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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2018)
Page 6C OUTSIDE East Oregonian Saturday, July 21, 2018 3 wolves killed in central Idaho By KEITH RIDLER Associated Press Emery Cowan/Arizona Daily Sun via AP, file In this 2015 file photo Nate Powell, an employee with Grand Canyon National Park, collects an entrance fee as traffic is backed up as vehicles arrive at an entrance gate at Grand Canyon National Park, Ariz. A new study con- cludes visitors may be steering clear of some U.S. national parks or cutting their visits short because of pollution. Pollution leads to fewer park visitors By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press DENVER (AP) — Vis- itors appear to be steering clear of some U.S. national parks or cutting visits short because of pollution lev- els that are comparable to what’s found in major cit- ies, according to a study released Wednesday. Researchers at Iowa State and Cornell universi- ties looked at more than two decades of data on ozone pollution at 33 parks — from Shenandoah to Yel- lowstone, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. They say visi- tor numbers dropped almost 2 percent when ozone lev- els went up even slightly and by at least 8 percent in months with three or more days of high ozone levels compared with months with fewer days of high ozone. Study co-author Ivan Rudik said air quality warn- ings issued by parks and other government agencies may be causing the visita- tion drop. That’s consistent with previous research on so-called avoidance behav- ior in response to pollution alerts in other settings. The study sought to con- trol for seasonal variations and daily changes in the weather. “Even though the national parks are supposed to be icons of a pristine land- AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File This 2011 file photo shows the main plant facility at the Navajo Generating Station northeast of Grand Canyon National Park as seen from Lake Powell in Page, Ariz. A new study concludes visitors may be steering clear of some U.S. national parks or cutting their visits short because of pollution. scape, quite a lot of people are being exposed to ozone levels that could be detri- mental to their health,” said Rudik, an assistant profes- sor of economics at Cornell. The study, pub- lished in the journal Sci- ence Advances, comes as national parks have seen record numbers of visitors in recent years despite con- cerns over pollution. Ozone, the main ingredi- ent in smog, is formed when small particles of pollution from cars, power plants and industrial facilities react with sunlight. It limits visi- bility and can cause respira- tory problems. In parks, ozone is car- ried in on the wind and also caused by traffic and other activities. Data collected by the National Park Service show parks failed to meet U.S. air quality standards for ozone at least 85 times this year. In 2016, national parks exceeded the standard a combined 276 times. Park officials were reviewing the new study but had not evaluated whether ozone and visitation are linked, spokesman Jeffrey Olson said. He said nine parks issue ozone alerts when warranted — Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, Mammoth Cave, Pinnacles, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Shenandoah and Yosemite. Virginia Tech econo- mist Kevin Boyle, who has researched ozone in parks and was a peer reviewer for the study, said it pro- vides “strong, suggestive evidence” that air pollution is changing people’s behav- ior when planning a park visit. Boyle said follow-up research is needed to con- firm the findings. Tourists also cut vis- its short for other air qual- ity problems, such as thick smoke from wildfires that was blanketing Yosemite National Park this week and led to health warnings. Ozone concentrations nationwide have gener- ally fallen since the Clean Air Act was amended in 1990 to address the prob- lem, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Yet amounts still regu- larly exceed national guide- lines, and the research- ers determined that many national parks have pollu- tion levels similar to New York or Los Angeles. A comparison of ozone in parks to levels in the 20 most populous U.S. cities showed they were “statis- tically indistinguishable,” according to the study. At Sequoia National Park, about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, there have been more bad ozone days than in the city in all but two years since 1996, the study said. Site work begins for opposed oil refinery By BLAKE NICHOLSON Associated Press BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Meridian Energy Group said Tuesday that it has begun site work for an oil refinery about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota, though the project still faces hurdles, including a lawsuit by environmental groups. Meridian said it hired St. Paul, Minnesota-based SEH Design/Build Inc. to oversee such work as grad- ing land, installing erosion control devices and devel- oping storm water ponds. Work got underway Mon- day, according to company spokesman Adam Williams. Construction of the $800 million Davis Refinery isn’t planned until next year, with operations to start in 2020. It would be only the sev- enth oil refinery built in the U.S. in the last two decades, according to the U.S. Energy Information Admin- istration. The project began five years ago. “It is great to be finally beginning site work for Davis,” Meridian CEO Wil- liam Prentice said. However, North Dakota Air Quality Director Terry O’Clair has said that Merid- AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz, File This Sept. 2017 file photo shows bison grazing at The- odore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, N.D. A com- pany began site work Monday for an oil refinery about 3 miles from the park in western North Dakota. Several environmental groups oppose the refinery, fearing it will impact the park’s scenery. ian is proceeding at its own risk in light of a law- suit filed Thursday in state court by the National Parks Conservation Association, the Environmental Law and Policy Center and the Dakota Resource Council. The groups fear pollu- tion from the refinery will mar the park’s scenery and erode the quality of the air breathed by wildlife and vis- itors. The park is the state’s top tourist attraction, draw- ing more than 700,000 peo- ple annually. Meridian maintains that the refinery with mod- ern technology will be “the cleanest refinery on the planet” and a model for future refineries. Support- ers also point to its poten- tial impact on the economy, creating permanent jobs for 200 people in the area and generating millions of dol- lars in local property taxes each year. The environmen- tal groups are challeng- ing a state air quality per- mit issued in June that allowed construction to pro- ceed, asserting that the state Health Department erred when it concluded that the refinery wouldn’t be a major source of pollution and wouldn’t negatively impact the park. The lawsuit asks a judge to declare the permit invalid and send the case back to the Health Depart- ment for further review. The review took 1 ½ years and generated more than 10,000 public com- ments, and O’Clair has said the state stands behind the conclusion. Williams on Tuesday said Merid- ian is “very confident in the thorough and meticulous 18-month review.” The refinery that would initially process about 27,500 barrels of oil daily faces other steps and poten- tial roadblocks. It still needs state water and wastewater permits, though it can begin building before receiving them. It also will need to prove once it’s built that it meets air quality standards. The Environmental Law and Policy Center and the Dakota Resource Council in late June filed a complaint with North Dakota regu- lators requesting a study of the refinery’s location. The complaint is pending before the Public Service Commission. The Dakota Resource Council also is challeng- ing in court the zoning per- mit that Meridian received from Billings County, say- ing in part that the permit has expired. BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Three wolves have been killed by federal authorities in central Idaho near Stan- ley, an action blasted by an environmental group. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Ser- vices on Wednesday said it killed the wolves over sev- eral days earlier this month at the request of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game after confirming wolves killed six sheep. The three wolves killed are in addition to the 46 wolves Wildlife Services said it has killed in Idaho this year through June 30, following 61 con- firmed wolf kills of live- stock. Those livestock kills included nine adult cows, 29 calves and 23 sheep, the federal agency said. Western Watersheds Project decried the kill- ing of the three wolves this month in the Sawtooth National Forest’s Recre- ation Area, which it argues only allows livestock graz- ing if it doesn’t “substan- tially impair” wildlife conservation. “Wildlife Services, Idaho Fish and Game, and the Forest Service have time-and-time again shown that they care more about perpetuating eco- nomically marginal graz- ing operations than pro- tecting native wildlife,” Scott Lake, Idaho direc- tor of Western Watersheds Project, said in a statement. Idaho Fish and Game manages wildlife in the state. Tom Curet, Idaho Fish and Game supervi- sor for the Salmon Region where the wolves were killed, said the agency asked Wildlife Services to take action after the federal agency confirmed wolves killed the sheep. “In this case, it took killing several wolves before the rest of the pack backed off,” he said Thurs- day. “They’re not causing any problems right now.” He said the wolves were killed about 1.5 miles east of U.S. Highway 75, the main route through the Sawtooth Valley, and about 20 miles south of Stan- ley. He said it’s believed the pack had five wolves before three of them were killed. He said it’s the first con- flict with wolves and live- stock in the basin this year. Wolves, he said, typically follow deer and elk to the high elevation valley that offers lush grass for graz- ing animals. That also makes it attractive for live- stock producers. BLOOMIN’ BLUES Photo by Bruce Barnes Stemless Goldenweed, Stenotus acaulis Stemless goldenweed is a rare Blues sight By BRUCE BARNES For The East Oregonian Name: Stemless Goldenweed Scientific name: Steno- tus acaulis This week’s plant is quite similar to several others in appearance, and is also one I’ve only seen once. It’s in the sunflower family, with bright yellow flowering heads. The plant is found in dry open places from middle to high moun- tain sites, from southern Canada to eastern Oregon, and east to Montana and south to California. Although this is an attractive, showy plant when in bloom, the names are almost as interest- ing. The common name is misleading. The plant is not stemless at all, hav- ing stems that reach well above the leaves and can be seen easily for from a moving car 50 yards away. The name golden weed is accurate as far as the color, but the plant is defi- nitely not a weed and not invasive. Then there is the scien- tific name Stenotus for the genus. This name is prob- ably from the Latin sten for narrow, referring to its very narrow linear leaves. In checking references for this article, I discovered there are two other similar genus names for some of the plants that look much like those in the Stenotus genus and are in the same family. This led me to look further. These three genus names are anagrams, Ste- notus, Tonestus and Nes- totus, with each having the same letters. Stenotus was named in the late 1800s, Tonestus in the 1904, and Nestotus in 2005. I was unable to find any Latin root words to provide a basis for the last two names, and even if the sec- ond author was unaware of the anagram, I really sus- pect the third was selected as an intentional anagram, and the three coauthors who published the last name probably had some fun coming up with it. One of those three botanists, Lowell Urbatsch, wrote the descriptions of the sev- eral species in those three genera for a recent publi- cation of California plants, in which he pointed out the anagram connection of the names. The “Stemless” Gold- enweed forms dense clus- ters of somewhat erect, linear leaves from the base of the plant or at the base of the stem. The stems are seldom over 6 inches high with a single head at the top of the stem or rarely 2-3 heads at the top. Each head has 5-15 ray pet- als around the outer rim, each petal a part of a sepa- rate complete flower, with the petal about a quar- ter to half inch long. The center of the head has 17 to 40 tiny yellow-orange flowers. Where to find: This should normally be blooming in open mead- ows south of Pilot Rock, beyond the top of Yellow- jacket Road, which is the only place I have found it. Unfortunately that area is already dried up and the meadows even at 5,000 feet elevation are tinder dry.
