From the monthly archives: August 2006

“Lodgepole and fire go way back. It is a tree comfortable with fire. Yes, lodgepole has been burned before but still invites the old flame over to spend the night. Should fire be unavailable or otherwise preoccupied, lodgepole turns to another old friend to heighten the allure: the mountain pine bark beetle.”

Lodgepole […]

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Although wolves are probably biologically recovered in Idaho and Montana, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are tied together. None of the states can have the wolf delisted until all three states have federally approved wolf conservation plans. Idaho and Montana have theirs approved and are managing the wolves with minor federal oversight.

Wyoming’s governor and state […]

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Last year there was a story of how a grizzly bear drove polar bears off a whale carcass on the Arctic Ocean. Grizzlies are showing up way north of the past range.

Here is similar news from the Anchorage Daily News. Read

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“In the western United States, researchers recently confirmed the fire season is getting longer, with large fires starting both earlier and later in the year.” Read the article in the Missoulian.

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So what is happening with the wolves in Yellowstone Park? Here is a complete update. The information came mostly from Dr. Doug Smith, head of the Yellowstone wolf project. We talked, and I wrote it down, and interpreted it based on my knowledge of the packs.

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“We barely hung on. . . ”

But they did, read about it in on the government web page, Boise Large Fire Update. Aug. 30

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Maybe posts on Aug. 25 made it sound like everything was going to burn up. So?

Well, calm and cooler weather made the fires “lay down.” They are still there spreading slowly where their edges have not been contained. However, higher temperatures and strong winds are predicted 8/30 in advance of a cold front. It […]

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Sublette County, WY — Pinedale, Cora, Boulder, Daniel, Big Piney — is the biggest wolf death black hole in the West.

This formerly scenic area in the upper Green River, now with polluted air and and wide open spaces ripped up by the natural gas drillers, has seen the death of 14 wolves this year. […]

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The Trailhead Fire nearly Stanley, Idaho is hardly the only wildfire in Idaho. Idaho currently has more forest fires than any other state. Thick smoke covers about half the state. There are a number of fires larger than the Trailhead, and they have been very active.

Read more in the Challis Messinger. By Todd Adams. […]

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The “Trailhead fire” comes boiling over the top of the Sawtooth Range into Stanley Basin.
Copyright Lynne Stone

The mountains around Stanley Basin and the Sawtooth Valley, Idaho, have, in recent years, witnessed a huge die-off of lodgepole pine. This relatively short-lived pine is plenty flammable even when it is green. When […]

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Quote

‎"At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour."

~ Edward Abbey