Buffalo Trace on The Chinook Prairie

I have always enjoyed trekking the prairie of eastern Montana. On on particular trip I drove north of Chinook, Montana, towards the Canadian border. The medicine line. I had a map showing federal lands and I was searching for undisturbed prairie. A chunk of bunch grass wilderness.

The road bed was gravel and my car kicked up a plume of chalky colored dust. I found a wide spot in the road to park and headed out on foot across the flat prairie, on no particular path, intent on exploring and wandering. To the south, about 30 miles away, I could see the high peaks of the Bears Paw Mountains at 5,000 to 6,000 feet. The summits are scarfed with black patches of timber; douglas fir, subalpine fir and ponderosa pine and the creek bottoms are lined with wild rose, chokecherry, service berry and willow.

The prairie I was hiking was about 2,600 feet in elevation, on a level plain, with an occasional shallow drainage, most of them dry, and a few stock ponds and small lakes, that shelter ducks and shorebirds. The prairie looks flat but it's quite deceiving because there are hidden arroyos which you can't see until you get out and start hiking. I continued my trek, wandering towards the east and my truck was soon out of sight. The sky was a dark indigo blue color and cloudless, and it was a fine day to be out.

The prairie seems trackless but there are a many over grown trails of buffalo and elk, Indians, cowboys and whiskery runners. The prairie is dominated by grasses, typically, buffalo grass, grama, wheatgrass, and needlegrass and the home of mule deer, pronghorn, jackrabbit, prairie dogs, coyotes, fox, 13-lined ground squirrel, badgers, sage grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, and greater prairie chickens. Long gone are the buffalo, wolves and grizzlies.

It's so quiet on the high plains you can almost hear yourself think. The limitless horizon is daunting, and it seems to swallows you alive. Some find it lonely on the prairie but I find it exhilarating. Often the only noise is the rustling of wind across the dry stalks of bunch grass, and the occasional screeching of a Red-Tailed Hawk, "keeeeer keeeer". Or the whistling sound made by the wings of a brace of teal, flying low headed for scarce water.

A Horned Lark landed on a nearby perch, and stared at me, as if I am disturbing his peace or invading forbidden territory. The lark, in his bandido like outfit (minus the sombrero) looked directly into my eyes, warning me to flee his prairie empire. The Horned Lark has very unique coloration with black like horns, a dark mask and a conspicuous black breast band under the throat like a bandanna. The Lark lingered for a few minutes, giving me the evil eye, and I decided to move on, and end my intrusion on it's nesting territory.

At night the vast prairie of eastern Montana is wall to wall stars, planets and meteors. The Milky Way dominates the sky from horizon to horizon and northern lights often dance the sky shimmering, shaking, waning and waxing. The Indians have a belief that the northern lights are our ancestors, coming back to visit.

I walked slowly through the short grass and kept one eye to the ground, looking for interesting rocks or other objects. Much of northern Montana was glaciated by continental glaciers, leaving a wide diversity of rocks and minerals, in its wake.

I spotted something on the ground, out of the corner of my eye that looked odd. The object had a curved shape and it was a horn. I thought perhaps it was from a domestic cow but it was a horn from a buffalo. A trace of the ancient herds. The outside surface of the horn was badly eroded and flaked but it retained its shape and heft. I decided to keep the buffalo horn put it in my pack.

13 million buffalo, once roamed Montana. By 1883 buffalo had been exterminated by hide hunters with one of the last massacres occurring in northern Montana in the Sweetgrass Hills. A few remnant herds were protected in Yellowstone Park and on the Flathead Reservation and exist to this day.

I crossed a shallow ravine, crawling through thick brush, and a few hours later turned and headed back to the west, towards my truck. I hesitated because the terrain looked very unfamiliar with no distinguishing landmarks, except for the Bears Paw Mountains, way off to the south. I knew I had to hike in a westerly direction but I wasn't sure where my vehicle was. It was a warm summer day and I had plenty of time to find my way, and to scout new territory. Ahhh, the life of the high plains drifter.

Wolves frolic in the shadow of Denali

My wife Louise and I explored Denali National Park, in Alaska, for 3 days, in early Sept. of 2003. The tourist pamphlets informed us we had less than a 20% chance of viewing the mountain, due to the frequent cloud cover and storms. Denali Peak at 20,320 feet tall, was clearly visible every day, beating the odds and defying the authorities. A few low dark clouds scudded across the hazy blue sky, and in direct contrast to the massive glaciers, snow fields, horns and craigs and the low lying tundra and taiga forest.

The base of the mountain is 2,000 feet elevation which grants the mountain 18,000 feet of vertical rise. The tallest peak in North America. The Athabascan's called Denali the Great One, which seems rather appropriate. It's a land of perpetual ice and snow.

Denali and the surrounding peaks loomed over us, even though we never came closer than 40 miles. It was hard to take my eyes off the great massif, with its massive glaciers, rock walls and a protective warren of smaller peaks. When you first view Denali, the surrounding glacial horns seem insignificant until you realize, many of them are well over 13,000 feet in elevation. The mountain dominates the land, and the sky, in every way. If I had to characterize Denali I would call her haughty, overbearing, arrogant, lordly, superior. But beautiful.

On the day we drove south, back to Anchorage, the wind was blowing up a hurricane on the highest peaks and ice and snow was being ripped off the highest points, migrating south, creating streamers of ice, some of which must have been many miles long. An airborne dune of shifting snow. If an airplane flew through these grainy ribbons of frost, I would imagine the paint being torn off the fuselage, followed by gale force winds ripping the plane to pieces. A mountaineer on those peaks would be hard pressed to survive that storm of howling, furious wind, and would be forced to make a hasty retreat.

The tundra and taiga at the lower elevations is vegetated with willows, birch, alder, currants, rose and dogwood, a colorful blend of red, orange and yellow. Many of the leaves had already blown away, and fall would soon recede to winter. Some of the stream courses were outlined by dark green spruce trees (20-30 feet in height) which stood tall over the shrubs. Scattered spruce trees dotted the tundra, in total disregard of symmetry and order.

I spotted two caribou, and one of them was an enormous bull. The caribou seemed to be wandering aimlessly, half hidden in cooperating willow, but about half and hour later, they formed up and loped to the east. The big horns in the lead. At another stop I heard a wolf howling in the distance, and scanning with my binoculars, located a wolf pack on a far ridge, in varied colors of black, white and gray. The wolves seemed to be quite engaged in meddlesome play and needless howling.

The first expedition to climb Denali Peak was on April 3rd, 1910, by a group of 4 miners. It's better known as the Sourdough Expedition. It is said they spent 3 months climbing the mountain, spending most of that time on rock and ice, with no other living plants or creatures to be seen, other than a wandering raven or two. As for me I will make no attempt to ascend Denali and will stake my claim to the taiga forest, in good company with caribou and willows. My Sourdough Expedition will be limited to cooking over a roaring campfire of dry spruce wood and climbing mountains, by hefting a pair of binoculars.

Coyote Fools the Wolf

The North American antelope or pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). 100 pounds of steely muscle made to run like the wind and gallop long distances. Over 40 miles per hour in fact. The pronghorn is a pale tan color with a white rump patch, white lower sides, two broad white bands across its throat, and slightly curved horns with a single prong that projects forward.

The pronghorn is the fastest animal in North America, and only the North American cheetah can outrun it, but that critter no longer exists. The cheetah went extinct from this side of the world over 10,000 years ago. Current research indicates it wasn't a cheetah at all, but a relative of the puma or mountain lion.

The pronghorn evolved to out run the cheetah, just like the elk evolved with its great size to fight off wolves and survive the deep snows of winter.

And what do wolves, coyotes and pronghorns have in common? A great deal it now seems.

A recent report in the journal Ecology highlighted a study completed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) on the interrelationship between coyotes, wolves and pronghorns. The study completed by the WCS, indicates that the removal of wolves from a given area, will reduce the number of pronghorns. It turns out the wolf is the pronghorns best friend.

The WCS study results show that wolf packs reduce the numbers of coyotes and coyotes prey heavily on pronghorn fawns. Wolves will prey on the fawns as well, but tend to concentrate their hunting on larger animals like elk. The presence of wolves in an ecosystem means fewer coyotes and fewer coyotes means higher survival rates of pronghorn fawns.

This research was conducted in Teton National Park, and split between two areas; one study area that has a very low wolf population and another area that has abundant wolf packs. Over a 3 year period 100 antelope fawns were radio collared and the resulting data shows that the area with a low wolf population had only a 10% survival rate of fawns, and the area with a high wolf population had a 34% survival rate of fawns.

Pronghorns have increased their population by 50%, since the reintroduction of the gray wolf in 1995, in Teton National Park. This population of pronghorns makes a 200 mile one way migration every year, to escape the deep snows of this region, in a migration corridor called the Path of the Pronghorns. The pronghorns drift to the south east towards Pinedale, Wyoming, to find forage at lower elevations. This migration corridor has been in use for at least the past 6,000 years. This corridor is threatened by road building and oil and gas development in Wyoming, on Bureau of Land Management jurisdictions and on private lands, although the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service recently signed an agreement to protect this lane, through their jurisdictions.

The positive effects of the gray wolf on our environment are many, and are not widely understood. The relationship between the wolf and its prey species is very complex and needs further research and study. The return of the gray wolf to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, is a marvel of nature, and will greatly benefit the ecosystems and animals of the Northern Rocky Mountains.

The State of Idaho has proposed wolf hunting regulations (currently in draft status) that would allow the killing of over 300 wolves in Idaho, which is nearly 50% of the Statewide population. This is a very short sighted proposal, which would destroy many wolf packs. That number is larger than the entire wolf population of Yellowstone Park in Wyoming (200 + animals).

The basic premise of hunting is that you harvest only the excess animals each year, which ensures a stable population, over the decades. The proposed State of Idaho wolf hunting plan would wipe out wolves over wide areas of Idaho. This is not hunting.

Support the Western Wolf Organization (http://westernwolves.org) in its efforts to negotiate a reasonable wolf management plan for Idaho.

Recent Legislation on Idaho Wolves

Recent legislation was introduced, in the Idaho State Legislature, to allow relatives of victims killed by wolves, to sue the Federal Government for damages. This proposed legislation would also make it a felony for folks to protect a killer wolf , punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $ 50,000 dollar fine. The sponsor of the legislation goes on to say that the Federal Government introduced the wolves into Idaho in the 1990's, knowing they were dangerous, and that the Feds should be held responsible.

There are several issues and concerns I have over this proposed legislation. Wolves have always been present in Idaho and there was a small population of wolves, before reintroduction in 1995. It's impossible or impractical to distinguish between introduced wolves and ones that were native.

The big issue seems to be that wolves are very dangerous animals. There have been wolf attacks in North America but they are very rare, but that really isn't the point. A wolf is a wild animal and like every other wild animal they can be dangerous. There is little to fear from wolves; they are dangerous but no more so than a bear, a falling tree, a rolling rock, a flash flood or a drunken motorist careening down a mountain road. You have to take precautions in the mountains in any regards. Statistics from the National Parks show that the vast majority of fatalities in parks are from vehicle accidents (boats, planes and cars) or folks falling off cliffs or drowning. Fatalities from wild animals, hardly make a blip in the statistics.

In the 1980's and 1990's in the United States, domestic dogs were responsible for an average of 17 fatalities per year and by the 2000's this number jumped to 26. You are probably safer hiking in the mountains, than taking a walk in your neighborhood. However it's not fair to compare numbers of wolf attacks, to numbers to domestic dog attacks, because there is a huge difference in the numbers of these animals. There have been documented cases of deer killing and injuring people, but does that make deer, a dangerous and vicious animal? The point is you have to keep things in perspective.

Does the Federal Government have to provide for our full protection when we are recreating in a National Forest or Park? If I lose my hunting rifle or a porcupine eats my boots, while I am camping on Federal Lands, am I due compensation? Do you want a ranger behind every tree to protect us from the multitude of dangers in the woods? I surely hope not. In the mountains and wild lands, we can escape civilization (at least for a short time) and don't have to worry about people looking over our shoulders, and we can get away from the everyday commotions. Part of the mystique of camping and hiking and exploring, is knowing we are in wild country, that there are dangers, but we can take care of ourselves.

Mid Winter

There are a few signs of spring but winter lingers on in the Northern Rocky Mountains. A few Red Winged Blackbirds have occupied the cat tail marsh below my house, all winter, and about the first week of February a couple of dozen more birds arrived. The marsh is still frozen as of Feb. 13th, 2009. Females are a striped rufous color and the males are black with red coverts (upper wing area). The males will gather up to 15 different female birds, which will nest in his territory, and will spend a quarter of his time, during daylight hours, keeping other Red Wing males away from his kingdom, and will even attack larger mammals such as dogs and people (not to worry they won't hurt you). The trouble with this ambitious bird is, that his efforts at defending his harem, are mostly ineffective, as up to half the baby birds are sired by other Red Winged males. It must be exhaustive work defending all that territory, so its no wonder other males are able to “sneak in”.

The Gary Wolves are in mating season now, going through their intricate rituals, of searching for new mates or protecting existing alliances. The pups will be born in early spring. A wolf pack averages 4 to 7 individuals. The range of a wolf pack range varies, depending upon many factors, but a large pack needs over 100 square miles. Wolves are very territorial, with some overlap of their ranges, but generally they seek to avoid each other, but at times there is strife between packs. A pack may use the same territory for generations, if food sources are adequate.

The wolf population of Yellowstone National Park, declined in 2008, to an estimated 124 wolves, down 27 percent from the previous year, this mainly due to impacts of disease in wolf pups. The population of Idaho wolves was estimated at a minimum of 732 wolves in about 83 packs (2007 figures). In Montana the estimated minimum number of wolves (Dec. 31st, 2007 figures) is 422, in 73 packs.

The Idaho Fish and Game Department, listed 94 wolves were killed (by Wildlife Services) for livestock depredations in 2008, which is more than double the number controlled in 2007, which was 43. The number of livestock killed by wolves in 2008, increased by about 20%. The number of wolves killed for depredations on cattle and sheep, has seen dramatic increases from previous years. I haven't seen any explanation of why so many wolves were killed in 2008, compared to previous years, but apparently there has been a huge change in policy on “rules of engagement”. The above figures are not final as of this date, and may change. I sent an email, to the Director of the Idaho Fish and Game Department on Jan. 31st, 2009, concerning this matter.

Gray Wolf Status, Jan. 2009

The official legal status of the Gray Wolf, in the northern Rockies, has seen a real whirlwind of activity the last few weeks. In early January of 2009, in a last minute declaration, the Bush Administration removed federal protection for wolves in Idaho, Montana, and the easterly parts of Washington and Oregon and northern Utah. Wolves in Wyoming would remain protected under the endangered species act. Within a few weeks of that, the administration of President Obama, reversed the Bush ruling.

Within a few days of that an article appeared on the back pages on the Idaho Statesman, concerning a plan by the Idaho Fish and Game Department to kill wolves in north Idaho, in the upper Clearwater River Basin. The Department will be asking the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for permission to kill wolves in northern Idaho to protect deer and elk herds. This article was very brief and didn't give much for details. The upper Clearwater River basin is a vast, remote, rugged and beautiful country, with several large rivers including the Lochsa River, Selway River and the North Fork of the Clearwater, to mention a few of the major drainages.

Elk and deer populations in Idaho have been stable and have not declined. This isn't a surprise in any regards, and biological studies of wolves have shown repeatedly shown, that wolves will not decimate big game herds. The reason that big game herds do not decline with wolf predation, is actually quite simple and its called compensating morality factors (CMF). Wolves basically kill animals that are sick or injured, that would have died naturally anyway, so the net effect at the end of every year is, elk and deer populations do not change.

Now comes the sticky part, because wolves can and do kill healthy deer and elk. The thing to remember is wolves naturally, have a very high mortality rate of about 10%. An adult Gray Gray wolf averages 70 to 120 pounds. A wolf that decides to take on a healthy 500 pound cow elk (adult elk average 500 to 1,000 pounds) is asking for huge trouble. All it takes is one swift kick from the elk, breaking the wolf's leg and the wolf is doomed. A wolf survives by being mobile and being able to run fast and traverse dense brush and steep mountains and if they can no longer run, they likely will die from that sort of injury. The big game populations of Idaho have not been reduced by wolves nor will they ever be reduced. Wolves may reduce the number of elk in a given area, say in a given canyon or drainage, but this is a temporary effect.

Wolves have always existed in Idaho and their numbers have naturally increased because of the abundance of big game animals. Wolf populations were augmented in 1995 by the introduction of several pairs of Gray Wolves from Canada, which appears to have been the catalyst for increasing wolf numbers. The Idaho wolf population, at the end of 2007, is estimated at a maximum 732 individuals and 83 packs, according to figures released by the Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game.

The benefits of having a robust population of wolves are many and rarely discussed and debated. Wolves benefit the rangelands by helping to disperse elk herds and keep them from overgrazing their habitat. Wolves also kill the weak and injured elk and deer, in effect strengthening the herds by leaving the strongest animals. Wolves help to control diseases in big game animals by culling the herds. Elk herds in wolf country in Idaho are generally much healthy and stronger because of this, and better able to survive long winters and disease.

Return from the Potato Mountain Fire

August 30, 2006

In August I was assigned to the Potato Mountain Fire on the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River, in Idaho. It turned out to be a two week assignment as the fire was extremely active. I spend most of my time on the south end above the West Fork of the Yankee Fork. It is beautiful steep and rugged country with clear running mountain streams, and high peaks.

There have been some large fires that burned just to the south of the Potato Mountain Fire in 2000 and 1985, and parts of the fire burned into those areas. The fire spread was blunted once it reached the old burns due to the lack of fuel but there was some spread in the logs. The old fire areas are healed over and covered with a dense matt of grass and forbs. In the 1985 burn the trees are starting to come back and I saw quite a few lodgepole pine and subalpine fir saplings about 3 to 6 feet tall. There are scattered stands of mature trees that did survive the 1985 and 2000 burns.

I am not sure what the impact will be, having some many fires, the last 20 years in this country. I saw an abundance of mule deer in the burned areas and a plethoria of blue birds and grouse. There are many snags still standing in some areas which surely will benifit cavity nesting birds.

The Potato Mtn. fire burned with high intensity in some areas killing most of the mature trees but other areas burned with low intensity, and many of the mature trees, especially Douglas Fir, survivied in those areas. I saw mule deer every day and most of the does had fawns and I saw twins on several occasions. One doe in particular had three fawns! The firelines that were constructed by the fire crews became instant game trails and I was seeing fresh tracks overnight and sometimes in just a few hours.

I ran into a biologist from the Idaho Fish and Game Department one afternoon and he had a Chinook Salmon he wanted to turn loose in one of the creeks. It was a female and she had mistakenly run up the East Fork of the Salmon River instead of the Yankee Fork and she was captured in one of their traps. The biologist had the Chinook Salmon in a large cooler filled with water. He took a large vinyl sleeve or sock and scooted her into that then we carried her up one of the streams and I helped turn her loose. It was a great feeling to see that Chinook set free and return to the wild to spawn. The Fish and Game Biologist told me that the salmon returns have been quite minimal and its a struggal for them to survive even once they enter their "home" streams.

There are wolf packs in this area but I saw no sign of them. I checked the fresh dirt on the firelines I walked every day but never saw any of their tracks. Perhaps all the activity on the fire from aircraft flying scared them off; a habit I hope they keep up for their own good. I saw one large herd of elk along one of the creeks but it was hard to get an accurate count because they were in the thick timber and I was a a few hundred yards away. There was at least 40 of them. The deer seem to be very abundant in this region and doing quite well. The wolves will continue to cull the deer and elk herds increasing the overall health of these animals; nature working at its best.