http://www.greateryellowstone.org/news Latest News From the Greater Yellowstone Coalition en-us Tue, 10 Jun 2009 09:41:01 GMT Weblog Editor 2.0 5 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=461 A pair of key conservation groups last week threw their support behind Idaho's embattled roadless rule, potentially undermining efforts by a broad coalition of environmentalists to try to repeal the state-based rule in favor of an overarching federal plan for roadless areas.In a joint friend-of-the-court brief, Trout Unlimited and the Idaho Conservation League said Idaho's roadless plan is "as, or more, protective" than a 2001 rule passed by the Clinton administration and generally backed by environmentalists.The 2001 rule granted blanket protection to about 58 million acres of federal land nationwide -- including 9.3 million acres in Idaho -- but has been mired in legal challenges after being overturned twice during the George W. Bush administration only to be reinstated last year by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.Marv Hoyt, Idaho director for Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said the Idaho rule has allowed multiple mining companies to begin preparations for phosphate mines that could further pollute southeast Idaho waterways with selenium and other heavy metals."There is a spiderweb of impacts far larger than the footprints of these [mining] pits," he said, adding that mining activities are responsible for the designation of 17 Superfund sites in southeast Idaho, some of them owned by the same firms seeking to open new mines."The mining methods and the protective measures they are taking still aren't good enough," he said.To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=461 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=462 Editor's note: GYC Executive Director Mike Clark and Communications Director Jeff Welsch attended the community meeting Thursday evening in Cooke City to hear questions posed to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and the Forest Service about the incident. People were calm, they asked good questions and there was no bear bashing. The agencies have worked well together and it's clear the people of Cooke City/Silver Gate understand what it means to live in the heart of prime grizzly habitat.COOKE CITY, Mont. — The last grizzly bear believed involved in the fatal mauling of a Michigan man at a campground near Yellowstone National Park has been captured, and Montana wildlife officials are awaiting DNA tests to confirm their suspicions.A sow and two of her three cubs had been trapped by Thursday while the final year-old cub was found in a culvert trap early Friday. The bears, still held in the culvert traps, left the Soda Butte campground in a three-truck convoy Friday morning, bound for the state wildlife lab in Bozeman.Fibers from a tent or sleeping bag were in the captured bears' droppings, and a tooth fragment found in a tent appears to match a chipped tooth on the 300- to 400-pound sow. But officials say they will decide the bears' fate only after seeing the results of DNA tests that are expected Friday.To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=462 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=463 Area residents will have some more time to comment on a proposed plan to vaccinate bison in Yellowstone National Park against brucellosis. YNP officials decided to extend the public comment period on a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which looks at vaccinating bison against brucellosis without capturing or handling the animals.The purpose of remote vaccination of bison inside the park is to reduce the brucellosis infection rate in order to increase tolerance for bison on historic and essential winter range outside the park in Montana when cattle are not present, according to a press release from YNP."The park believes the most logical method for remote delivery of the vaccine is to use a compressed air rifle to deliver an absorbable projectile containing the vaccine," the release stated.To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=463 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=457 In a sobering reminder that bears are the bosses of the backcountry, one person was killed and two others injured in a bear attack Wednesday at the heavily occupied Soda Butte campground just outside Yellowstone National Park.A Canadian woman who was attacked in the middle of the night was bitten on her arm and leg before she instinctively played dead so the animal would leave her alone. In this May 4, 2009 file photo, a Grizzly bear is seen in Yellowstone National Park near Mammoth Wyoming.CAPTIONBy David Grubbs, AP"I screamed, he bit harder, I screamed harder, he continued to bite," said Deb Freele of London, Ontario, who woke up just before the bear attacked.To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=457 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=458 From the height of Hyalite Peak, the rugged crags of the Gallatin Crest undulate south to Yellowstone National Park.Eastward, the high peaks of the Absaroka Mountains reach toward a seemingly endless sky. To the west, the pinnacles of the Madison Range soar above the Gallatin Canyon.Hike these slopes and you've got a good chance of spotting elk and mountain goats and grizzly bears. You've also got a good chance of seeing a few people, though not as many as you may have a year ago.In May, the Gallatin National Forest implemented its 2010 interim summer-use management plan, which restricts use on the Gallatin Crest and several other trails in the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area. The restrictions come in response to U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy's September 2009 ruling that the 2006 decision set forth in the Gallatin National Forest's Travel Management Plan failed to maintain the 1977-era wilderness character of the Hyalite-Porcupine-Buffalo Horn Wilderness Study Area. To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=458 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=459 It’s a short bill, as far as bills go.   In two pages, the 95th Congress designated 873,000 acres of national forest in Montana as “wilderness study areas” – places that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would study to see if they were fit for wilderness.   Within seven years of when the bill passed in 1977, the act said, USDA should share its findings with Congress, which, presumably, would either make that acreage wilderness or not.   But while the bill excelled in brevity, it lacked hard deadlines and specifics. Today, 33 years after the act passed, Congress has yet to decide on the hundreds of thousands of acres across the state, including 151,000 acres in the Gallatin Mountains that stretches from Hyalite Peak to Yellowstone National Park.To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=459 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=460 With the severe escalation of partisan politics and divisiveness in recent years, it has become basically impossible to pass a Wilderness bill or any other type of public lands or outdoor recreation legislation on its own. Time on the Senate and House floor is so scarce and closely guarded and partisanship so bitter that the only way public lands legislation has any realistic chance is a relatively new invention called the omnibus bill.To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=460 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=454 National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis yesterday praised the Grand Teton National Park rangers who rescued 16 climbers last week and said Recovery Act funds were being used to fix park infrastructure in Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton and elsewhere. Jarvis made the comments in an exclusive telephone interview from Big Sky, Mont., during a trip to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Canyon National Park with Vice President Joe Biden. The trip was used to trumpet the $750 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and $140 million in Federal Highway Administration funds that the Obama administration allocated for the National Park Service. To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=454 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=455 Even if you’ve never set foot in Yellowstone National Park, you know its iconic natural splendors: Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs, and the like. What you may not know -- even if you’ve been there -- is that Yellowstone is the largest essentially untouched ecosystem in the lower 48 states. And while its status as a national park means its "protected," that doesn’t mean its 2.2 million acres are safe. Far from it, in fact. To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=455 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=456 WEST YELLOWSTONE - Last year Yellowstone National Park shattered visitation records, and park officials say this year will be another banner year. Even with the down economy, Yellowstone visitation has been as steady as Old Faithful, but outside the park there's some cause for concern. "I just like nature, we're a nature family," said camper Tsosie Hostenez, "last year we asked our kids where they wanted to go and they wanted to go to Yellowstone." Hostenez and his family aren't alone.To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=456