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| MONDAY April 16, 2001 Vol 5, # 37 |
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| MONDAY April 16, 2001 Vol 5, # 37 |
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| Site Search | Support Yellowstone! Discussion $7.95 Internet, Email, More Email Newsletter | |
YELLOWSTONE ROAD
REPORT PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-
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 PROTECTING YELLOWSTONEby Bruce Gourley Yellowstone is a national treasure which is owned by the American public. Protecting Yellowstone is the responsibility of the American public. This weekly feature will help identify and explore the issues which are crucial to the ongoing, healthy existence of the "Crown Jewel" of America's National Park system. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (YNET) -- This coming Friday marks the beginning of the spring season in Yellowstone when Old Faithful opens to the public via the West and North entrances. Spring is a wonderful time in Yellowstone as the grass turns green and flowers spring forth. Baby animals can be seen in abundance in May through mid-June, with baby bison and baby elk being a favorite of visitors. However, with the opening of Yellowstone for the 2001 season, Park officials are reminding visitors not to get too close to the animals. Yellowstone's abundant and diverse wildlife are as famous as its geysers. Habitat preferences and seasonal cycles of movement determine, in a general sense, where a particular animal may be at a particular time. Early morning and evening hours are when animals tend to be feeding and thus are more easily seen. But remember that the numbers and variety of animals you see are largely a matter of luck and coincidence. Check at visitor centers for detailed information. Wild animals, especially females with young, are unpredictable. Keep a safe distance from all wildlife. Each year a number of park visitors are injured by wildlife when approaching too closely. Approaching on foot within 100 yards (91 m) of bears or within 25 yards (23 m) of other wildlife is prohibited. Please use roadside pullouts when viewing wildlife. Use binoculars or telephoto lenses for safe viewing and to avoid disturbing them. By being sensitive to its needs, you will see more of an animal's natural behavior and activity. If you cause an animal to move, you are too close! (Yellowstone Net provides you opportunity to voice your opinion regarding the various Yellowstone issues to your congresspersons and to editorial sections of magazines and newspapers by clicking here.) |
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AND COLUMNISTS Russ Finley
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CLEANER
SNOWMOBILES JACKSON, Wyo. (CNW) -- Organizers of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge have compared the emissions of one of the cleanest redesigned snowmobiles in last week's Clean Snowmobile competition to the tailpipe emissions of an average automobile. It turns out that the redesigned snowmobile is far less polluting. Emissions tests run during the SAE collegiate design event revealed that a snowmobile designed by Kettering University produces lower unburned hydrocarbon (1.5 to 7 times less), carbon monoxide (1.5 to 7 times less), and oxides of nitrogen (and 5 to 23 times less) levels than the average automobile driven in Yellowstone National Park. The Kettering University entry also boasted acceleration performance better than the late-model 500 cc two-stroke snowmobile used as a control snowmobile in the Clean Snowmobile testing. Comparing snowmobile pollution to automobile pollution is a difficult task, due to differences between car and snowmobile emission test cycles. To help standardize their calculations, organizers used the same calculation methods and assumptions contained in the February 2000 National Park Service Air Quality Resources Division report titled, Air Quality Concerns Related to Snowmobile Usage in National Parks. This report is generally accepted by environmental groups as being the most comprehensive and credible assessment of Yellowstone's air pollution to date. It is not surprising to organizers that the snowmobile from Kettering University is cleaner than the average car. The snowmobile features a Daihatsu 659cc turbocharged 4-stroke engine. This engine is used in the Dahaitsu Mira, a mini-van that meets strict Japanese 2006 emission standards. An added bonus -- the turbocharged engine is priced at just $600, including the turbocharger, catalyst, and engine management system. Designing a cleaner snowmobile is just one of the objectives of the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge. Noise abatement is also an important part of the competition. Highly sensitive audio equipment measured sound levels from this year's collegiate entries. Measurements were taken 50 feet from the road as the snowmobiles drove by at full throttle. The quietest snowmobile this year had a high reading of 67dBA. The ultra-clean Kettering University snowmobile hit a high measure of 72dBA on one of its passes. For perspective, the 2-stroke control (stock) snowmobile hit 78dBA, a level that is within legal limits in National Parks. The 67dBA reading represents an approximate 75% reduction in the noise level from that of the control snowmobile. SAE Collegiate Design events are now held on six continents and host engineering students from over 150 universities worldwide. |
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| BISON UPDATE by Buffalo Nations WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. -- Thursday morning, the Department of Livestock conducted a hazing operation of wild bison at Horse Butte and along the Madison River Valley, just west of the Yellowstone National Park. The Department of Livestock used a helicopter, ATVs and Horses to haze the approximately 31 bison to Yellowstone National Park. One BFC volunteer was arrested for allegedly entering a closed area surrounding the Horse Butte capture facility during the operation. During the spring, Cow and calf bison take their natural migration pattern along the Madison River out of the park to the national forests Horse Butte peninsula. They typically give birth to their young and return to their habitat within the park by late spring. Their migration to Horse Butte provides them and their young with green grasses that have yet to sprout in higher elevations of the park. This area that the bison migrate was set aside by Congress in 1926s Gallatin Land Agreement as the greater Yellowstone ecosystem for the use of the National Parks wildlife during winter and spring. The Madison River Valley is well known for its pristine habitat. This winter and spring BFC volunteers have, on numerous occasions, sited elk, deer, pine martins, beaver, moose, Golden and Bald Eagles and countless species of waterfowl including Trumpeter Swans, Great Blue Herons and Sand Hill Cranes. The river valley leading to Horse Butte serves as prime reproducing and foraging habitat for Yellowstone and National forest wildlife. Friday the DOL helicopter repeatedly flew at treetop level and violated a no fly zone over the Horse Butte area in their efforts to haze a group of bison which included at least five pregnant cows due to give birth in April and May. Today marks the fifth time in two months that DOL has used a helicopter in this delicate ecosystem. The hazing is part of the Bison Management Plan that was developed over a ten-year period by the National Park Service, National Forest Service, and the State of Montana. The plan will spend over $40 million in taxpayer money in the next fifteen years. Rather than focusing on solutions, this new plan only perpetuates the myth of brucellosis and the slaughter and mistreatment of the last wild buffalo. Buffalo Field Campaign is opposed to the repeated and unnecessary hazing of these animals, and remains adamant that bison be granted the same rights as other wildlife. BFC volunteers have observed that bison hazed back to the park during past DOL operations quickly return to the same area. Each hazing action further places pregnant cows at a high risk for abortion and disrupts crucial migratory and sensitive reproductive patterns of all wildlife in the area. |
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| PRONGHORN PROGRAM News Brief BILLINGS, Mont. -- Dr. M. Douglas Scott will present a program on "Endangered Yellowstone Pronghorns" at 4 P.M. Tuesday in the MSU-Billings Science Hall, Room 104. The program is part of the MSU-Billings Department of Biological and Physical Science's Science Colloquium Series. Call 406-657-2031 for information. |
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