YELLOWSTONE QUARTERLY
Winter 2014 Winter Wolf Study What Lies Beneath The Snow Ski Yellowstone Photographing Fire and Ice
The Yellowstone Association is proud to offer fun and educational experiences that help people make lasting connections to Yellowstone National Park. Each year, we help introduce the park to new visitors and help our established friends find even more ways to enjoy Yellowstone. We believe that the more intimately you know a place, the more you care about preserving it for future generations. No matter your interest, and whatever the season, we can help build and maintain your connection to Yellowstone. Although winter may seem like the quietest season, there are many opportunities to take advantage of this time of year. From the excitement of watching a wolf running across the snow to recreational opportunities like cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, we offer experiences that can help you see the park in a new and different light. If you’re not able to visit Yellowstone this season, I encourage you to “like” us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, where we’ll be posting updates and photographs throughout the winter that will help keep you connected to the park you love. Thank you for being a member of the Yellowstone Association! Because of you, we’re able to help ensure that generations to come can also witness Old Faithful’s dramatic winter eruptions and listen to wolves howl in the Lamar Valley. If your travels bring you to Yellowstone this winter, I hope you will stop by one of our Park Stores to say “hello” and to hear the latest updates about what is going on in the park. Sincerely,
Jeff Brown yellowstone association executive director
Yellowstone’s official nonprofit education partner
What’s on the cover? Old Faithful's dramatic winter eruption. COVER Lisa Culpepper / C ULPEPPER PHOTOGRAPHY
Winter TABLE OF CONTENTS
02 Winter Witness: Wolf Study Tracks
Secrets of Unpredictable Predators
06 What Lies Beneath The Snow 10 Rick Wallen, National Park Service
Bison Project Leader
11 Photographing Yellowstone’s Fire & Ice 12 Ski Yellowstone 14 Naturalist Notes: Winter Song 15 YA Family 16 Membership
Yellowstone Association Leadership Team Jeff Brown
Executive Director
Daniel Bierschwale Director of Retail
Wendie Carr
Marketing Manager
Roger Keaton
Director of Finance and Administration
Dennis McIntosh
Director of Facilities
Kathy Nichols
Human Resources Manager
Stacey Orsted
Director of Development
Ken Voorhis
Director of Education
Yellowstone Association Board of Directors Claire Campbell Board Chair Boulder, CO
Lou Lanwermeyer Vice-Chair Brasstown, NC
Bob Shopneck
Treasurer Denver, CO
Tom Detmer
Assistant Treasurer Denver, CO
Patty Carocci Secretary Arlington, VA
Katie Cattanach Denver, CO
Sandy Choate Austin, TX
Gale Davis Wilson, WY
Penney Cox Hubbard Baltimore, MD
Katherine Loo Colorado Springs, CO
Mat Millenbach Portland, OR
Alex Perez Atherton, CA
Alan Shaw Big Sky, MT
Yellowstone Quarterly 1
By Ruffin Prevost
Winter Witness:
Wolf Study Tracks Secrets of Unpredictable Predators As winter’s icy grip tightens across the landscape of Yellowstone National Park, some animals, such as bison or bighorn sheep, struggle to cope with scant forage. Others, like ground squirrels and grizzly bears, adapt by waiting out the bitter cold in hibernation. But one particular animal—the gray wolf—gains an important advantage as a hunter after several inches of snow blanket the park.
Canyon Alpha Male in Hayden Valley.
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Winter generally gives wolves the upper hand in pursuing elk, as deep snow makes it harder for the large ungulates to escape a pursuing pack. Elk make up about 90 percent of Yellowstone wolves’ winter diet. This deadly dance between predator and prey plays out all winter long in some of Yellowstone’s most remote corners. But it’s also often visible from the main road through the park’s northern range, drawing clusters of first-time spectators and veteran spotters. No one is busier tracking wolves each winter than Doug Smith, who has led the Yellowstone Wolf Project for almost two decades. “The winter, for most wolf programs worldwide, is the heart and soul of their research season,” Smith said. In summer, wolves are more scattered across the landscape, knowing they can find other pack members when they return to the den site where pups are being cared for. But pups eventually grow enough to keep up with the pack, and wolves don’t use a den in the winter. So pack members stick together more closely in the colder months, making them easier to track and study. Yellowstone is now pioneering a more active summer wolf research season, but the fact that winter wolf research still continues in Yellowstone since the reintroduction of wolves in 1995 is an accomplishment in its own right, Smith said. “My number-one objective every year is to keep the study going.” Maintaining long-term wildlife studies is a challenge when government agencies focus on funding specific needs for a single fiscal year, Smith said. According to Smith, 80 percent of wildlife studies last fewer than five years, and with graduate students driving much of the logistics of such studies, most are less than three years.
Yellowstone Quarterly 3
2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park.
Citizen science
Expanding studies
Emily Almberg is a Pennsylvania State University doctoral candidate who has been studying sarcoptic mange among Yellowstone’s wolves. Her project uses a website to solicit visitor photos (YellowstoneWolf.org), which Almberg examines to help track how mange spreads among the park’s wolves. She said her efforts get a boost from the Yellowstone Association, which publicizes her work through Park Store displays, social media, and program instructors. Almberg said YA members are among the most knowledgeable citizen scientists helping with her study, offering a cost-effective way to gather solid data.
Researchers in Yellowstone have also been working to learn more about “hunting behavior, spatial analyses of territory use, pack leadership, multi-carnivore-scavenger interactions, breeding behavior, dispersal, and observations of wolf, grizzly bear, and bison interactions in Pelican Valley,” according to the 2013 Wolf Project Annual Report.
Mange is caused when mites burrow into the skin of fur-bearing animals. In wolves, a reaction to the mites causes scratching which results in fur loss, leaving them at risk of death from exposure to the cold. Almberg said her research is already yielding some interesting data which has her looking at how wolves with mange may enjoy higher survival rates if they are members of a larger, thriving pack. That benefit, if confirmed, may also carry over in cases beyond just mange or disease, she said. “People have come up with many different answers for why wolves live in packs,” Smith said. “But I think that Emily is coming up with one of the best. Basically, they do better when they have help, when they’re part of a family.” Smith said Almberg’s work is part of an important focus on disease, which, along with genetics, was not part of the original research mission for the Yellowstone Wolf Project. “I think people have underestimated the importance of disease with wolves,” he said.
photos From Top
Blacktail Pack in Lamar Valley.
Blacktail wolves at Blacktail Ponds. Despite being uncollared, these individuals were uniquely identifiable by their markings. Note “Trinket” has severe mange on his belly. Close up of Gardner Hole Pack pup severely infected at the very beginning of the outbreak of mange (November 2007). Canyon Pack yearling (spring 2013), recovering from severe hair loss due to mange. right
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Wolf from the Canyon Pack.
Stable population Smith said the Wolf Project has done a good job of achieving its two main objectives of learning more about population dynamics and wolf-elk interactions. But gathering new and expanded data sets over the long term remains important because there was no solid scientific research on wolves in the park before their reintroduction. The National Park Service didn’t seriously embrace science-based management until the 1950s, and by then, the park’s wolves were long gone, said Yellowstone historian Lee Whittlesey. Even by 1900, wolves had become increasingly scarce, with a systematic effort to eradicate them extending back to Yellowstone’s earliest days. “The slaughter of wolves in the 1870s may be the most significant single event to date in the history of wolf-human interactions in Yellowstone,” Whittlesey said. In 1880, Superintendent Philetus Norris stated that wolves “were once exceedingly numerous in all portions of the park, but the value of their hides and their easy slaughter with strychnine-poisoned carcasses of animals have nearly led to their extermination.” Whittlesey said he is continuing to learn more about wolves’ historical role in Yellowstone. He has found “more than 570 historical accounts of wolves in Yellowstone,” and multiple sources show that wolves “were here in very high numbers before 1880.” Though wolves were aggressively killed in the park from 1914 to 1925, Whittlesey characterized that effort as little more than a “mopping-up operation” of earlier and more widespread work that was almost finished by 1880.
Wolf numbers in the park now are stable, and have been for a while, Smith said, a trend that is noteworthy despite its regularity. For the last half-decade, Yellowstone has been home to about 100 wolves spread across about 10 packs. While the details of those distributions change in small ways, the big picture has remained largely the same for years, Smith said. Despite that consistency, Smith said his work is hardly boring. “Wolves do unpredictable things, and no one wolf is similar to any other,” he said. “They’re the top predator, and the individual stories of how they fit into nature is something I find endlessly fascinating.” Those individual stories are a big part of the attraction for avid wolf watchers and park regulars, said Brad Orsted, a photographer and tour guide living north of Gardiner, Montana. Orsted, who also is an instructor for the Yellowstone Association, spends more than 300 days in the park each year, often watching wolves. “I used to think people were crazy—the ones who were out there every day watching—because it is a drama,” Orsted said. “But now I realize that if that doesn’t appeal to you, you better check to see if you have a pulse. Seeing a wolf may seem commonplace to those of us who are out there a lot,” he said. “But for most of these folks, it’s a rare chance to get a real sense of the wild, and come experience it first-hand in Yellowstone. You can’t go anywhere else and have an experience like this.” Smith said he continues to learn new and surprising things about wolves, and admits to often finding the charismatic carnivores “more interesting than people.” “It’s easy to get close to a person and have them tell you about their life. It’s not so easy with a wolf,” he said. “And when you see some of their secrets revealed, it becomes kind of addicting to be that close to nature.” Ruffin Prevost is founding editor of Yellowstone Gate, an online publication offering community news and inside views about Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
View Wolves in the Wild The Yellowstone Association offers Wolf Week courses every December and March that coincide with—and operate alongside—key park research efforts. The course is popular, YA program manager Jenna Vagias says, because wolves “represent everything that is wild and this program gives students a glimpse into their world.” Lamar Valley Wolf Weeks are offered December 8–12, March 2–6, 9–13, and 16–20. Visit YellowstoneAssociation.org or call 406.848.2400 for more information.
Yellowstone Quarterly 5
What Lies
Beneath the Snow
By Jenny Golding
Yellowstone’s ecosystem is
dominated by snow, covering much of the park landscape from November to April and often persisting at higher elevations well into June. For park visitors, winter is not only a good time for over-snow recreation, but it is also an opportunity to study the ecology of animals during the most challenging time of year—when bitter temperatures, wind, and snow accumulation make survival to spring tricky. { supranivean }
{ intranivean }
{ subnivean } 6
While many winter visitors head to the northern range to observe wolves, elk, and other species in winter habitat— or board skis, snowshoes, and over-snow vehicles to float across the winter landscape—not many people are aware that an entire world exists under the snow. What at first seems a beautiful, yet barren, ocean of white is actually a huge thermal blanket protecting an entire ecosystem—the subnivean environment underneath the snow at ground level.
In the spring, when resources are almost depleted at the end of winter, the rate at which the snow melts greatly affects the chances that an organism will make it to spring. Rapidly melting snowpack can result in flooding of small mammal burrows (hence the proliferation of foxes, coyotes, and wolves “mousing” pocket gophers in early spring), or snowpack that’s too dense to travel through to escape flooding. Dense, wet snow and ice that develop during freeze-thaw cycles can penetrate burrows or the roots of plants and prevent animal movement.
The Subnivean World
Warming temperatures from climate change are causing significant changes to the snowpack in Yellowstone. Models like the Greater Yellowstone Area Climate Explorer predict sobering future decreases in the snowpack. However, “This isn’t something that’s going to happen in the future; this is happening now,” says Ann Rodman, Yellowstone’s branch chief for physical resources and climate science. In discussing an upcoming report in Yellowstone Science that documents trends in snow-waterequivalent data from 1961 to the present, Rodman says the report shows that the amount of snow is declining; there are fewer days of snow on the ground; and snow is melting faster in the spring.
To survive the winter, animals living above the snow must migrate (elk move to lower elevation), adapt (bison grow thicker fur), or change their behavior (grouse burrow into the snow to stay warm). Many other organisms—including microbes, fungi, algae, insects, and small mammals—depend on the subnivean environment to survive the coldest months. Under the snow, ground temperatures hover around 32 degrees, creating a protected under-snow landscape that maintains stable conditions relative to colder air temperatures. This winter refuge protects plants and animals from freezing cold and wind, and forms the basis of a complex subnivean food web. In this food web, some small mammals—voles, mice, and pika— feed on grasses and seeds they collected in the summer months or that they find under the snow. Others, like shrews, are predatory, chasing down insects. Winter active insects—mites, spiders, springtails (snow fleas), beetles, flies and wasps—in turn feed on fungi and algae. A teeming community of microbes helps plant communities survive until spring. Dr. James Halfpenny and Roy Ozanne’s classic Winter: An Ecologic Handbook (1989. Boulder: Johnson Books) describes a matrix of conditions that affect survivability for plants and animals in the subnivium. In the fall, as the daily temperature of the air falls below that of the ground, snow accumulates to a critical point (called the “hiemal threshold”) when there is enough snow to take refuge underneath. Before this time, many plants and animals may die if the weather becomes too harsh too quickly. The relationship between snow thickness and density (how much water is in it) determines the thermal index: a measurement which indicates just how well the snow insulates. The snow must be thick enough to protect animals below from the effects of the cold air. The deeper, lighter, and fluffier the snow is the more insulating it becomes, keeping the conditions under the snow relatively stable. Wetter, heavier snow is not only less insulating, but it is also more difficult for animals to move through in search of food sources. Density and depth also affect the amount of gases like CO2 trapped beneath and the amount of light that penetrates—both conditions that affect subnivean life.
A Refuge in Peril
Changes to the depth, duration, and insulation of the snowpack mean changes to the quality of the subnivium as a seasonal refuge. This in turn will have a ripple effect through the complex web of other animals that rely on subnivean species in spring and summer. For species like pika, who may not be able to migrate or hibernate, changes in the subnivium can be catastrophic, particularly at the edge of their range where the snow is changing most rapidly. Jenny Golding is a former director of education for the Yellowstone Association. She currently freelances from her home in Gardiner, Montana, on the border of Yellowstone National Park.
Have You Ever Noticed
an insect seemingly stranded on the snow in the middle of winter, a weasel briefly popping its head in and out of the snow between small mammal chases, or a collection of “snow fleas” (springtails) on top of the snow in the spring? If so, then you have seen a glimpse into a secret ecosystem that exists—under the snow.
In order to publish this article in its entirety in the available space, we have not included all references provided by the author. Please contact the Association to obtain a complete list of sources.
Yellowstone Quarterly 7
Oil Painting by Tah Madsen
Join Our Yellowstone in Family 8
Volunteer Your Time
If you love the magic of Yellowstone, consider spending the summer season volunteering with the Yellowstone Association. Volunteers spend full seasons working in Yellowstone National Park and play an integral role in our organization. Housing is provided for most positions. Opportunities include program assistants, campus caretakers, and information assistants.
Work as a Sales Associate
Our sales associates work at our busy educational Park Stores throughout Yellowstone National Park. They ring up sales, provide park information, and offer Yellowstone Association memberships. These are paid positions of approximately 30 to 35 hours per week. Applicants must be able to work from the middle of May through the end of September. Most associates live in their own RV’s inside the park. Sites with hookups are available. For position descriptions, please visit YellowstoneAssociation.org/jobs
Let Nature Take Its
Course…
The Yellowstone Association Institute is offering a selection of teacher-specific initiatives during the 2015 summer season. Whether you’re a classroom teacher or a nontraditional educator, join us in Yellowstone and let nature take its course!
Teacher Workshop: Yellowstone STEAM! June 21-25, 2015
Discover innovative ways to include STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) to your classroom! With Yellowstone National Park as the venue, learn how to use both traditional and innovative methods to incorporate Art into STEM lessons.
Financial Aid for Field Seminars
We are proud to provide financial aid for teachers who wish to take one of our in-depth field seminars which examine specific aspects of the park ecosystem through just the right combination of field excursions and classroom presentations. Our seminar leaders are experts in their fields and include professors, naturalists, scientists, and acclaimed photographers, writers, historians, and artists.
Reimagine Your Classroom
Coming soon: A curriculum-based Yellowstone program for high school students! Meet educational benchmarks and explore natural resource careers, all while experiencing Yellowstone as your classroom. For more information or to request a summer 2015 catalog please call us at 406.848.2400 Yellowstone Quarterly 9
Rick Wallen National Park Service Bison Project Leader
The son of a fishery biologist, Rick Wallen says, “I didn’t want to do exactly what Dad did so I picked wildlife instead.” The choice has served him well. After working in various capacities at national parks Grand Teton, Bryce Canyon, and Redwoods, as well as for state fish and game departments and The Nature Conservancy, Wallen came to Yellowstone in 2002 to be the Bison Project Leader, a job that entails not only biology but also politics, law, and conservation. WHAT FIRST INTRIGUED YOU ABOUT THE BISON PROJECT JOB?
WHAT ARE YOU STUDYING RIGHT NOW?
Working in the Tetons, I saw the whole battle over brucellosis, and trying to preserve wild bison which are bigger than other wildlife species. They aren’t a classically restored wildlife species, which makes it a complicated and challenging arena. Knowing that Yellowstone was at the center of this battle, I wanted to see if we could restore wild bison on the landscape like we’ve restored other wildlife species.
We are looking at the role bison play in shaping the grassland plant communities that they utilize around the park. The grass may look short out on the northern range, but monitoring of forage consumption shows that high utilization actually results in greater production of the plant community to produce food for the animals.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST MATTER OF BUSINESS?
When I moved here, we were developing a long-term management program to conserve bison and resolve the conflicts they create when they leave the park. We developed a program to monitor bison demographics and movement ecology, and how they fit into Yellowstone’s ecosystem, while taking into account the disease dynamics of brucellosis. CAN THESE ISSUES BECOME POLITICAL?
We get sued by conservation groups for being too aggressive, and threatened by the livestock industry advocates for allowing bison outside the park and not managing Yellowstone like their farms. We provide information and negotiate constantly with our partners to implement good conservation measures that won’t negatively impact the bison’s ecological role. But while we have a legally negotiated settlement with our partners on how to manage bison in the conflict zone around our boundary, we also use our scientific findings to build recommendations and defend those actions in court. WHAT SORT OF FINDINGS?
Our long-term monitoring surveillance program annually tracks things like population abundance, age and sex ratios, movement patterns, and dispersal throughout the year. On top of that, we’ve tried to intermingle key research questions that answer short-term research needs. 10
WHEN ARE YOU THE BUSIEST?
July is a pretty intensive time period because of the demographic census that we do annually. On the ground in teams of twos and threes and using optics, we literally go out and visually inspect as many bison as we can to try and classify 80 percent of the animals on the two different breeding ranges. HOW ARE YOUR WINTER RESPONSIBILITIES DIFFERENT?
There are intensive management actions from about February to June. We have a collaborative program with the rangers to run our Stephens Creek Capture Facility. We capture animals as randomly as possible and coordinate dispersal or consignment of animals to tribal partners. Our testing program gathers data on the animals, which include demographics monitoring as well as testing for brucellosis. No one joined the National Park Service to remove animals from the system, but bison have a very high reproductive rate, a very high survival rate, few predators, and little room to roam outside the national park. ARE THERE ANY MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT YOUR JOB?
The National Park Service really tries to apply our conservation mission at the population level. The negative impact to a few individual bison is something we’d like to prevent. But if it results in long-term preservation of the population and protection of bison’s ecological role, then we see some of the highly controversial aspects of the bison program as being very misunderstood by many of the general public.
Photographing Yellowstone’s
Whether attempting to capture evening alpenglow, the latticework of ice by a thermal pool, or starry skies, Donnelly offers these tips on how to get the perfect image:
Landscapes
“One big problem with snow is that it’s all white,” Donnelly says. “But if you photograph it with low-slanting light, the texture of the snow is accentuated. It’s no longer white but a pattern of light and shadows.” He suggests using morning and evening light, side lighting, blue skies, and clearing storms for contrast.
By Chelsea DeWeese
Frosted sagebrush. Steaming geysers. Bison covered in snow. These are just some of the images that come to mind when one thinks about photographing Yellowstone in winter. This forgotten season works its magic, but figuring out how to photograph it correctly can present a challenge. Yellowstone’s cold weather takes its toll on people and equipment. Terry Donnelly, who teaches photography courses for the Yellowstone Association Institute, offers some suggestions. “Interestingly, the most important winter equipment is not for keeping the camera functioning, but to keep the photographer functioning in polar conditions,” he says. “Most modern cameras are highly operational in winter with little or no modification.” In other words: photographers should take care of themselves first, and consider their equipment second. To achieve this, Donnelly suggests preparing mentally and physically to stand outside for hours in subzero conditions to capture the perfect image. Food, water, warm layers, and snowshoes are essential. He recommends pairing liners with heavy gloves or socks and using hand and toe warmers to keep extremities functioning. In terms of camera equipment, Donnelly suggests creating “snowshoes” for tripods by taping ski pole baskets 3"–4"above the tripod’s leg tips, which prevents the tripod from sinking into snow. He also recommends bringing spare batteries and keeping them in a warm pocket, as battery life shortens in cold temperatures. He recommends replacing lens caps before going indoors and then allowing cameras to slowly warm to room temperature to avoid condensation. Resist the urge to blow snow or dust off lenses, as it will simply fog up front elements. Above all, Donnelly suggests photographers take weather and lighting into account when planning an outing. “Plan your outdoor sessions modestly. You move more slowly in the winter, so you will cover less ground,” he says. “As always with photography, an acute awareness of light and its qualities is paramount. In using your winter light, try to find ways in which the light accentuates the drama and beauty of your subject.”
Thermal Features
“For me, photographing thermals is telling the story of fire and ice,” Donnelly says. He suggests pitting frosted trees against blue skies, capturing sunlight on rime ice, and positioning the sun directly behind thermal plumes. “It is often the effect of the thermal feature we are photographing and not the feature itself.”
Dark Skies
“Take advantage of the long hours of winter darkness,” Donnelly suggests. Long, nighttime exposures in thermal basins result in other-worldly steam plumes. Cold, crisp skies make the perfect backdrop for starry nights. “Moonlight is also a great tool to use in winter,” Donnelly adds, “always surprisingly bright with a snowcovered landscape.”
Wildlife
Photographing wildlife in winter can be rewarding. Remember that animals are wild—and trying to survive the winter—so give them a wide berth. A minimum 500mm lens is recommended for close-ups. Park regulations require visitors to maintain a distance of at least 25 yards from all wildlife—and 100 yards from wolves and bears. If your actions cause an animal to change its behavior, you’re too close.
Upcoming Institute programs with Terry Donnelly include: Photographing Winter Sun, Snow, and Stars february 9–12
Photographing Thermal Wonders February 14–17
Chelsea DeWeese is a freelance writer based in Gardiner, Montana, at the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone Quarterly 11
SKI YELLOWSTONE By Stephen Camelio
Though it is surrounded by Jackson Hole to the south, Bridger Bowl to the north, and Big Sky Resort to the west, to those who only think about bears and geysers when they hear the name “Yellowstone,” it still comes as a surprise that the park is a great ski destination. It’s not just the snowfall—which averages 150 inches per year—that makes Yellowstone a hot spot for this cold weather sport. It’s also the varied terrain, incredible scenery, and network of over 100 miles of trails crisscrossing the park from Mammoth Hot Springs in the north to Old Faithful in the south that make Yellowstone a skiing wonderland. HISTORY There have always been skiers in Yellowstone. According to the National Park Service (NPS), the first people to ski in Yellowstone were probably hunters who entered on Norwegian “snowshoes,” 10- to 12-foot skis on which they propelled themselves using a single, wooden pole held with one hand. After the U.S. Army was dispatched by Congress to protect Yellowstone’s natural resources from poachers and souvenir hunters, First Cavalry soldiers traded their horses for skis to chase perpetrators through the snow. One of the best known winter pictures from the park’s early years, taken by the park’s official photographer Frank Jay Haynes, shows U.S. Army skiers arresting infamous poacher Ed Howell near Pelican Creek in 1894. No stranger to skiing in Yellowstone, Haynes was part of the first ski expedition in the park in 1887. Led by arctic explorer Frederick Schwatka, the group traveled from Mammoth through Norris to Old Faithful, bringing back the first winter photographs of the park. NORTHERN RANGE Over a century later, Yellowstone now receives nearly 200,000 visitors from November to March. Tourists and locals alike, most enter through the North Entrance in Gardiner, Montana—the only entrance open year-round to wheeled vehicles, providing access to the Mammoth-Tower and Tower-Northeast Entrance roads. These roads are plowed to allow access to trails that are accessible from the Blacktail Plateau area to the Northeast
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Entrance and Silver Gate, Montana. Geology often plays a big factor in which trails skiers pick on the northern range. Those looking for a mix of flat and hilly terrain will enjoy the groomed Blacktail Plateau Trail. If hills are what you are after, the Tower area, which includes the groomed surface over the road to Tower Falls and an ungroomed maintenance road that makes up the Chittenden Loop Trail, has plenty. Past the Lamar Valley, on the Barronette and Bannock trails, quiet forests and rolling hills are the name of the game. In Mammoth, skiers can also drive to the parking lot at the top of the Terraces, where a trail is groomed along the Upper Terraces Drive, and where ski lessons offered by Xanterra often take place. Once students are comfortable with this up-and-down circular track, there are various trails that spur off from it, offering more adventurous skiers the chance to explore the hills, forests, and meadows above. Though the plowed road stops at the Upper Terraces, the skiing does not. Thanks to daily shuttles offered by Xanterra to the Indian Creek Campground, skiers can travel where cars cannot. For those wanting to stay close to the campground’s warming hut (and take the shuttle back to Mammoth), the Indian Creek and Bighorn loops provide stunning views of the Gallatin Mountains. More experienced skiers can also choose to ski back to the Upper Terraces via the Snow Pass or Bunsen Peak trails, both of which feature difficult downhill turns as well as steep hills.
OLD FAITHFUL Located inside the caldera and in between the Madison and Central plateaus, the Old Faithful area is shaped like a bowl, making it home to some of the most diverse skiing in the park. Whether long, such as the 11-mile trek to Fairy Falls and back to Snow Lodge (via the skier shuttle), or short, like the groomed route from the Old Faithful Inn to Morning Glory Pool and Biscuit Basin, the trails at the bottom of the bowl are flatter and straighter. For those looking for more ups and downs, there are lots of trails that climb out of Old Faithful area or drop back into the Upper Geyser Basin. These include Mallard Lake—a steep trail with side hills that can be as tricky going up as coming down—and the Divide Lookout/ Spring Creek/Howard Eaton route, which combines taxing climbs, creekside flats, and hairpin downhills over its 12-mile course. Luckily, for trails like Spring Creek and the easy, yet beautiful, Lone Star Geyser Trail—which takes skiers directly to its namesake backcountry thermal feature—Xanterra offers snowcoach shuttles that leave from Old Faithful Snowlodge and drop off skiers at nearby trailheads. The Canyon area is also a great destination for skiing in the park. Only accessible by snowcoach tours that leave from both the Old Faithful Snowlodge and Mammoth Hot Springs hotels, these guided day trips allow skiers to explore four trails, including the Canyon Rim Trail, offering incredible views of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the icy Lower Falls. PARADISE FOUND No matter where you ski in Yellowstone, the most important thing to remember is that there is something for everyone. From lessons and easy trails for beginners to difficult runs and backcountry adventures for advanced skiers, the park’s 2-million plus acres is a winter sport paradise—a paradise that features steaming geysers, indomitable wildlife, frozen waterfalls, and untold photographic opportunities, making it unlike any other ski destination in the world. Stephen Camelio is a freelance writer living on the Montana/Wyoming border of Yellowstone National Park. His work has appeared in Men’s Journal, Runner’s World, Field & Stream, and Fly Rod & Reel.
The Yellowstone Association Institute offers several programs that help you experience the wonders of winter, both on skis and off. For more information about our winter programming, including Yellowstone on Skis and Old Faithful Winter Expedition, please visit us at YellowstoneAssociation.org or call us at 406.848.2400.
Large small Yellowstone’s SnowLoving Wolverines By Barbara Lee Illustration: Nicole Harkness
The official name is Gulo Gulo (Latin for glutton), but they’ve been called mountain devil, skunk bear, nasty cat, devil bear, and more. Solitary snow-lovers with a reputation for ferocity, Yellowstone’s wolverines are few in number and rarely seen. Yet, pound-for-pound these members of the weasel family are probably the park’s strongest mammals—bear cub-sized, with an ultra-powerful bite and the ability to kill prey much larger than themselves. Wolverines have snowshoe-like paws, thick hides, and frostrepellent fur. They’re built for a cold mountain environment and are considered particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change on their habitat. Yellowstone Quarterly 13
Naturalist Notes
N N
By Virginia Miller, Institute Instructor
Icicles frost the trees. The air glistens in the below-freezing temperatures, all moisture having been frozen into tiny specks of glittering ice. A deep layer of early snow blankets the park and dampens all sound. Stand on the shores of frozen Yellowstone Lake and, if conditions are just right, you may hear the mystical wintertime singing of the frozen depths. It is not a sound often heard, but it is a sound that makes you believe that you have fallen into the mad Wonderland that Alice knew. Imagine an echo of breath blowing over different glass bottles—each a different pitch; the song of air blowing through a pipe organ or a sound like the beating of distant wings; an abundance of pops and groans of ice. You stand in amazement—what could create these sounds? In the wintertime, ice on the 131.7-square-mile Yellowstone Lake can range from just a few inches to over 2 feet thick. There are some spots of open water, the consequence of thermal features beneath the ice. But even those thermal features are not enough to keep the lake from fully freezing over. The exact source of the “singing” is uncertain. One theory is that as the ice freezes and expands, the moving water underneath the ice creates cracks that travel and create the eerie sounds. What goes on beneath the ice is difficult to fathom, and the sounds the lake produces make it seem all the more magical. Standing in this Wonderland, it is sometimes just as easy to imagine the fantastical explanations as it is to believe the scientific ones—and who’s to say you can’t indulge in a little of both on your travels here? Even when we don’t know for sure what is happening beneath our feet, taking the time to find out more about the inner workings of Yellowstone makes it even more amazing!
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Thank you Holiday Offer
Send an additional membership gift of $25 or more by December 31, 2014, and receive this plush holiday grizzly bear as our way of saying Thank You. Please use the envelope provided, visit YellowstoneAssociation.org, or call 406.848.2400 to take advantage of this holiday offer. Reference code yqye15 in the comments field on our website or when calling to receive your gift. *This gift will not be applied to your renewal or extend your expiration dates. International members are asked to contribute $50 due to additional shipping and handling fees.
for your membership!
At this time of giving, we hope you consider increasing your tax-deductible membership contribution to the Yellowstone Association. Every dollar counts and we are proud to say that 82 cents of every dollar we spend goes directly back to education and research in Yellowstone. With your help, we will continue to expand educational programs and materials to new audiences, while providing even greater support to Yellowstone National Park.
YA Family Bill and Jolene Whetstone South District Manager and Sales Associate “I was amazed an opportunity like this even existed,” Bill said. The couple began seasonal positions immediately, and by 2012 Bill became full-time district manager for YA. Bill now manages YA Park Stores at Old Faithful, West Thumb, Grant Village, and Madison. He and Jolene live and work at Old Faithful year-round, along with their Chihuahua, “Koda.” Bill and Jolene find beauty in every season in Yellowstone Park, but they particularly enjoy the snowbound solitude found in winter. “It’s stunningly beautiful—like living inside a snow globe,” Bill says. Jolene admits she was initially timid of the “sealed in” aspect of living at Old Faithful in the winter, “but it has now become my favorite season.” Bill and Jolene Whetstone love to travel. After the couple retired in 2005, and their two children had left home, the transition to RVs and RV sales seemed perfect. What they did not know at the time was that this would lead to a yearround position at Old Faithful Geyser Basin, in the heart of Yellowstone National Park. It was at an RV show in Arizona in 2009 that Bill, working as a salesman, met two employees from the Yellowstone Association (YA). Discussions quickly led from RVs to whether Bill and Jolene would be interested in working at the Old Faithful Park Store as sales associates.
Stocking the pantry for the entire winter season can be one of the more challenging undertakings. Each fall, Bill and Jolene plan and shop for their winter menu. They enjoy a glass of wine in front of the fireplace after a day spent outside and take pleasure in preparing comfort foods together. After six seasons, Bill and Jolene say they are proud to work for YA and support the organization’s mission, and they consider their co-workers at Old Faithful family. “The Yellowstone Association, from the bookstores to the Institute, creates the entire Yellowstone experience,” Bill says, “and to be an integral part of it makes us feel complete.”
Yellowstone Quarterly 15
Yellowstone Association Annual Report 2013
Our 2013 Annual Report is now available! Please visit YellowstoneAssociation.org to view the Annual Report online. LEFT Billy Giles of Bloomington Indiana, member of nine years, brought his YQ to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Captain Rice of the 305th Engineer Company, member of two years from Urbana, Illinois, takes some well-deserved down time in Afghanistan to read his copy of Yellowstone Quarterly.
Right
Don’t forget…. 2 for the price of 1
calendars
Your holiday purchases with YA help support research and education in Yellowstone!
Four-year member Hope Smith and her fifth-grade students use their copies of YQ as learning tools in their Lawrenceville, Georgia, classroom.
ABOVE
Send us a photo of yourself or a fellow member holding a copy of Yellowstone Quarterly and you could be featured in an upcoming issue! Submission Guidelines Submit photo(s) to members@yellowstoneassociation.org. For a complete list of submission guidelines please visit YellowstoneAssociation.org or contact us at the email address above.
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See insert for details.
PHOTOS MARIA BISSO/YA: TOC, PG. 13; STEVE HINCH/YA: PGS. 2, 3, 4; REBECCA RAYMOND/NPS: PG. 4; DANIEL STAHLER/NPS: PG. 4; WARREN BERGHOLZ/YA: PG. 4; BRAD ORSTED/YA: PG. 5; JOHN TANGNEY: PG 6; NPS: PG 10; KATHY LICHTENDAHL: PG. 11; HUGH LUNHC/NPS: PG. 14; BILL WHETSTONE: PG. 15; JIM FUTTERER/YA: BACK COVER
THANK YOU MEMBERS! Your membership—regardless of size—plays a critical role in the Association’s mission to connect people to Yellowstone through education. Because of space constraints, the following list includes donors who contributed $1,000 or more. We wish to acknowledge those who contributed to the Yellowstone Association between July 1, 2014, and September 30, 2014. New And Renewing Members Of The Yellowstone Society
Thank you to the following donors who joined or renewed their membership in the Yellowstone Society.
Bechler $5,000 – $9,999
Diana Blank Devin and Brian Cronin Kathy and Ed Fronheiser Barb and Lou Lanwermeyer Natalie and Kevin Nolan Gallatin $2,500 – $4,999
Marilyn Alkire and Alan Shaw Joy Carlough* Lucy and Rick Fredrickson Sara and Greg Harkins Mary Beth and Thomas Lukas Cece and Tom Ricketts Carolyn Rosin Lamar $1,000 – $2,499
Diana and Billy Allison Tracy Arthur Teresa and Jeffrey Bastin Nancy and Theodore Berndt Patricia Carocci Katherine Cattanach and David Charles Teresa and Shain Chappell Trudy Chester Judy and Mark Cook Brenda and Chris Cross † Jerry DeVault Robert Dircks Jr. Penny and Sandy Dodge Patty and Tom Durham Gary Evans Sharlene and Michael Evans Barbara Francis and Robert Musser Jim Frank Janet and Churchill Franklin Jackie and James Fratrick John Gardner Dee and Chip Hewett Susan and Peter Klock * Carlene Lebous and Harris Haston Marieda and Steven Lind Gigi and Mike Louden Kristina and Russ Lucas Maryanne and Timothy Mayeda Laura and Robert McCoy Robyn Meyer Geni Miller and Steve Parker
Marjorie and Rodney Miller Jane and Bill Mosakowski Barbara and John Nau Jan and Tom O'Callahan Ryan O'Reilly Elizabeth Plevney Sara and Peter Ribbens Sandy and Denny Simonson * Lynette and Mark Sodja Mary Steinberg Sally and Edward Stilwill Joan and Mark Strobel Mary Ann and William Sullivan John Teller Kelly and Len Trout Nino Vaghi Jennifer and Tim Van Roekel Nancy and Dennis Warren Annette and Kelley Waters Michael Zappe
HONORARY YELLOWSTONE SOCIETY Special thanks to the following members who made cash or in-kind contributions of $1,000 or greater between July 1, 2014, and September 30, 2014.
SPECIAL TRIBUTE DONORS
Special thanks to the following donors who made a contribution to the Yellowstone Association as a tribute to someone special in their lives between July 1, 2014, and September 30, 2014.
In Honor of Brad Bulin, Debbie Fellows, and Tom Hyde
Carolyn and Arthur Conway
In Memory of Alicia Cipicchio
Benny and Keith Kettler
In Memory of Brian Connolly and BConnolly Books, LLC
Heather Jerome
In Honor of Lish Crabbe, Doug Hert, Amy Renfranz, and Josh Welter
Donnie Estopinal
In Honor of Anne and Ron Eddy and Karin Hinton
Anonymous
In Honor of Jesse Logan
Anonymous
In Honor of Caitlin Mood
Carol Lee-Roark
Hannah Gross
BUSINESS MEMBERS
In Honor of Lieutenant William Mooney
Special thanks to the following business members who supported the Association at $1,000 or higher between July 1, 2014, and September 30, 2014.
Platinum $2,500 – $4,999
CenterStone Technologies Propane Education Resource Council † Gold $1,000 – $2,499
A&E Architects PC Donor Point Marketing
EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENT
Unless otherwise noted, planned gifts, memorial, and honor gifts will support our educational endowment.
SUMMIT SOCIETY
The Summit Society recognizes those individuals or families that have included the Yellowstone Association in their estate planning to ensure the preservation of Yellowstone for future generations.
Tracy Arthur Marie Gore Barbara and Christian Gunther Amy Haugerud Karen Litt
Robert Mooney
In Memory of John Mulvihill
Katherine Cattanach and David Charles Constance Hauver Giles Toll
In Recognition of Danielle Oyler and Charlie Pyle
Richard Meyers
In Memory of Richard Pate
Susan Brown Constance Shanahan
In Honor of Bonnie Quinn and the Lamar Buffalo Ranch
Mary and Peter Carparelli Shirley and Glen Cope Pat and Mike Cotter Dorie Green Aned Halverson and Gerry Szostak Jane and Rick Hays Janne and Bill Hayward Linda Johnson Cynthia Lewis Charlene Locke James Olp
Teri Sinopoli Jane and Don Streubel Linda and Steven Swartley In Recognition of the Roosevelt Rendezvous Instructors
Linda Johnson Sara Theiss and John Frappier
In Recognition of the Roosevelt Rendezvous Volunteers
Mary Pratt and Larry Yopp
In Memory of Michael Sample
Brittany Albaugh Karen and Gary Broeder Wendy and Jeff Brown Brook Jasmine Cardenas Beverly Copus Emily Eklund Ashley Fagerstrom Linda Hanson Cindy and David Hummel Mary Ann and Douglas Jenkins John Kowal Ann and Paul Miller Ruby Stoudt Norma Tirrell and Gordon Bennett Janet Walsh Nancy and Thomas Wood In Memory of Charles Schoolcraft
Terry Ward
In Memory of Roger Smith
Richard Baker Michael Golden Dixie and Joe Welborn
In Honor of Terry Sobin
The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation In Memory of Jeff Woodard
Cheryl Woodard
* Yellowstone Guardian † Includes in-kind support Every effort has been made to ensure that this list is accurate and complete. We apologize if your name has been omitted or otherwise improperly reported. Please contact us at 406.848.2400 if you feel this is the case so we can correct our records.
To learn more about the different ways you can support Yellowstone through education, please contact Stacey Orsted, Director of Development, at 406.848.2855 or sorsted@yellowstoneassociation.org.
Yellowstone Quarterly 17
406.848.2400
Stay Connected — Join the Community!
Whether you are in the park or at home, we can help you stay connected to Yellowstone. Visit our website for current reports from the field or a live view from our Roosevelt Arch webcam. Subscribe to our monthly E-Newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for daily park updates.
Wolves from the Lamar Canyon Pack