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=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 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=453 A former Glacier National Park worker talks about the increase in grizzly populations and what it'll mean for the coming years, but he doesn't say whether he favors expansion of habitat or limiting it to current roaming grounds.In response to the July 18 Tribune article entitled "Grizzlies running into people more often:"There is no doubt that the grizzly bear populations of Glacier and Yellowstone national parks and the Bob Marshall Wilderness and surrounding areas have recovered remarkably under federal protection.As a fireguard working in Glacier Park back in the early 1960s, I was witness to a smaller grizzly population than that of the present day. Even so, there were notable grizzly-human confrontations.To read the entire column, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=453 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=448 GYC's Scott Christensen is quoted in this story about one effort to mitigate the dramatic loss of whitebark pine in southwest Montana. At 8,500 feet above sea level, the orchard planned for a high-country bench in the Gallatin Mountains will not be a run-of-the mill grove.And while the trees there may eventually produce succulent and nutritious nuts that would be good on salads, it won't be planted on behalf of humans.If all goes according to plan, the U.S. Forest Service next year will cordon off a 5-acre section of land in the northern Gallatin Mountains and plant whitebark pine saplings.To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=448 http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=452 The magic of Yellowstone captures another family, this one from Los Angeles ...CODY, WYO. — You know western Wyoming and dumb luck are both on your side when:-- Your daughter spies three mule deer in a Yellowstone meadow. Then a moose mid-river. Then bison, fox and marmot, trumpeter swans, a wayward seagull and a grizzly family -- mama bear and two cubs, romping across the high slopes, safely distant but still riveting.-- You hear the word "rodeo" used as a verb. Then you attend one in Cody, about 50 miles east of Yellowstone, and see not only bucking broncs, bull-riding, barrel-racing and calf-roping but also a stunt rider who circles the ring while standing astride two galloping horses.To read the entire story, click here. http://greateryellowstone.org/news/index.php?id=452