Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 2016)
2 CapitalPress.com January 29, 2016 Biologist changing way wolves are tracked Dave Ausband relies less on collars and more on cameras, analysis of scat Dave Ausband Age: 41 Hometown: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho Position: Research wildlife biologist specializing in carnivores Education: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees and is completing a Ph.D. in wildlife biology at the University of Montana By JOHN O’CONNELL Family: Wife, Liz, and a 9-year-old son, Sam Capital Press Innovation: Developing a predictive model to locate wolf rendez- vous sites throughout Idaho and helping the department move away from radio collaring as its primary means of monitoring wolves in favor of scat analysis and remote trail cameras. BIG Photo submitted Dave Ausband, who joined the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in May as a research biologist specializing in wolves and other carnivores, poses with a tranquilized wolf. Ausband will help the department shift from monitoring Idaho’s wolf population with radio collars to using scat and remote cameras. Ausband explained it’s costly to capture and collar wolves, and using collars has become too labor-inten- Specimen: 3” to 10” Caliper MOSCOW, Idaho — As- sisted by a small staff of Uni- versity of Idaho undergradu- ates, Lorie Ewing raises tens of thousands of tiny plantlets each spring, fulfilling the first step in production for most of the potato growers in Idaho, and many in Washington and Oregon. Ewing, manager of UI’s Po- tato Tissue Culture Lab since Tr ee 90 D ” ig g er By JOHN O’CONNELL 208-850-8601 IDIN16-1/#17 collared wolves in Idaho. “We don’t collar any- where near all of the packs in Idaho, which means there Key figure in potato industry plans retirement TREES nathanmelad@gmail.com sive for tracking the Idaho wolf population of at least 770 animals. There are currently 88 are known big holes in our map,” Ausband said. The University of Ida- ho will conduct the DNA analysis of wolf scat, which should provide Fish and Game biologists with “fin- gerprints” to assess the numbers of breeding fe- males, litter sizes, sex, pop- ulation trends and other elu- sive data. Lisette Waits, head of UI’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences, said DNA from fecal samples will also be matched against saliva on livestock carcass- es to determine which indi- vidual wolves are respon- sible for depredations, and against DNA of harvested wolves to estimate harvest rates. Waits, who has been working on DNA analysis of scat and hair since 2007, said they are “accurate and cost-effective approaches” for understanding wolf pop- ulations. Ausband has created a predictive model to narrow possible locations of wolf rendezvous sites, where wolves gather in large con- centrations with their pups. The model should reduce the search area by 90 per- cent for the Fish and Game Capital Press I NEED FARM LISTINGS – I HAVE BUYERS BRING THE HORSES! Meridian, ID Move in Ready! Complete horse set up with 4 rubber mat stalls, runs, sand arena, paddock, pastures, wash station, vet room in barn with bathroom, tack room, separate sick bay, hay storage, covered tractor parking, nice shop with heat & 220. Approx. 3100 sq. ft. spacious home, could be 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, formal dining, breakfast nook, family & living rooms. Set up for 2 master suites. Grass hay pastures, fruit trees and much more... $579,900 IDIN16-1/#17 Stacey Budell (208) 880-4244 stacey@idaho4homes.com www.idaho4homes.com Virtual tour: vimeo.com/previewofhomestv/review/143383860/caef7da755 1983, is regarded by colleagues as an unheralded figure who, nonetheless, fills a central role in Northwestern potato produc- tion. In Idaho alone, UI econo- mists estimate the potato in- dustry is worth more than $4 billion annually and responsi- ble for more than 30,000 jobs, and almost every commercial spud can be traced back to the tissue cultures raised in baby food jars in Ewing’s small lab. Ewing, who devised UI’s tissue-culture program, plans to retire in July and is currently interviewing candidates to fill her position. “It’s kind of a focal point that has a lot of downstream economic benefits associated with it, for which she’s proba- bly never gotten the attention and credit that she’s deserved,” said retired UI economist Paul Patterson. Emma Atchley, a member of Idaho’s State Board of Ed- ucation who also raises early generation potato seed, said several people in the spud in- dustry have encouraged UI to hire a new lab manager as soon as possible to give Ewing time to train her replacement. “We have bought hundreds of thousands of plantlets from 2009 48’ Western Elite Flatbed, Air Ride, Aluminum Wheels, Sliding Front Axle. $23,000 New 2016 Great Dane Everest SS Refer, Air Ride, Aluminum Outer Wheels, Stainless Steel Corners, Rear Door, Frame & Rear Doors. Price on Request 2016 Western 38’ & 18’ AG35 Hopper Set, Weight 14,020 lbs. Price on Request 1999 53’ Alloy Quad Axle, Flatbed Lift, Steer Rear Axle. $20,950 888.344.2539 IDIN16-1/#17 Courtesy of the University of Idaho Lorie Ewing, manager of the Uni- versity of Idaho’s Potato Tissue Culture Laboratory, stands in the Moscow, Idaho, greenhouse where her program develops prenuclear seed for other potato seed growers to plant. Ewing plans to retire in July. her over the time she’s worked at the university, and we’ve nev- er had an issue with disease,” Atchley said. “She’s also kept costs down and been very cog- nizant that plantlets tend to be one of the larger costs for early generation seed programs.” Tissue cultures can be raised in a disease-free envi- ronment and enable programs to rapidly produce plantlets to provide seed growers. UI had no protocols for tissue production when Ew- ing first started her job, as the technology was in its infancy. She read publications, visited with other experts and relied on trial and error to develop her system. “All of the different state certification programs were kind of learning at the same time,” Ewing said. Fortunately, the lab was small in those days, producing plantlets of about eight variet- ies. Nowadays, the clone bank includes about 300 lines, and the lab produces 120,000 tissue culture plantlets every spring. When a new potato line ad- vances to the Western Regional Trials, Ewing starts producing plantlets for growers to eval- uate. She starts by allowing a single tuber to sprout, sanitiz- ing the sprouts in bleach and cutting them into segments at each node to produce more plantlets. The plantlets are raised in an antiviral jelly and exposed to hot temperatures until some of them emerge pathogen-free. The clean plantlets are tested by UI viralologist Alex Karasev and certified by Ida- ho Crop improvement Asso- ciation. Ewing increases the plantlet supply by cutting sub- sequent generations into more segments, raised in a nutri- ent-rich medium. interns and part-time em- ployees who will seek out rendezvous sites and scat. Ausband, originally from Pennsylvania, has spent the past nine years study- ing how to better monitor wolves, including Idaho packs, for the University of Montana and will soon complete his doctoral the- sis analyzing the effects of hunting on wolves. Jim Hayden, a Fish and Game regional wildlife manager, said the state will spend in excess of $400,000 this year on wolf manage- ment, with federal dollars and matching funds from Idaho hunting licenses and firearms and ammunition taxes. He hopes Ausband’s ap- proach may prove to be cheaper and more effective, given that additional fed- eral funding for managing wolves as an endangered species is no longer avail- able to the state. “I think it will be a fas- cinating project — very useful not just to Idaho, but to anybody who manages wolves,” Hayden said. “I think it will help us refine our management.” This story first appeared on Dec. 2, 2015. Lorie Ewing Job: Manager of the Univer- sity of Idaho’s Potato Tissue Culture Lab Innovation: Set up the lab re- sponsible for supplying tissue cultures used to produce the vast majority of Idaho seed potatoes, as well as seed potatoes planted by growers in Oregon and Washington. Age: 59 Family: Husband, Steve Ford, and three adult children, Becca, Jesse and Gareth Hometown: Genesee, Idaho Education: Bachelor’s degree from Montana State University and master’s de- gree in plant pathology from Cornell University Ewing also maintains a clone bank of plantlets, keep- ing the tiny tubers produced from tissue cultures as a back- up. The program also produces about 3,500 pounds of the first seed used in potato production, called the prenuclear genera- tion, from greenhouses in Mos- cow and Tetonia. “She’s the foundation to the whole Northwest potato industry,” said Jeanne Debons, executive director of the Potato Variety Management Institute. “Every (PVMI) commercial potato pretty much starts with her.” IDIN16-1/#17 COEUR D’ALENE, Ida- ho — Dave Ausband has been given the job of im- plementing a new and more accurate approach to track- ing and counting wolves in Idaho. The effort should pro- duce the best estimate of the state’s wolf population ever. Biologists believe many wolves go uncounted using traditional means such as radio collars. After this winter, the state Department of Fish and Game plans to move away from the use of radio collars as its chief tool for monitoring wolves. Ausband said radio col- lars may retain a limited role in tracking wolves where conflicts are report- ed with livestock, but the broader program will shift toward DNA analysis of wolf scat and a network of roughly 200 remote trail cameras scattered through- out Idaho. The cameras will cover Eastern Idaho and “big chunks” of the Frank Church wilderness that have been missed by collaring. They should also help Aus- band monitor cougars and black bears. Fish and Game hired Ausband, 41, in May as a research wildlife biologist, giving his position a new focus on large carnivores, and a special emphasis on wolves.
