with an extraordinary vengeance. In Yellowstone the high valued whitebark pine, which grows, and grows but slowly, at high elevations continues under attack. This pine is especially valuable to grizzly bears who eat its fat rich nuts in the fall to fatten up. In years…
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Wyoming group argues to keep Sylvan Pass open. By Mike Stark. Billings Gazette. Once you get east of Jackson, Wyoming, they don’t just disagree with policies, they compete in hyperbole to describe how much they disagree. “Closing Sylvan Pass in the winter, they said, would be a devastating blow and one they vowed to fight.…
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The annual count of elk on Yellowstone’s northern range is in. It remains low compared to years past, but is about the same as a year ago — 6,738 elk compared to about 6600 in the last count, 9 months ago. The Northern Range herd has always been controversial with its numbers called wildly excessive…
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There are too many bison in Jackson Hole, and the rate of infection with brucellosis is far higher than the much persecuted (by Montana) bison of Yellowstone Park. The problem is the winter feeding of the bison at the National Elk Refuge. The presence of the bison only complicates the already grave problem of feeding…
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Idaho is generally thought to be safe from the onslaught of the natural gas drillers, but in fact a portion of Eastern Idaho has the same geological structure as part of gas-rich Wyoming. The “Overthrust Belt” ranges of the Rocky Mountains run along the Idaho/Wyoming border. This intensely folded and even overturned area of thrust-faulting…