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 when the nut crop is plentiful, there are usually far fewer grizzly incidents because the bears are at high altitude, generally on public lands and away from the large majority of people.
Beetle unleashes voracious appetite. By Mike Stark. Billings Gazette.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
