Page 6C
OUTSIDE
East Oregonian
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Alan Rogers/The Casper Star-Tribune via AP
In this Sept. 25, 2013 photo, a grizzly bear cub searches for fallen fruit beneath an apple tree a few miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park
in Gardiner, Mont. For the second time in a decade, the U.S. government has removed grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region from the threatened species list.
The decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove federal protections from the approximately 700 bears living across 19,000 square miles in Montana,
Idaho and Wyoming took effect Monday, July 31, 2017.
Yellowstone grizzlies removed
from threatened species list
By MATT VOLZ
Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. — The U.S.
government lifted protections for
grizzly bears in the Yellowstone
region on Monday, though it
will be up to the courts to decide
whether the revered and fearsome
icon of the West stays off the
threatened species list.
More than a month after
announcing grizzlies in and
around Yellowstone National
Park are no longer threatened, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
offi cially handed over manage-
ment of the approximately 700
bears living across 19,000 square
miles in Montana, Idaho and
Wyoming to wildlife offi cials in
those states.
The ruling does not apply
to the approximately 1,000
bears living farther north in the
Northern Continental Divide
area that includes Glacier
National Park and the Bob
Marshall Wilderness.
Not much is expected to
immediately change as a result
of the handover. State wildlife
offi cials have been working for
decades to protect the bears as
their population grows and their
range expands farther away
from the oldest U.S. national
park, and they say they will
continue to do so.
AP Photo/Jim Urquhart
This July 6, 2011, fi le photo shows a grizzly bear roaming near
Beaver Lake in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.
Federal wildlife offi cials will
also monitor the states for fi ve
years and re-impose protections
if the population drops below
500 bears.
The bears were determined to
be a threatened species in 1975
after hunting and trapping in the
1800s and early 1900s nearly
wiped them out. The strict no-kill
policy and habitat preservation
that came with being on the
threatened species list helped
their numbers recover in the
years since.
Now, grizzly bears can
be hunted again under the
management plans submitted by
Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
None of the three states will
hold a hunting season this year,
and wildlife offi cials say any
hunts in the future would be held
only after closely examining the
effects on the population.
“There are a lot of safeguards
in the conservation strategy to
ensure the grizzly population
will remain,” said Kevin Frey, a
wildlife management specialist
for the Montana Department of
Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
BLOOMIN’ BLUES
Red Sandspurry hides in plain sight
By BRUCE BARNES
For the East Oregonian
Common Name: Red Sandspurry
Scientifi c Name: Spergularia rubra
This week we shift to one of the very tiny
“most people never see ‘em” plants. It is
common throughout most of North America and
some of South America, but is a native plant of
Europe which has been introduced here.
The genus name Spergularia, and that of
a closely related genus Spergula, is from the
Latin spargo, to scatter. This refers to the plants
of both genera which widely scatter their seeds
when ripe. Rubra is Latin for red. Sandspurry
probably refers to its preference for sandy or
rocky soil, however the source of the common
name spurry is unknown.
The plant is so easy to miss that I’d never
seen it until three years ago on the edge of a
backwoods dirt road in the Pomeroy district
of the Umatilla National Forest. I’ve since
checked, and it is known to be in all four ranger
Photo by Bruce Barnes
districts of the forest, so it has probably been
Red Sandspurry, Spergularia ruba
hiding in plain sight.
Red Sandspurry is an annual plant that grows As with many of the smallest plants, taking a
fl at on the ground. The stem can extend up to 2
close look at the fl owers through a lens reveals
feet in length, with many branches spreading out a beautiful fl ower, regardless of its size and the
and creating a mat. The upper stems and sepals
fact it usually gets ignored and even driven over.
have gland-tipped hairs. The leaves are linear, up
I know of no uses established by Indian
to an inch long. There are 5 fl ower petals, which tribes, and none listed for the plant in Europe.
are light pink and about 1 mm long. To even
Where to fi nd: This plant prefers disturbed,
see the fl owers, one must either pick a stem and
sandy or gravelly soil, such as along the edges
hold it up close, or get down and look carefully.
of roads.
Hunting grizzlies is strongly
opposed by wildlife advocates
and Native American tribes
who worry the bears’ recovery
will nosedive without U.S.
government oversight. Multiple
organizations and individuals
have fi led notice that they will
sue to place grizzly bears back on
the threatened species list.
It’s happened once before. In
2009, a federal judge overturned
the Fish and Wildlife Service’s
decision two years earlier to lift
protections after the Yellowstone
bears’ numbers rose above 600.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals upheld the judge’s ruling
in 2011.
The ruling then was that the
bears still needed protection
because of the decline of the
whitebark pine trees — a key
food source. Federal wildlife
offi cials say that the bears have
now adjusted to a more meat-
based diet, and the whitebark
pine nuts are no longer vital for
their survival.
Wildlife advocates say that
change in diet brings a different
kind of threat.
Encounters with ranchers
protecting
livestock
and
hunters competing for elk and
deer have become common
as the bears’ population has
swelled and they wander back
into areas where they haven’t
been seen in a century.
“We see bears going to areas
where they have little chance of
remaining confl ict-free,” Frey
said. “It’s becoming more chal-
lenging with all the people.”
Yellowstone National Park
Superintendent Dan Wenk said
the park supports the removal
of grizzlies from the threatened
species list but wants to make
sure the population remains
strong so visitors will continue
having opportunities to see the
animals.
Hunting still won’t be allowed
within the park.
After gray wolves were taken
off the endangered species list,
Yellowstone
unsuccessfully
sought the creation of a no-kill
zone, or buffer zone, around the
park. State offi cials rejected it.
A no-kill zone won’t be
pursued for grizzlies, Wenk
said. Instead, park offi cials want
to be involved with discussions
that lead up to decisions by the
three states on how to structure
their bear hunts — and focus
on areas where bears are more
likely to have problems with
humans and livestock.
“We have never asked for
a buffer for bears. But what
we have asked for and what is
always part of our conversation is
to concentrate the hunts in areas
of confl ict,” he said.
Years of fi sh run work for naught?
By COURTNEY FLATT
OPB/EarthFix
A chilly pool of water forms at the
base of Clear Creek Dam in Washing-
ton’s Cascade Mountains. Somewhere
— hiding in the depths of the water —
are several bull trout. They’ve migrated
up this creek and are hoping to make it to
cooler waters at higher elevations.
But they’re out of luck.
“They’re just stuck down here,” said
Jeff Thomas, a fi sh biologist with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
In their way is a big slab of concrete,
a dam built in 1914. Its reservoir, Clear
Lake, is a recreation area where kids
with disabilities or terminal illnesses can
spend carefree summer days.
Thomas has worked to help these
threatened fi sh for nearly two decades.
He’s spent hundreds of hours here.
Two fi sh ladders at the spillway
weren’t built properly, and so they’re
useless for giving fi sh passage to the
waters above the dam.
“It’s just really, really violent high
hydraulics, and they can’t make it up it
— under any conditions,” Thomas said.
There is a legendary story of a
problem fi sh, a hybrid of a bull trout
and a non-native brook trout, that made
it up the fi sh ladder four times. In one
amazing stretch of time, the fi sh spent
12 days hanging out in the spillway. No
other fi sh had been detected making it up
the fi sh ladder before or since.
“She was very athletic,” Thomas said.
Thomas helped discover this popula-
tion. He led a snorkeling team up seven
miles of a rugged river searching for any
signs fi sh were reproducing there.
“My entire career, there’s been very
few days where I didn’t want to go to
work,” he said.
He’s so invested in this run that he’s
putting off his retirement — after a
federal hiring freeze could mean his job
won’t be replaced. That could endanger
this bull trout run he’s spent most of his
time trying to save.
Moving these fi sh is a lot of work.
It’s something he’d like someone else
to take over — until there’s funding to
build better fi sh passage.
“I kind of consider them my popula-
tion,” Thomas said.
Some of “his population” is stuck at
the base of this impassable dam. Others
are spawning in the cold, glacier-fed
water above Clear Lake.
Bull trout don’t migrate out to sea like
salmon. Migratory bull trout spend time
in lakes but swim upstream to spawn in
cool, clean water where they were born.
Many bull trout runs are threatened by
fragmented habitat, often blocked by
impassable dams. This run of fi sh — if
they move downstream — can’t get
back.
“With global warming happening,
it’s important that we allow the fi sh to
get to this cold water refugia or they’ll
disappear,” he said.